wedding shower/ wedding ettiquette

I was recently invited to a wedding shower for DH's second cousin. She is a 20 year old college drop out who recently had a baby. I was also invited to the baby shower.

Perhaps I am just behind the times but my jaw hit the floor when I checked her registries at Macy's and Amazon.com. The items listed include diapers, grateful dead onesies, $30 oven mitts, a fancy bed, table saw, tools, high end camping gear and on and on. When I married 15 years ago I received practical and useful items like towels, an ironing board, mixing bowls etc. I am certainly not buying a 20 year old $30 oven mitts. I am thinking a Dave Ramsey book instead.

This weekend we also received our wedding invitation. The response was due back Monday and the wedding is 3 weeks away. We have recently been invited to 2 other weddings and received the invitations 6 weeks in advance and had 2 weeks to respond.

Including in the invitation was a long winded note about the ceremony. It will take place at a waterfall with standing room only and limited space. There is no shelter in the event of poor weather and you must walk along a mile long path to reach the ceremony site. There is also limited parking. Does any one else find this crazy?

Dh and I are going to the reception only. It is at the same venue as our reception so we can be all nostalgic....