Here’s a question the lovely Leah sent to me a while back:
I have been enjoying MftB for years but only now have a pressing question for you: a friend of mine is getting married soon and, at the request of family members, will be doing a registry. But it’s important to her to register with a company that has green/sustainable options for a lot of her household goods and is also “blue” (the human rights/labor rights version of being green) in its business practices–nixing most of the big-box retailers. Ideally, she’d like to register with a store that is good to the earth and to its employees, especially on women and LGBT issues. Problem is, she’s not really sure what companies those are, especially not that offer a fairly wide range of products so that she doesn’t have to register 14 places. She is not interested in doing a ludicrous super-registry list, just some household basics to start their new home–linens, towels, some basic kitchen stuff, etc. Do you have any leads on some sustainable, high-integrity businesses that do wedding registries, or perhaps another way to put together a registry altogether?
In a way, Leah, this is a toughie – finding supposedly green wedding registries isn’t the problem, since there are environmentally friendly shops that let brides and grooms (and anyone, really) create gift registries. But going blue hasn’t quite caught on yet, even if it should.
Now you said that your friend doesn’t want to have to register at multiple stores, and I can completely understand why. For one thing, creating a wedding registry at one store can be stressful enough. Now imagine having to create more than one, and then having to keep track of them all! Not fun. So what’s a conscientious bride to do? Luckily, there are gift registry web sites that allow you to pull this item and that item from different shops online to create one mega registry.
The one that immediately comes to mind is http://www.myregistry.com/ (which even lets your scan bar codes in-store with an iPhone app, zow!). It’s basically a universal wedding registry, so whatever your friend wants from any online store or brick-and-mortar store with an online component can go on the registry, no problem. If MyRegistry one doesn’t do it for her, just Google build your own wedding registry and other similar sites will appear in the results. I think, however, that MyRegistry is the one that’s been around the longest and all the reviews I’ve read have been positive.
Blue producers? Green producers? Not a problem. With a universal wedding registry, every item on the list can be as sustainable and humanity-friendly and eco-conscious as you want it to be!
Dittio. I think it’s so tacky to register at more than 3 stores. Sending guests to one location is the best idea I think. Maybe I’m biased since my fiance and I have a wedding registry at myregistry.com but it makes me feel better about the whole experience in terms of etiquette. Also, I can add my favorite gaiam and 7hopesunited items, hit up etsy, and even include a tasteful, not-in-your-face honeymoon adventure fund.
Another option: the Amazon Universal Registry feature–it also lets you add items from anywhere on the internet.