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Topic: Wedding registry UK/online?  (Read 6835 times)

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Wedding registry UK/online?
« on: March 17, 2003, 09:00:30 PM »
Hi--i'm new here and apologize if this has already been discussed somewhere else on the board and I didn't see it--but does anyone have any advice or insight on registering for our wedding in the UK so my american family/friends can purchase online and ship to our place in the UK?  I ask b/c i'm being strongly urged to register by family members and all i can think of is marksandspencer.com--registering in the US weems ike it would be very inconvenient--for shipping to the UK alone--but if there's a reason I should consider that I'd like to hear it!  I'm in the US now, will be going to the UK this summer for the wedding and will be living in the UK.  Advice greatly appreciated!  --Justine


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Re: Wedding registry UK/online?
« Reply #1 on: March 18, 2003, 02:26:20 AM »
Quote
.... does anyone have any advice or insight on registering for our wedding in the UK so my american family/friends can purchase online and ship to our place in the UK?  .....

It depends exactly how much you family and friends are likely to spend on gifts but here are several thoughts.  

Many things are much cheaper in the US - roughly as many $$$ as £££, so buying in the US is like getting a 40% discount.

If you bring a gift worth more than a certain amount (I'm not sure but it may be as little as about £120 ???) into the UK you'll have to pay taxes and duty.  There is no special concession for wedding gifts.

Anything electrical should be bought new in the UK, otherwise you'll have transformers to deal with, which really is more trouble than it's worth when you could buy new in the UK.

Beds and bedding in the US is a different size, so unless you are importing an American bed you'll need British sheets for a British bed.

Try these stores to see if they do on-line wedding registries: Debenhams, John Lewis, and House of Fraser, they are all chain department stores that have branches around the UK.  

If you tell us where you'll be living then I'm sure that there'll be somebody here who can tell you which stores have branches in that town.
« Last Edit: March 22, 2003, 02:45:33 AM by Mr_Val »
Richard


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Re: Wedding registry UK/online?
« Reply #2 on: March 21, 2003, 02:34:26 PM »
This is a hard one.  I got married over here a year ago and never did find anywhere that I could "register." You can buy online, but many of the sites are a bit hard to use.  John Lewis springs to mind.  Some of them won't accept American Credit cards.  In the end most people gave us money to buy what we wanted.  That said, things might have changed.  

One last note.  We were give a lovely set of sheets by my aunt and uncle in the States while I was back.  They fit perfectly, though I think I have put an American double on a British queen.
'Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not.' - Emerson


Re: Wedding registry UK/online?
« Reply #3 on: March 21, 2003, 04:18:56 PM »
Thanks for your feedback.  The Debenham's site looks the most promising, although I hadn't thought about the American credit card issue . . . *sigh*.  Everyday I discover something about moving to the UK that I hadn't thought of before!  My other thought was, I believe couples can register for airfares/honeymoons through some travel agencies (although we won't be traveling too far while waiting for my spousal visa to come back).  I don't know anyone who has done so, but i plan on checking into that, too. :)  Justine


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Re: Wedding registry UK/online?
« Reply #4 on: March 22, 2003, 02:49:00 AM »
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....  Some of them won't accept American Credit cards. ....

If you find that you should get onto the credit card company immediately, via the bank that issued the card, as I believe that it is contrary to the terms of the contract beween the retailer and VISA/ MasterCard to selectively reject cards from another country.  The whole point of credit cards is that they are accepted the world over.
« Last Edit: March 22, 2003, 02:49:54 AM by Mr_Val »
Richard


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Re: Wedding registry UK/online?
« Reply #5 on: March 26, 2003, 01:14:00 AM »
Yes Mr Val...the thought and desire would be that credit cards are accepted around the world...  and actually a lot of them are...  but I have come across some places where they are not...  I have a debit/visa card that was not accepted in Paris because they just do not take them as I was told...

I have also come across some sites on the internet that do not accept american credit cards...which really stinks...  I was hoping to order a few things over there so they would be waiting for me when I got there.

Logic is one thing, it keeps us in control!
But the heart only knows one, which is the  
depths of our soul!


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Re: Wedding registry UK/online?
« Reply #6 on: March 26, 2003, 05:49:06 AM »
Quote
...... I have also come across some sites on the internet that do not accept american credit cards...which really stinks...  I was hoping to order a few things over there so they would be waiting for me when I got there.

Soooo, have you complained to your bank yet?  ???
Richard


Re: Wedding registry UK/online?
« Reply #7 on: March 26, 2003, 08:38:47 PM »
I've found that some sites will accept the card number and expiration just fine, but when I enter a UK zip code it won't accept the letter/number combo and flips out on me!  This has been mainly with trying to book travel online on a US website (orbitz and travelocity).  Hmmm.  


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Re: Wedding registry UK/online?
« Reply #8 on: May 22, 2003, 04:16:16 PM »
I got married last summer to a lovely Brit... we got married in Milwaukee where I'm originally from but as we live in London we registered with Debenhams.  Frankly if I had to do it again I would do so with John Lewis as they have more products that I like than Debenhams did.  Oh well - can't complain.  The website was easy to use (according to my American relatives who used it) and never once did I hear that an American credit card caused a problem.  They were very bad at having products stay in stock though...  We got 100's of pounds of vouchers due to gifts that were purchased being sold out which was quite frustrating!  

I also want to flag up the situation on customs and importing wedding gifts from the States.  We had a box weighing 140lbs held in customs until we filled out the paperwork, which required that we itemize everything in the box.  The form was a bit complicated but after many phone calls, I found out that all I had to write was "household items" instead of trying to list everything I had packed months before.  ALSO you will not pay VAT or import tax on gifts.  There is a section of the form that deals with that.  We did not pay one single pence and had things like Waterford china in there.  Make sure you know this as you could read it wrong and end up paying tons of money when you don't need to.  

Hope this helps a bit... enjoy your wedding!


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