Excited about china!

Posted on August 12, 2013 by Scott Bukovac

So… this may be revealing something… but a few days ago I looked at our Registry at The Bay and saw that someone had bought some of the china we have asked for and I did a little dance of joy! Iain could see a big smile on my face… and I said rather excitedly “Someone got us our first pieces of china!!!!!”. He just shook his head rather amusedly!

I am not sure what it is…. maybe it is because china is something I have always associated with special times, special events, celebrations, a sense that what is being served is special. Around home for me growing up, the china was something that brought out for big family celebratory meals and occasions or when “special guests” were coming to dinner, etc. I don’t think Iain “gets it” the same way I do… and that is OK. 🙂 He just smiles and nods and enjoys my joy in it. 🙂

Maybe it is also a sense with our new kitchen, some new every day dishes that someone got for us early on from our Registry, and now the china slowly coming in, that it is a stage of “growing up” going from “very late post-college/University” and moving into proper “Adult” living (having some nicer things, etc.).

Anyway…. still excited! 🙂

The “NEW” Flatware choice

Posted on August 11, 2013 by Scott Bukovac

On a recent read through out Registry at The Bay, we discovered that the flatware choice that we originally made, was going to be discontinued, so decided we had better switch to something that is going to be a bit more stable. It actually matches some of the bar-ware and other things that we have selected…. so in the end it kinda works out well.

That all being said, we have chosen:

Lauren Ralph Lauren, Pattern Name: Watchband.

It is a nice solid flatware choice, we think.

Our “first” Flatware choice

Posted on August 11, 2013 by Scott Bukovac

Our Flatware – Splendide “Chalet”

So…. as part of our Registry at The Bay, we chose to put some more formal dinnerware on our list. We a mirror finish stainless steel instead of silver (Can any of you see Iain or I sitting and polishing silver?). We ended up trying a number of different patterns – and this process ALMOST resulted in stuff being thrown at each other…. but I digress…. eventually we got this one…. and went “THIS is the one we want!” A nice solid set, good weight in the hand without being overly heavy. Our choice then is:

Company: Splendide

Pattern Name: Chalet

The “Real” China Pattern

Posted on March 7, 2013 by Scott Bukovac

Noritake – Spectrum

So…. as part of our Registry at The Bay, we chose to put some more formal “china” on our list. We ultimately chose the following pattern:

Company: Noritake

Pattern Name: Spectrum

Really?

Posted on February 24, 2013 by Iain Bennett

So I’m visiting the website of a subsidiary of a rather large, long running in the history of Canada, department store that deals with housewares.

Now, the parent company’s site does a good job of being gender, and even event, agnostic. A gift registry is exactly what it is – a gift registry for a special occasion. They have something for everyone – although it’s real shame they got rid of their electronics department, but I digress.

So I’m looking at registering with this housewares site because there are a few things Scott and I could use especially as we go through a kitchen renovation starting soon. Every picture on this site that’s related to the gift registry service is almost all women. Now, you’re probably saying, “Iain, you shouldn’t be surprised because, after all it’s her day.” Oh come on! I have two issues:

It’s OUR day together, not just ‘her’ day. You’re celebrating the union of two people who are in love, who want to share the rest of their lives together, and both need to live with the gifts they are given.
There’s more than just hetero-normative weddings out there! It would be nice to see more representation of visible and invisible minorities.
Roles have change significantly between men and women – if you’re going to use the argument around stay-at-home mum, what about the stay-at-home dad?

Diving deeper into the site, I see the “Gift Guide, Women’s” link and decide to see what it includes, and I’m expecting something for women… Admittedly i’m not sure what that is when it comes to housewares, but you know it when you see it.

Firstly, what about “Gift Gide, Men’s”? I would say most guys would want more than an electric shaver that happens to be on the site.

What I saw under “Gift Guide, Women’s” was what any man or woman would want. I see lovely espresso makers, a Cuisinart Brew Central coffee maker, a mini retro popcorn maker, etc… Maybe I’m skewed, but while those are things we don’t need – we already have a Tassimo, and we don’t need a popcorn maker – I could see these items appealing to more than one gender. Do we have a misnaming in the category?

Guys have to have their fun too, and there are many guys out there who do like to cook in the kitchen, who like good kitchenware, home décor, and appreciate good stemware. On the flip side, I think guys should feel comfortable enough to build up and add to the registry and not be chastised for it, so let’s stop it with wedding registries being sexist. Men, if you want that pair of 3D glasses for your man cave, a set of crystal beer mugs from Tiffany’s (we actually have these) – add them to your registry!

Given my ideology on relationships and such, I will never understand why something like a gift registry has to be so skewed towards women these days. Yes, it made sense many years ago, however, welcome to the 21st Century.

Maybe that’s a great idea – a central registry place where anyone can go to create their own registry that allows the user to track various links to webstores, for items they are adding. I trademark this idea. 🙂

Registering!

Posted on February 13, 2013 by Scott Bukovac

Gift Registry “Arch” at The Bay Queensway

So… this post will be about our “journey” to getting registered at The Bay in preparation for our wedding.

Once the proposal was accepted we began to talk about several things, and one of those things was the idea of establishing a potential Gift Registry at one of the major department stores. Initially, Iain was not too thrilled with the idea. He was quite resistant and mostly was saying “But do we really need to do that” or “Do we really need to register?” or “We don’t really need anything like that, do we?”. I suggested to that having a Registry is as much about us, and opportunity to open a new chapter in our home, but also about giving the guests to our celebration a source for ideas should they decide they want to get something.

Iain with a Scanner! 🙂

I think it was a plus that when we booked the appointment, we happened to see a couple just finishing up and they had one of the laser scanner handheld devices – and you could see Iain’s face light up! Sold!

With that idea that having a Registry was cool, we visit our local “The Bay” to set-up an appointment. Unfortunately, with all of the excitement and “busy-ness” of the first month back after Christmas, we accidently double-booked, and had to move it to the following weekend. That brings us to Saturday, January 26th, 2013 and our 1pm appointment with one of the “Gift Registry Consultants” We really lucked out with ours, and had someone who was excited, full of energy, and totally into the idea of helping us get things organized.

Us with Darlene the Awesome Gift Registry Consultant!!

Darlene walked us through the whole process – the benefits of having a Registry – including a “Completion Card” that gives us a 10% discount on all items on the Registry from now until 1 year after the wedding, the number of items they recommend to have on a Registry with a certain number of guests, and then suggestions of what sort of stuff to consider. They have a really great “suggestion” book for some of the basic things.

Since we were sitting in and around all the dishes/china, we decide we would start there and work our way “out” from there. We poked around at the selection that they had, and eventually settled on a more formal dinnerware pattern from Noritake called Spectrum (see a post sometime soon with details) and after some tense moments we eventually settled on a mirror finished stainless steel flatware choice from Splendide called Chalet (post to come soon). We started wandering around the other kitchen stuff and decided to ask for some of the Bay’s “everyday” dishes to replace the ones that we currently have.

We finished out the initial Registry creation process by looking at and adding a few small appliances, some bakeware, items for entertaining, and some towels. All and all it was a really fun experience. We will be adding more to the Registry to round the whole thing out over the next month or so, but at least it has been started! 🙂