Just for the sake of clarification

Really, there's nothing wrong with gifts that aren't from the registry. The odd part is when it is something that IS on the registry and the gift giver elects to give a different version.

And I think that's legitimately odd.

The process of compiling the gift registry was something I thought about writing about for a while because it does have the odd quirk and difficulty. In the end I decided that it was the sort of problem one really ought to like to have ("I just can't figure out what I want for presents!") and leave the thought unwritten.

The guests are not even in the least a burden. The biggest burden has been vendors who don't seem to have anything to contribute, and maybe some unusually difficult family. Repeatedly we've been talking to someone we've hired and been hoping they would help us solve a problem and been amazed at the real lack of lateral thinking. They've got the way they've always done it and that's about it, and if your situation is outside those parameters they want you to solve it even though they're the ones that do it for a living. I really didn't encounter that much with the vendors I typically dealt with in my project manager days, and its certainly not all of these vendors. Today we actually met with a winner or two. Yet it does seem to happen over and over in this particular niche - like they know you'll wear down and agree if they keep leaving it to you.

All things being equal they are probably correct; doesn't make it any more right or less frustrating.

Also there is an emerging odd class of guests who apparently do not respond to mail, email, or phone contacts. People you'd really like to include in your decision making who are apparently trapped under something heavy.

Its tough to know what to do about them.

Obviously all the people getting married want the event, with the friends, to have the celebration. Some of the bumps in the road are rather more formidable or ridiculous than they really ought to have to be - that's all.

I gather that's just the cost of doing business.

And now, I must go recharge for the the equivalent of the second of what looks like four 14 hour production meetings - an amount of energy I don't believe I have ever been required to devote to any show of any scope.

It'll be worth it though.