Breaking the Rules

Almost all the magazines, books and web sites, encourage brides to start their registry six to nine months out from the wedding. I'm not. Here's why. My groom is job searching -- like most of America right now. While he is currently employed, he plans to transition soon. I'm holding off on the scanner-party-through-the-store experience because I want to wait and see what type of salary he will be looking at this fall. (does anyone else think some marketing genius invented that scanner gun to get men interested in the wedding process via a "man tool"?)

If he got hooked up with a great paying position, then we wouldn't need to put some of the more basic items on the registry. If he took a pay cut, we weren't going to put anything extravagant on the list. Times are tough. Suck it up and deal with a Target kitchen knife instead of a Henkels or Wustoff.

So many things are still up in the air for us. Depending on what job he gets will determine if we rent or buy -- where we might rent or buy -- and for how long. Going through a linen superstore envisioning colors and patterns right now just seems supercilious.

In fact, at the moment, I'm envisioning 300-lb. men wheeling my two six-foot by four-foot wardrobe closets into his small, one bedroom apartment in October -- followed by one five-foot shoe rack and four giant tubs of sweaters. Gary will wonder if he acquired a wife or a warehouse.



I can't imagine adding more on top of that, or where we would put it. So, even though we have our eyes on Williams & Sonoma and Crate & Barrel, those dynamic retail double-names will have to wait for now....