I’ve been invited to a bridal shower that unfortunately I can’t attend. A friend who is going has agreed to go in with me on the shower present so today I went online to look at the bride’s registry and purchase something. The invitation just arrived in the mail a few days ago – and I know that the guest is limited to the groom’s family and friends, the bride’s mom is hosting a shower in her hometown – but there was almost nothing left to choose from, and most of the items that were on the list were either well over $100 or less than $20.
I ended up getting a variety of things because not one item fit our budget, $80-100. and i wasn't getting her one $70 sheet from the two of us.
It’s very important that you re-register for your shower and wedding so that there are enough items in every price range for guests to choose from. If you don’t know when your shower will be, estimate eight weeks before the wedding and the invites will go out two to three weeks before that. So you should re-register at about 11-12 weeks before your wedding for shower gifts and then after your shower, re-register about the same time your wedding invitations will go out for the wedding.
If guests don’t have things to choose from they may just go to a local store in their neighborhood. I almost did that because I was so frustrated in my search for a gift – I even looked at her registry at two different stores and neither one had a good selection for our budget.
So what did I get? I picked up a $40 item for her bathroom and then a few other items that matched it but that were not on her registry. I do realize that she’ll probably return those extra items but at least I was in our budget range and I purchased the items in the store she registered at so she can always get something off the registry that she didn’t get at the shower.
