By Joey Cahue
We’ve been in full wedding planning mode over at BellaVitaStyle with the engagement of our editor in chief, so in our quest to give you all of our inside tips for wedding planners and finding the best vendors and services, we wanted to ficus on an awesome registry site that our editor is using for her wedding gifts.
MyRegistry.com is a website that allows you to create a registry for a wedding shower, baby shower, or a nonprofit/organization. The beauty of it is how simple it is to use the website. All you have to do is sign up with an email address, Facebook, or Google+ account and you’re good to go. Even if you’re using the website in order to give a gift, it is equally wonderful and easy to navigate when you’re trying to access someone else’s registry. Ease of use is one of the things that was important for our editor. It isn’t enough for a service just to cater to a bride, but it should be equally user-friendly for the couple’s guests.
What was most appealing about MyRegistry to us compared to competitors in the space is that you can create a universal registry based on anything you want to receive across thousands of stores. This saves you the trouble of creating multiple registries at different retailers which is both time consuming for you and really confusing for guests.
With other registries, you’re confined to the products they carry. With MyRegistry you can add the “Add to MyRegistry” button to your browser’s bookmarks bar. The button allows you to add any gift from any online store that you want. This is perfect if you want to mix it up a bit or if you like a variety of products from all different vendors. (Take a look here at what gifts we put on our Registry)
Some of the most popular retailers you would want items from are already on their website, such as Target, BestBuy, Amazon, Williams Sonoma, Ikea, Crate&Barrel, and so many more powerhouse companies. This eliminates the hassle of sticking to one store or brand for your wish list!
Registering for gifts cane be overwhelming, but we love the “Wedding Gift Idea Boards” tab on MyRegistry that will allow you to endlessly scroll through idea boards for inspiration. Think of it as Pinterest, but actually being able to get these products rather than pinning them and never returning. The idea boards have something for everyone such as dinnerware, bedroom décor, kitchenware, bathroom basics, and just about anything you’d want on your registry list.
If you stumbled across this convenient website a little later in your planning, then no worries because you could sync your registries from the following stores: Amazon, Anthropologie, Best Buy, Bloomingdale’s, CB2, Crate & Barrel, Crate & Kids, Dillard’s, IKEA, JCPenney, Kohl’s, Macy’s, Nordstrom, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, REI, Sears, Sur la table, Target, Walmart, Wayfair, West Elm, and Williams Sonoma. There’s no stress of creating and deleting all of them, when all you have to do is sync them to one main registry.
Another feature that my friends and I have been raving about on MyRegistry is that it gives you the option to register for cash gifts. Cash gifts are not only convenient for the gift giver, but also for the bride and groom to-be. They could be stored away from honeymoons, a new house, or whatever you’d like to save your money towards. This is the situation our editor is in — she and her fiancé have lived together for a while, so need some home gifts, but would also love the option of registering for cash to pay for their honeymoon to South Africa.
The website has its own app on the App Store and on Google Play. The app makes adding gifts on-the-go a breeze! After downloading it and logging onto your account, you could scan any product barcode with your smartphone’s camera and it will pop up on the app. After that, you could directly add it to your registry. The app will even help your guests out by finding the most affordable place to get the gift and pull up all the vendors who offer it.
If you’re still in a rut and lacking inspiration, head over the MyRegistry’s blog located directly under the “Wedding” tab as “Wedding Blog”. You’ll come across hundreds of ideas for your wedding, ranging from décor, to games, and even posts that aren’t related to weddings and you just want something interesting to read.
If you’re unsure of what exactly you want and need more inspiration rather than the idea boards, head over to the “Popular Gifts” page underneath the “Wedding” tab. These gifts are what’s most commonly bought or added to multiple registry lists. I don’t know about you, but one of my favorite things to do is to browse people’s wedding registries, so this was a great little feature and it also served as a reminder to register for items that didn’t immediately come to mind.
The website will even guide you on where to buy the exact gift. The layout of this page is just like the “Wedding Gift Idea Boards” page, it’s in a Pinterest style set up, allowing brides and grooms to-be to dart from product to product all on the same page. No more getting unorganized and lost in a jungle of tabs in your browser, fearfully checking each tab as you can’t remember where you saved that one blender that was absolutely perfect. Wedding or not, we’re all guilty of keeping several tabs open and thinking we had them under control when we didn’t.
Wedding planning can be a stressful time, but the ease of use and intuitiveness of MyRegistry takes any of the guesswork out of the registry process. We couldn’t recommend it highly enough.
More Wedding Coverage:
The Best Wedding Planning Podcasts For Brides to Be
The Best Devices to Get In Shape for the Wedding
Chic Gifts To Add To Your Wedding Registry