Friday, March 11, 2011

A Different kind of Registry

Gasp! The secret is out! (ok it was neither a secret nor does it warrant a gasp, whatever) Nate and I have been living together for over two years. We aren't exactly trying to stock a house from start to finish. Our apartment; however, is a hodge podge of cheap college purchases and hand-me-downs. I welcome thieves to our home. Trust me, you'll be extremely under-rewarded for your efforts.

So while the traditional registry has its rightful purpose (We could really use some new kitchen gadgets and some non-crappy sheets) for us, we really needed a different kind of registry.


I had been reading about several different sites offering "honeymoon registries" where guests can deposit money to the site, the couple cashes out, and uses the money to have fun experiences on their honeymoon. I really liked that idea, but since we are having a belated honeymoon, I didn't want the whole focus of the website to be on the honeymoon.

Then I found depositagift.com. This site was a step up from the others. It was easier to navigate, and I loved the fact that you can customize what types of events or goals people are contributing towards.



I created a category for our honeymoon that we hope to take to Scotland. People can "give us" a night at a quaint bed and breakfast in the highlands or a tour of one of the many Scotch distilleries. We also want to be homeowners someday (and say adios to our annoying upstairs neighbor that is always screaming at her kids), so I also created a category where people can gift us funds for our first home. When the wedding is over, we simply "cash out".



{Our Home Page}

O.k. the truth: This website is just a better way for people to give us cash. Yeah, I know, they could just write us a check, but what's the fun in that? This way people will know and feel that their money is actually going towards something tangible. I'm really excited about this registry, because, after all, we are young, we are poor, and mamma needs a new pair of shoes (or at least grocery money?) there I said it. I will say the only con to this type of registry is that there is a small fee ($2 I think) for guests to give using the site. I think it's worth it though, considering guests don't have to hassle with mailing us a check or bringing anything to the wedding. After all, the website can't run for free!

I've heard of good customer service, but this takes the cake! Check out this sweet post card that I received from Dana, founder of Deposit a Gift,  a couple of days after we set up the registry.


{Happy Engagement Katie & Nathan! I hope setups been fun. I'm here if you need any support :) Cheers, Dana}


What a nice touch to have the owner of the company send you a postcard! I am all about being personal so this really won me over. 

Did you or would you register for any "unusual" items?

3 comments:

  1. We used "Honeymoon Wishes" as our registry site and our guests loved it! Our guests knew we were focused on our honeymoon so most guests contributed and basically paid for our WHOLE honeymoon (10 days in Maui). I highly recommend focusing your registry on the most important area for you, even if your honeymoon is belated, you can still have it completely paid for!

    We had many guests (about 90%) look at the registry, then give us cash/check at our wedding and said in their card what they were gifting it for.

    I think the "Deposit a Gift" site is really great, the only thing I would say is to try and break things down into smaller gifts like how the honeymoon one you have - where guests can purchase a night for you both in a B&B. The more activities that are broken out, the better, because guests feel like they purchased something for you (like honeymoon art, a romantic dinner, bike ride, rental car, day trip to "---" etc). When we came back from our honeymoon, we sent pictures to our guests of us doing the activities they purchased for us. It really made it come full circle for them.

    Our unusual registry item? A bike ride down a volcano in Maui! Gifted to us by one of our guests!

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  2. thanks for the advice! I will definitely be sure to break things down even more in the registry. i love the idea of taking pictures of doing those activities!

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  3. This is such a great idea...and its better to do something like this then to get a bunch of things you cant really use or dont really want. We went the traditional way with the whole bridal shower and all! Good luck and I hope your guests get involved.

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