We love it when we discover an awesome business after our own paperless-heart…today that’s Nursery Notice! This new service is the environmentally-friendly way to share your baby news with friends and family, with all the ease the Internet offers: No printing. No mailing costs. No guilt! Sounds kind of like our motto: No gift wrap. No shipping. No returns. Just the green you want for what you’ll need down the road!
With so many online baby options today, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by choices that seem to complicate, rather than simplify, your life. At Deposit a Gift we strive for a fun, flexible, hassle-free experience that is fun for you, sentimental for guests and easy for all. That’s why Nursery Notice caught our eye because they seem to hold those same values. To check out one of their demo birth announcements, click here. Aren’t they freakin’ adorable?
I love the personal feel, mood music and customization…all that’s missing is a link to a DAG baby registry, though from the looks of it, it doesn’t seem that difficult to just pop-in the link and voila! All of the baby info at your friends and family’s fingertips Perfect, whether it’s your first, second or third, whether you’re welcoming an adopted child into your home or just returned from the hospital…Everyone deserves a warm (paperless) introduction to the world!
P.S. If you’re like us and the thought of an online announcement, cool as it is, makes you wax nostalgic for something tangible to pin up on the fridge, not to worry, they’ve thought of everything! There’s a ‘print’ function so you can get that gorgeous new mug up there in seconds. Cheers!
Loving DAG? Don’t keep it to yourself! If you know someone:
…tell them about us! It’s easy to create a unique and personal gift list that is both practical and fun for guests so that the sentimentality of giving is not lost. What could be better than the gift of dreams and experiences? Our growing Testimonials section may offer the inspiration that you need! For creative ideas on how a Deposit a Gift registry works perfectly for showers, checkout this recent post.
Spreading the word is simple: Suggest our Facebook page to friends (the link is just under the big green logo) or use our Tell a Friend page to send a personal note from you with an introductory message from us.
In case you’re curious, here’s what the message says:
Hello,
[Insert Your Name] thinks that Deposit a Gift might be just what you’ve been looking for, and asked us to send you this email.
Deposit a Gift is made for life’s big moments: it’s a cash gift registry and free custom event site, all in one.
Gone are the days when you need multiple sites and stores to support just one event. With Deposit a Gift you can create your own site, complete with pages for all the event details, and a custom registry based on what you’d like to save for in the future. Here are some examples.
If you’ve seen it, heard of it, or imagined it, you can register it at Deposit a Gift. Guests contribute monetary gifts into a personal account which you can access at any time. Use your gift money on anything you want, whenever you want.
And when the gifting begins, say goodbye to countless hours spent juggling returns. Remember, this moment is supposed to be fun; keep things simple so you can focus on what matters most. Register your style at www.depositagift.com today.
Cheers to many happy occasions,
The Deposit a Gift Team
Wishing you and yours a wonderful holiday weekend and transition from Summer to Fall. Cheers!
I just stumbled upon the most amazing mommy invention: The Simple Wishes Hands Free Pumping Bra! One of the biggest challenges that new moms face is how to fit in pumping time with all that they’ve got going on, whether they’re working inside or outside the home. A common complaint (until now!) has been how they can’t do anything else why they’re pumping…for obvious reasons. Want to see this miracle bra in action? I admit, it’s kinda funny looking (and who in the heck has a flat stomach like that after having a baby?), but who cares if it does the job! Click here.
We often talk about Deposit a Gift offering an alternative to the onslaught of ’stuff’ that could make anyone’s head spin when it comes to figuring out what you need for a new baby and what you should put on the registry. For every must have, there is a lot that can wait. In fact, one of the benefits of a cash gift registry it that it lets family and friends contribute to what you want, while giving you the flexibility to get what you need when the time is right for you.
However, seeing the Simple Wishes Hands Free Pumping Bra drove home another benefit for me that I often hear parents-to-be wondering about: Can I put less glamorous, but necessary, items on my registry? Will people be icked-out or even offended if I ask for things that have to do with breast feeding, for example? Some of the uncertainty comes from the fact that these items can be expensive (the double breast pump runs around $300), and some because they are a bit unusual.
It’s true, there are a lot of people who get squeamish when it comes to the topic of breastfeeding, but the reality is that if you’re going to trying going this route, some starter items are necessary. To solve the uncertainty of putting breastfeeding items on a regular gift registry, why not put them on a virtual gift registry? The intangible aspect may actually help your cause because the loved one can contribute to part of what would be most helpful to you, without having to select something out of their comfort zone, or be responsible for the entire purchase. Also many of these new innovations are not yet available at a big box store so it is impossible to put them on a registry — but with baby gift money in-hand, this isn’t an issue!
