AisleDash

When I got married, I'd already owned my house and lived with my husband for over a year. I didn't need a blender or china or bed linens. But I'd gotten advice from married friends that we should register anyway, so we did. We picked out mostly cheap knickknacks at Pier 1, and I'd say about 80% of the gifts we received were straight from the registry.

I wish I'd known then that guests actually want to spend more than $10 on gifts. (Well, some do, anyway.) We might have registered for some nicer things that we could've really used -- like a global positioning system (aka GPS).

I used to have panic attacks driving around in unfamiliar places, but ever since I got a Garmin Nuvi GPS, I don't have to worry about this anymore -- and I can always find the nearest gas station, restaurant, and rest stop. You may not think to register for something like this for your wedding, but the GPS has been my go-to gift of choice ever since I got mine. Leading manufacturers are Garmin and TomTom, and you can find various models used and very reasonably priced on eBay.