Our registries give to charity, too!

We opened our third and final(?) registry last weekend at Crate and Barrel. The store really made the experience pleasant for both of us. C&B had a special "registry event" where only couples were allowed in the store, we got a little gift and were even served mimosas (yum!). We decided to register for our cookware and fancy flatware there along with plenty of other things (mostly kitchen gadgets). Very fun.

So, we've got registries at Target, Macy's and Crate and Barrel. Following all that, we signed up at the I Do Foundation. It's a great organization that facilitates donations to charity through wedding registries. The foundation has partnered with a bunch of stores (including all three of ours -- actually, Macy's and Crate and Barrel do their registries at WeddingChannel.com) to donate a percentage of gift costs to charities selected by the couple.

Basically, by clicking through the I Do Foundation to access our Target registry, 5 percent of whatever is spent on registry items for us will be donated -- at no additional cost to our guests or us -- to charities we've selected. As mentioned, Target does 5 percent, and the two other stores do 3 percent. I thought this was a really cool thing.

We selected the Human Rights Watch and American Red Cross as our charities. That way money is going to both those at home and abroad. I added the I Do Foundation links to registries on our wedding Web site. I'm really hoping that people will utilize it. If you're going to spend the same amount of money either way, part of it might as well go to help others, right?

Also: I'm really, really excited about our china. I never thought I'd be excited about china, but it's super pretty.