You guys may already know what big fans we are of the open-platform, beautifully designed, all-inclusive Thankful Registry. After all, no one can get you out of a tricky registry bind quite like Thankful, and few wedding registries are as customizable and downright attractive.
What you might not know is that founder Kathy is all about making sure Thankful lives up to its name by sprinkling gratitude all over the Internet. When we heard about her latest partnership with Cheerily (in support of Too Young to Wed), we wanted to know more. Luckily for us (and you!), Kathy was more than happy to tell us all about it—and to talk to us about Thankful in general. In her words, here are seven ways Thankful Registry is raising the bar for wedding registries:
1. it can be One Registry to Rule Them All
Now that everyone shops online these days, the idea of having a registry at just one store might sound a little strange. It makes sense you’d want kitchenware and dishes from Williams-Sonoma, a few small furniture pieces from West Elm, random cool things from Uncommon Goods, and a new tent and hammock from REI. But how do you keep track of it all? Since Thankful Registry is an open-platform, universal registry, you can save everything to the same page on Thankful—including honeymoon gifts, charity donations, and gift cards. Make your registry as long or as short as you’d like. The best part is, Thankful saves your guests from having to registry-hop to find you the perfect gift.
2. … Or Simply the “Everything Else” Registry
On the other hand, if you’re particularly loyal to a retailer (e.g., Macy’s), you might not want to move everything to Thankful Registry and lose the registry benefits at Macy’s. So why not keep your Macy’s registry and use Thankful for everything else—like items from Amazon, foodie subscriptions, and boutique shops? A new feature on Thankful gives you the option to link to an outside registry directly from your Thankful page. With this feature, a line appears at the very end of your page that reads, “We’re also registered at…”, with a button that sends your guests to your other registry in a new browser window. The benefit is that you’ll still only need to share one wedding registry link with your guests.
3. thankful registry Looks & Feels Like “You”
There are two things every guest sees before they attend your wedding: your invitation and your registry. Thankful Registry helps make your registry page look and feel special by letting you customize the page to reflect the two of you. You can upload your own cover image photo, compose a welcome message, and inject some humor and personality by writing notes for items that hold special meaning. Basically, Thankful allows you to put some thought into your registry, which in turn encourages your guests to put more thought into the gift they’re giving you.
4. Flexible Cash Gifts
Whether you’d like to include a honeymoon fund, new couch fund, or kitchen renovation fund to your registry, Thankful gives you options to customize your cash gifts depending on your specific needs. There’s an option to disable credit and debit card gifts if you’d prefer to avoid those pesky fees. Or you can choose to only receive cash gifts by check, if PayPal transfers are a little impersonal for your traditional-minded guests. The point is, Thankful Registry understands that cash gifts aren’t one-size-fits-all, so it’s nice to have the extra control.
5. Total Online Privacy
Your registry shouldn’t be available for the World Wide Web to find, which is why your registry on Thankful is programmed to be completely safe from Google snoops and wedding site aggregators. So five years from now, your wedding registry isn’t one of the first results that shows up when someone searches your name. For even more privacy, Thankful Registry also lets you set a password on your page—just make sure you remember to share this password with guests!
6. “Less is More” Philosophy
Although Thankful Registry is still, ultimately, a registry, the gratitude-driven point of view comes to life in small touches throughout the site. For example, prices don’t show up until your guests hover over an item, which means they can browse for gifts that resonate with them, and then choose one in their price range, rather than doing it the other way around. Similarly, you can opt to leave off the price for your cash gifts and gift cards, leaving it up to your guests to decide how much they want to spend.
7. Living Up to Its Name
A big part of the wedding industry is balancing the fun and love of weddings with the reality and stress that comes with it all. So while Thankful Registry spends most of the year building new features and troubleshooting with wedding guests who aren’t so familiar with universal registries, they dedicate November to celebrating Thanksgiving along with the rest of us. Each year, Thankful organizes a fundraiser to raise donations for Too Young to Wed, a nonprofit raising awareness for the important issue of child marriage.
This year, Thankful partnered with babywear brand Cheerily (known for their super cute “The Snuggle Is Real” tees) on these special edition “Givin’ Thanks” onesies and tees for all the Thankful little pumpkins out there. All proceeds go directly to charity.
Curious? You can find out more about Thankful Registry here, or get started with your own registry!
