registry woes

Our registry process has been a little choppy in terms of deciding what to add to our list. We've had nothing but great experiences with our places (Crate & Barrel and Macy's), but occasionally we'll stumble when it comes to picking out the important stuff, i.e. knives and pots/pans. For some reason, Mr. Starfish and I are really stressed out about picking such important pieces for our kitchen! We both cook a lot, so we can definitely appreciate a good utensil or two, but being young, we haven't had the luxury of top-notch kitchen gear. I guess we're just anxious about choosing good quality tools while still hitting the right price points for our guests.

We went over to Williams-Sonoma to talk to supposed cutlery and pots/pans experts and were extremely disappointed. We've done some research online, but still can't figure it out. I love the look and feel of the Shun knives (if I could do my entire house in faux bois, I would... hence my obsession with the texture of the Shun Classic set) but Wusthof is more popular and less expensive, we like Calphalon but want to stay away from nonstick due to chemicals, All-Clad is nice but expensive... I want to pull my hair out! Right now, no decisions have been made. Do you have any advice or product recommendations?