hello may

Welcome to the month of May. Today is a big day. My big brother turns 27 and finished up his second year of med school. Yay! My future mother in law also has a birthday today. I will be a Mrs. in exactly four months and it's May Day.

Whew. That's a lot of goodness for one day.

In my mind, May also begins a new season, not spring, but wedding season! It is officially upon us, my friends. Pretty soon our weekends will be filled with showers, parties and weddings of friends and family. Now, if you're like me, I love weddings. Love them! But if you don't like weddings then you probably dread this season. From my personal experience, I know one of the most challenging parts of going to a wedding (other than what to wear), is what to get the happy couple for a gift. Ugh, so many options, so many ideas and if you're like me, I'm not satisfied until I find the perfect present; one that represents the couple and how I know them and something that I know they will actually use.

Well thankfully awhile back someone got smart and created the idea of gift registry! Genius, right?!? You can just get couples something that they pick out and you know they'll love. It's the perfect solution to the wedding gift problem. Now, as a soon-to-be bride myself, I truly loved every minute of selecting items for our registry, but I soon became overwhelmed with the amount of options and trying to figure what I wanted my kitchen to look like for the next 10 years. But I used this handy-dandy guide from my dear friend about where to register before I set foot into a store.

Now, I'm going to share a little secret with you. There is this new way of registering. I compare it to Pinterest, but for gift registries. It's called GiftRegistry360.com. Your guests can shop for everything you want from one list, and the bride and groom can select items from any website. Period. So smart!

Here are a few of my favorite items from our GiftRegistry360.com selections:

 Bedding from West Elm

Pillows from West Elm

Too cute Mr. & Mrs. coffee mugs from Etsy

Kate Spade fine china

You can even add man gifts

Now who doesn't love that! Couples are no longer confide to declaring their style and home selection to items within four walls. I will warn you though, just like Pinterest it can become awfully easy to just click the little "Add to Registry" buttonm, so be sure to watch yourself (or have your fiance check up on it). Now, we also registered at two store locations, but I have loved being able to add odds and ends items to this list. I think it represents our personalities the best and these items will be a great addition to helping us make our new home.

If you know a bride-to-be, let her in on the secret or store it in your memory for later. Somethings are just too good to keep to yourself.

Happy May Day!