Each of these customers received several times the average in total gifts from their registry, so they know what they’re talking about!
Here’s their advice and ideas for you:
Let people make “package gifts”
“People like to put together little package gifts; like dinner and a bottle of wine. Or a room and a bottle of champagne. Adding little gift plumpers for $20 lets people put more thought and personality into the gift – so don’t hesitate to include the small, quirky stuff!”
Alicia and Daniel
Create customized registry items
“Our Big Day registry was very successful because we used both our webpage and our registry introduction to explain why India was the trip of our dreams, and much better for us than silverware. Also, many people gave us a gift that related to what they would want to do – such as ride on an elephant, buy art or purchase a sari. By using the customizing option for gifts, I could help the guests envision our itinerary and their excitement raised our tally! The more specific the gift, the faster it was bought.”
Karen and Mark
Use a wedding web page
“The thing that worked great for us was having the web page linked to the registry. My sister sent out an email saying that “Annie & Paul really don’t need any more “things” and that what they really wanted were experiences to share with each other – so they made a cool web based registry ‘wish list’…and here’s the link…” We sent the email to our entire guest list – it was a great success! We even included links to other personal web pages showing our current projects that we had been working on (we’re designers). People loved seeing what we had been up to.
I think that the reason everyone loved our registry was because it was really visual and totally personal – I spent a lot of time researching our itinerary – finding restaurants, hotels and activities. By searching on the internet I was able to find photos and restaurant/hotel/guidebook reviews for each item…I did a lot of cutting and pasting trying to make it fun and individual. By the end everyone felt as though they had given us a totally personal gift, something that we really wanted that wouldn’t just sit on a shelf gathering dust…it was really fun, creative and easy!”
Let people know you don’t need more “stuff”
“The biggest tip we have is that this is a perfect registry for older couples (we are 38 and 33). We have enough stuff, we wanted our honeymoon completely paid for, and it was. It is also very convenient for out of town family or guests. We were extremely happy with it and were very happy with the free wedding web page, which everyone loved. We would definitely recommend you and this site without hesitation.”
Leigh and Aiden
Give our 800 number to those who don’t have internet access
“We gave out not only the web site, but the 800 number for TheBigDay. That turned out to be a great idea, because those with computers went to the site, and those less comfortable with that technology called and got a friendly person who talked them through what for most was a whole new experience. When one of my oldest (Luddite) friends called and told me she’d “just got off the phone with a nice lady about ordering your honeymoon,” I knew no one who wanted to would have problems reaching and utilizing our honeymoon registry.”
Leslie and Greg
Use your itinerary for your registry items
“We especially enjoyed writing our own itinerary for the trip and using our own photographs (which we found on the web). We had a great time on our trip and it was only possible with the generous gifts from our friends and family. This way we got to enjoy each present in a different city! And even more lovely was remembering our friends as we walked on the beach in Bolinas, went out to dinner in Vegas, hiked the Grand Canyon, mountain climbing in Aspen, went clubbing in Seattle and many more wonderful memories which we will have for a lifetime! we definitely recommend using this service for a wedding registry.”
Naomi and William
“Guess the dress” contest
“We had a section on our web site called “guess the dress.” We posted photos of the bride in the many gowns she considered, and asked our guests to guess which one she chose. Then there was a link to the supposed “answer” (don’t worry, we didn’t really give it away). In retrospect, had I known how popular this would be, and the amount of word of mouth it would generate among our guests, I would have had “guess the honeymoon” with several different honeymoon scenarios and the “answer” being the link to our BigDay registry.”
Leslie and Greg
