Why are we so adamant about this? Well lets play a game... how much does the following box cost to ship to England (helmet and dog for size reference and I believe it was around 22lbs):
Guestimate the shipping cost?If you said $50 you would be wrong, if you said $100 you still would be wrong and too low.... after shipping and customs was paid it was a total of $150 to ship things I already owned to myself in England. And yes for those of you who are counting that is more than the value of what was in the box.
As it would cost us more than the costs of our plane tickets to ship items back to the UK we really would prefer people do not give us gifts in hand. As much as we would like cash (I am not asking for it, just implying that we would prefer it as it travels digitally) we also would like to provide a registry for those who wish to gift us with a new addition to our house. However we needed to register in England to avoid the customs and shipping.
So it turns out besides our families and wedding party.... our gift registry is the only thing that overlaps for both weddings. Although the English do say many words funny and have odd looking plugs things work the same here in general. Some department stores are nicer than others and we choose ours because the carried our pattern for the china. So on a sunny weekend we took trains and buses to Solihull (try saying with without a British accent) and went to John Lewis.
Most importantly we wanted a full set of proper china (serving for 12) and I had chosen the Vera Wang Lace pattern in platinum. Surprisingly Mr. FMB did not find this too "grandma" and agreed on it:
The pans were a bit more a compromise. I wanted copper, Mr. FMB wanted non-stick and we both wanted metal handles so pans can go stove top to oven. After picking up and weighing everything on display we decided on John Lewis' mid-range collection that had a good heavy feel and nice look to the handles. We ordered all the standard pots and pans and threw in a pasta boiler for me and a wok for Mr. FMB:
Next came the fun items:
Classy scale that is both practical and pretty
The essential mixer to replace the one I willed to a friend when I left Boston
Kenwood food processor/blender/juicer/dishwasher/vacuum... very versatile
(I heard it walks the dog too)
A cheese dome.... I love cheese... If I could I would marry cheese
As it would cost us more than the costs of our plane tickets to ship items back to the UK we really would prefer people do not give us gifts in hand. As much as we would like cash (I am not asking for it, just implying that we would prefer it as it travels digitally) we also would like to provide a registry for those who wish to gift us with a new addition to our house. However we needed to register in England to avoid the customs and shipping.
So it turns out besides our families and wedding party.... our gift registry is the only thing that overlaps for both weddings. Although the English do say many words funny and have odd looking plugs things work the same here in general. Some department stores are nicer than others and we choose ours because the carried our pattern for the china. So on a sunny weekend we took trains and buses to Solihull (try saying with without a British accent) and went to John Lewis.
Most importantly we wanted a full set of proper china (serving for 12) and I had chosen the Vera Wang Lace pattern in platinum. Surprisingly Mr. FMB did not find this too "grandma" and agreed on it:
The pans were a bit more a compromise. I wanted copper, Mr. FMB wanted non-stick and we both wanted metal handles so pans can go stove top to oven. After picking up and weighing everything on display we decided on John Lewis' mid-range collection that had a good heavy feel and nice look to the handles. We ordered all the standard pots and pans and threw in a pasta boiler for me and a wok for Mr. FMB:
Next came the fun items:
Classy scale that is both practical and pretty
The essential mixer to replace the one I willed to a friend when I left Boston
Kenwood food processor/blender/juicer/dishwasher/vacuum... very versatile(I heard it walks the dog too)
A cheese dome.... I love cheese... If I could I would marry cheeseWe had fantastic fun going around the store scanning everything we liked. We did opt for basic white good quality linens as we have no clue what our decor will be. I even added a few lovely vases and decor items that I would really like but not purchase myself out of practicality. At the end we had a gift certificate for coffee and dessert each at their restaurant. It was a lovely way to end a Sunday afternoon of hard wedding work.
Why did you decide to register where you did? Did you think it was as fun as I did?
Why did you decide to register where you did? Did you think it was as fun as I did?
Nice ! We chose the same Vera Wang pattern. I live in the US, my FI lives in London and I'll be moving there later in the year after our wedding...
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