Thursday, July 9, 2009

Dish on dishes

Mr. Barefoot and I spent Sunday in the bowels of Bloomingdale's and Macy's learning about all the things we didn't know we needed. Let me tell you, those Registry Consultants -- and their paper swag -- are very good at upselling. The booklet we got from Bloomingdale's advised us to register for twelve - 12! - place settings!

Blissful Couple: We'll take six of those place settings.
Registry Consultant: Don't you want eight? Or ten? You can never have too many place settings. Now is the time to stock up.
Blissful Couple: uh...
Registry Consultant: What if you host Thanksgiving? Do you come from large families? How many siblings do you have?
Blissful Couple: um... Not that many actually.
Registry Consultant: Ok, I'll put you down for eight place settings.

As we've learned with All Things Wedding, it's best to
  • be prepared,
  • know what you want ahead of time, and
  • go in with a plan.
Also, shop around. Bloomies and Macy's had the same dishes - but they were 25% off at Macy's! Can we get our friends to buy gifts this week?!??!

Maybe it was Mr. Barefoot's lawyerly ways, or the fact that we pre-shopped the department, and made a list, before sitting down with the consultant, but we were able (for the most part) to avoid being talked into too many extras. And I'm already dreaming of the classy dinner parties we can have with these...

4 comments:

LPC said...

On a practical note, it's good to get more than you need because kitchen counters have a way of jumping and attacking china, causing breakage...

Anonymous said...

We totally registered for 12, but I also have a habit of hosting very large impromptu dinner parties! Registry consultant pressure is NUTS though--we got really good at saying "nope nope nope" every time they asked us if we needed something (crystal? appliances? furniture?). Somehow we still ended up registering for a TONNE of stuff.

Love that china!

elizabeth said...

Ah, good points, both! We do have a history of counters jumping out to attack, and things jumping off counters of their own accord. Wine glasses are practically disposable, they get broken so often. Maybe we should add a couple more settings. It's definitely good to have extra. We also have the issue of trying to balance 'necessary' items (dishes, kitchen stuff) with 'fun' (the guy wants to max out our REI registry)...

cupcake wedding said...

You did good! Those are lovely.