I understand the point of a registry: to make sure you don’t end up with a bunch of fug shit you don’t want.  However as a gift-giver, I find the increasing use of registries frustrating.  I’ve been invited to a bridal shower I can’t attend.  The invitation says the couple is registered at a couple of different places.  When I looked over the registry, it is all overpriced housewares items I could find identically for less.  That is another annoyingly limiting quality of a registry – lack of opportunity for bargain shopping.  When I’ve deviated from the registry in the past, the recipients actually stated in the thank you note that they returned the item (lovely robin’s egg blue Nigella Lawson nesting bowls) for something more in line with their color scheme (beige, beige, boring, boring).  Whatever, you wanna live your life in black and white that’s your biznass, but I cannot actively contribute to dull.   Recently, I’ve taken to perennially pleasing cash for wedding gifts.  Who’s mad at cash?  Nobody.  But cash is not an appropriate gift for a bridal shower, so that’s not going to work under the present circumstances.  It is so much more fun to find a memorable and quirky gift.  You can buy your own flatware, but would you ever buy yourself a cuddling bunny sculpture?  Probably not.  To appease everyone involved, I’ll pick up something from the registry and add a little bonus flare of my own.