Just thought I would throw my two cents in. It REALLY depends on the friends and families, but through University I worked in a small kitchen/home store where we took registries. There was not a single person who came in there who was bothered by someone doing a registry; in fact, a lot of people came to buy gifts WISHING someone had set up a registry. That included DW brides! Truth is, some people are going to buy no matter what; maybe spread the word it is not expected, but create a small registry for those people who you know are going to insist, and if people ask and do insist, they can be directed there. I figure I will just keep the items pretty low-cost. We had a lot of, say, great-aunts or something in the store who just HAD to send a gift to someone they hadn't seen since she was 5. They would get frustrated because they wouldn't know much about her at all, but still feel they had to send something. Even if they don't get something off the list, at least they get a picture of what you like. I can see some getting bothered by that, but I think that number would be reasonably few. Just my opinion though; like I said (in my rambling way), it really depends.