Scully & Scully (Park Avenue between 59th and 60th streets) hosted their semi-annual Bridal Registry Event, a day dedicated especially to engaged couples and their parents. In fact, anyone who shopped on Saturday enjoyed the complimentary champagne and sparkling water. Cupcakes from the Cupcake Café were the sweets of the day.  Alex Donnerıs musicians provided background music as couples, mothers, daughters and friends strolled through the store selecting their heartıs delight.

It was a festive occasion.  The weather was winter brisk.  The snow stayed out of the way.  And everyone was in a jovial mood.  To start the enrollment with cheer, Scully & Scully gave each couple registering an engagement gift bag.

Bridal Registry is perhaps one of the most joyful pre-wedding events there is. Couples explored the two floors of the Park Avenue specialty store selecting the china, glassware, dinnerware, home accessories and furniture to complete their first home.

In the china department, itıs not unusual to see brides removing plates from the shelf and assembling their own table plan, mixing and matching patterns and colors on the dining tables. In the last few years, there has been a change in tradition. Brides-to-be no longer selected every piece of china and porcelain from the same pattern.

One young woman combined Ginoriıs Gold Charger with Herend ³Rothschild Bird,² a pattern which is 150 years old. In this picture, the bride-to-be mixed dinner, salad and bread & butter dishes with brown or green borders.

Another engaged young woman used a Cobalt Ginori Charger to set off her Royal Crown Derby Dinner plates and Golden Peony Dessert plates.  She accented her registry choices with Baccarat Montaigne Optic water goblets and Saint Louis Thistle Gold Chartreuse Wine Hock.

One bride-to-be passed the jewel tones for lighter designs in her choices. She covered a Herend Light Blue Fish Scale service plate with the Anna Weatherley Spring in Budapest soup and bread & butter plates.

The same held for the water and wine stemware.  Some preferred the traditional Waterford crystal while others went for the etched safari stemware from Queen Lace. A raffle was held in celebration of the 150th anniversary of Herend Porcelain's "Rothschild Bird" pattern.

To make the wedding party complete, there was an Usherıs table displaying a range of gifts for the groom to give his Best Man and ushers, everything from neckties to bar accessories to cufflinks.  One of the most popular items is the enamel penguin cufflinks. Did you know that penguins mate for life?

Bridesmaid gifts are traditionally hand painted Halcyon Days boxes with individualized inscriptions or the always-popular Herend hand painted porcelain. Maid of Honor gifts are also selected from the jewelry department.

For the store, this is also a happy celebration.  Children of parents and in some cases grandparents who also registered at the store return to follow in the family tradition.

The idea behind a bridal registry is to guide family and friends to give the engaged couple items they need and want.  Scully & Scully takes it one step further by giving the bride and groom the option to receive gifts that are selected for them or wait until after the wedding to receive all of the gifts at once.  As a thank you for registering at Scully & Scully, they become part of a Registry Rewards program.

What makes any shopping experience at Scully & Scully so unique goes beyond the selection of merchandise.  It is the wonderfully friendly and knowledgeable staff that makes the process so joyful.