Oksana and I have decided not to have
a gift registry for our wedding.
We understand that this defies tradition, but let
me attempt to explain our reasoning.
First, let me say that we are in complete agreement with each
other on the fact that we would much rather have you attend our
wedding than buy us gifts. Making the journey to Alaska is difficult
enough and we don't think that wedding gifts should be a factor
in that particular financial equation.
Second, while we may not be able to host a dinner party for twelve
people, we are fairly satisfied with the amount of household items
we already own. If we were just leaving home and, for the first
time, starting our lives away from our parents, things might be
different. As it is, we've both been living on our own for at
least five years. Trust me, we've got the toasters and towels
covered!
Finally, Oksana and I have a rather small apartment with very
limited storage space. Until we "upgrade," we are trying
to avoid collecting unnecessary material items.
(Thanks to Alan Degener for pointing out, too, that we'd probably
rather not have to write a bunch of Thank You notes after the
wedding is over!)
Believe me, we did try out the gift registries, both online and
off. Incredibly, we just were not able to find enough items that
we needed/wanted to make it worthwhile. We even toyed with the
idea of creating a list of things from Costco.com (which would
have saved y'all a TON of money -- they really jack up the prices
for the gift registries, you know!) but eventually abandoned that
idea, too. Since they don't offer a registry service, it would
be up to us to insure that people don't order the same gifts --
and we just don't have the time to do that!
So, in closing, we want to make it clear that you are under no
obligations (moral, ethical, or otherwise!) to buy us a wedding
gift. If that is simply unacceptable to you and you must get us
something, we ask that you try avoiding household items and ornamentations
(See the second and third reasons above!) Oh, I know I pretty
much eliminated every traditional wedding gift there, but now
you get to be creative, okay?