Plus, if you have other, more ‘fun’ things on your cash baby registry, like season passes to the zoo or the aquarium, then they can combine a partial purchase of a practical nursing gift, with something that inspires them with the playtime part of having a child.
What do you think of the Simple Wishes Hands Free Pumping Bra? What other wonder baby products are out there that have been a lifesaver to you that others should know about? Please share in the comments section.
Cheers to innovation that addresses real needs and actually improves quality of life for parents and babies!
Yesterday I blogged about how to use a non-traditional gift registry for a traditional celebration like a wedding or baby shower. It’s a common question when people register for non-stuff like photo sessions, home ownership, or experiences. Since the focus of the post was on how to make it fun for gift-givers to bring a non-traditional gift to a shower, I didn’t delve too deeply into all the possibilities for the kinds of gifts. Specifically, I didn’t talk at all about all that can be done for charity with a Deposit a Gift registry and how that can be tied into a shower theme, a growing trend amongst our users who want to give back amidst all the joy the are receiving.
Today’s Inspiration? Giving Back!
So what does this have to do with today’s post? Well, I’ve been searching all day for my blogging inspiration (as evidenced by this PM post!), and luckily it found me in the form of two wonderful blogs: The Thirty Something Bride and Ashley’s Bride Guide. They teamed-up to share an experience visiting Thistle Farms, a Nashville non-profit business that makes bath and body products created by the residents of Magdalene, a community for women recovering and changing their lives after battles with prostitution and addiction. I was very moved and had to share. This is a perfect example of an amazing organization that offers so many opportunities to be part of major life celebration and gifting events.
Not only can you do the obvious and facilitate donations by including a charitable gift on your registry, but you can also:
*We donated to the Central Asia Institute, who you may recognize from the bestselling book ‘Three Cups of Tea,’ that builds schools for girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The donation certificate was the “thing of value” that we used for our exchange under the Chuppah — kinda hard to see but it’s what my groom is holding up in the air.
Of course, you can always refer guests to donate directly, but if you include your charities of choice as line-items on your Deposit a Gift registry, everything is in one place and simpler for guests, PLUS it allows them to combine a charitable gift in your honor with a gift for you — something that we find guests often want to do. Even if to you the best present is their presence, most guests just can’t stick to that rule and want to give you something that you will keep and remember them by. This is a fun and rewarding compromise!
We’d love to know, how are you including charity in your celebration? Please comment and share!
Even in these modern times of different starter needs and alternative registries, the fun of the traditional wedding or baby shower needn’t be lost. But let’s face it, when you think ’shower’ you think ‘gifts,’ so what’s a shower-thrower to do when the guest of honor has a cash gift registry? We’ve got some tips and tricks to create a gratifying gift-giving experience for guests, and also give the guest of honor what they really want. We get this question a lot, so it is perfectly suited for today’s ‘Ask Dana’ column!
TODAY’S QUESTION: “How do you throw a shower for someone with an alternative registry like Deposit a Gift? Guests want to bring a gift to be opened. Is this possible with a cash gift registry?”
The Basics:
We created Deposit a Gift with showers in mind. During checkout, gift-givers have the option to delay their gift for the date after the shower, so as not to spoil the surprise, and also once the purchase is complete, they can print a gift certificate to bring to the party. Here is an example gift certificate:
The gift certificate can easily be slipped in a card and brought to the party. However we realize that people often want to have something more elaborate to open, so below are some ideas to get your creative juices flowing. But before we get to that, how do you get the guests on board?
It’s All In The Positioning:
As with any new idea, people’s willingness to jump on board and give a gift from an alternative registry is all in how it’s presented to them. If you are throwing a shower for someone with a Deposit a Gift registry, we recommend you:
Like many young couples these days, Jack & Jill have most things anyways. A honeymoon in Fiji is how they’ll start out their life, In their beautiful journey, as husband and wife! If you want to give a present we’d like to suggest, that you make a contribution to their treasure chest. For without the help of this little pun, their honeymoon would just not be as much fun!
You can find their honeymoon registry at XXX.mydagsite.com. We hope you enjoy picking out something with a romantic sheen, then bring the gift certificate wrapped in something fun like lingerie or sunscreen!
Fun and Inexpensive Ways to “Wrap” a DAG Gift Certificate To Be Opened At The Party:
We offer a monthly prize for the most creative shower. So we hope you’ll have fun with the flexibility that a Deposit a Gift registry offers and win the guest of honor an extra gift at the same time. You can find the contest details here.
Happy gift-giving and enjoy the shower!
