High Five for Friday (link up)

Once again, linking up to the lauren elizabeth and her H54F link up party! So, happy friday everyone! Let's get right to the party:

1.

Sunday and Monday were absolutely gorgeous days! On Memorial Day we had a bonfire, and took some bonfire selfies. Also, the pond was looking spectacular. It was great to grill out, spend time with the family and enjoy the lovely weather.

2.

Lots of reading to be done this summer, so I got it started after a trip to the library! Reading is my absolutely my favorite, and I love being off during the summer months and having the opportunity to get lots of reading done. I challenge myself every year to read a certain number of books, and the bulk of it gets accomplished during the summer.

3.

I went with my best friend to go pick out her bridesmaid dress for my wedding! It was quick and easy, so then we rewarded ourselves with a great meal! pulled pork,  handcut fries, killer mac & cheese and cornbread -- yum yum!

4.  A few weeks ago, I went to the eye doctor and ordered a year supply of contacts. When I went on Tuesday to go pick them up, I found out that I also earned a free $50 pair of sunglasses! I love sunglasses, but usually opt for the $10 pairs from the store.

 

5. Today is my Dad's birthday! We will be going out to dinner as a family and then just hanging out! Looking forward to another great weekend!

Experience: Registering for wedding gifts

So, I am getting married to my best friend on December 20th and we are doing a variety of DIY stuff and some other things where we are phoning it in and hiring professionals to deal with it. Our first shower is going to be at the end of the June, with another one in mid-October. So even though we are 7 months out we needed to think about registering for our gifts.

We did an initial "drive by" of each store we were considering registering at. We discussed important things like color schemes, made sure we were on the same page on what we needed/wanted and made sure each store had a selection of what we wanted. I found it helpful to look at other people's registries (such as friends) just to get ideas on what to register for. It can be VERY overwhelming, there are SO many options and so many options within options.

Before we went to register, I made a list of items that I knew we needed. We are in desperate need of new pillows, bed linens, silverware and some organizational items. We had a few items that we debated over: new dishes, pots/pans and a new Keurig. So by the time we went into the store, all we had to do was find the version (or style) of each item that we desired -- and that was the fun part.

We went to the store early on a Saturday morning, right when the store opened, and we knocked out registering for about 100 items in a little under 2 hours. Then we were super ambitious and went onto store number 2 -- which was MUCH busier and a less enjoyable experience. So, we got as much done at store number 2 as we could handle, and then decided we would finish it online.

All in all, I think having the discussions ahead of time definitely made the experience an enjoyable one. After all, it's supposed to be fun, right?