By FEDERICA K. CLEMENTI

Do you know what to do with three identical toasters? Most brides and grooms don’t, and the desire to avoid the question has turned into an expanded reality of stores with their own official "wish lists," called registries.

The registry-list system allows the soon-to-be-wed couple to choose a number of things they would love to receive for their wedding and have the list officially on file at their favorite bridal gift store. Guests then simply match the couples’ desires with their own financial possibilities.

At Berta 67 in Bensonhurst/Bay Ridge, over a thousand brides every year come to find help in selecting the ideal presents to help start their new lives. The store’s showrooms have expand on two floors for the length of a whole block and are brimming with all sorts of furnishings, decorative objects, sculptures, fine china, silverware, small and original appliances, collectibles and every imaginable thing to make registry wish-list as complete as possible.

Brides-to-be make an appointment to meet with one of its bridal consultants who advise the bride on the best way to select and coordinate the various presents and match them with the future couple’s life-style, tastes and needs.

The bride-to-be, usually accompanied by her fiancé or her mother, should start creating the gift list about seven or eight months before the wedding. Sometimes the list get to be seven or eight page long, one of Berta 67’s assistants said. And the price range is usually quite broad — presents at Berta 67 can cost from a minimum of $20 to a variable maximum of about $2,000.

Relatives and friends then receive — enclosed in their invitations — the address for and contact at Berta 67. Presents packaged at the 11-year-old family business are known to be shipped all over the world.

Among the most requested items on any registry list are Lenox’ china, Krups’ appliances and coffee makers, bathroom accessories — the evergreen matching towels for she and he — and of course some hand-painted pieces of furniture that are Berta 67’s pride and joy.

Couples can usually expect to receive 90 percent of what they indicated on their list of preferences. In fact the system works so well, that more and more customers are using the registry list system for their house-warming parties and other big festive occasions. It saves time, money, energy and, ultimately, disappointment.