Hello hello! 2020 was going to be, in the words of Jessica Day from New Girl, “the year of us.” Jake and I were planning to get married on May 29th with all of our loved ones there to share in our day of celebration (see this post about our last-minute elopement and this post about pandemic wedding planning). We were going to hike our hearts out for 11 days on our honeymoon on Maui + Kauai. Both of us were going to make major career shifts. We were going to move from Missouri to Colorado. It all was so wonderful! But, alas, 2020 had other plans for us all. Throughout the many challenges of planning a wedding during a pandemic, I have learned to be simply grateful for our families’ continued good health and the many seemingly hidden blessings we’ve experienced this year, like job stability and a comfortable home. Although absolutely nothing about “the year of us” went according to plan, the phrase ends up ringing true regardless (#quaranteam, am I right?!).

By the time we postponed our wedding, however, I had been in planning mode for almost eight months. This meant that all of the big decisions, as well as most of the details, had already been ironed out. One aspect of planning which I’ve been so pleased with was choosing Zola for our wedding website, registry, and some of our stationery. If you have planned, are planning, or will ever plan a wedding, you’ve likely heard of TheKnot; TheKnot is Zola’s better-known counterpart. While I obviously didn’t choose to work with TheKnot so I cannot speak to many aspects of their services, I did conduct a fair amount of research and create an account with TheKnot before ultimately choosing Zola. Ultimately, a few key features led me to Zola: aesthetics, registry design, customer service, and stationery. 

Aesthetics: I was immediately drawn to the aesthetics of Zola’s entire operation. As a minimalist, the simplicity of their gorgeous website design options was intriguing. They have more than 250 design options which can be filtered by color, theme, and other  Also, I am not a website developer- ha!- so I was also drawn to how easy it was to build the website. With just a few clicks Zola created a professional, beautiful website that clearly conveyed the important details guests would need for our big day. You can change the design anytime (I did this when we postponed from a spring to winter wedding). 

Random Side Note About Zola Wedding Websites: I didn’t create a specific category for this, but I want to shout of the privacy settings on Zola. Personally, I do not want to share details like the date, time, and location of our wedding with the whole world. Zola’s website passcode protection feature was the perfect solution, and we simply added the passcode to our invitations so guests could see all the details!

Registry Design: The Zola registry features are truly incredible. As a highly organized person with very specific taste, I wanted the flexibility to add gifts from anywhere, organize gifts by category + relevance, and create a one-stop-shop for guests to see everything on one webpage. Zola offers those features and more. You can easily add over 50,000 gifts from amazing brands like Crate and Barrel, OXO, Vietri, and Dyson. Further, Zola has amazing partnerships with many smaller brands, like Big Agnes and Boll and Branch. Another fantastic feature is that you can add literally anything from literally any place on the world wide web to your registry with their Google Chrome extension; this allowed me to support some of our favorite small + local businesses like DECO Raleigh and Jungalow. Zola allows you to wait to ship items until you’re ready, and to ship to multiple addresses. I love the latter in particular because right now Jake and I are not settled in our forever home (or even forever town), so we don’t need to schlep around our fine china from one apartment to the next. Thankfully, my parents are willing to leave those boxes in their basement until we’re ready for them! And last, but certainly not least- Zola offers a 20% discount for everything on your registry for up to six months after your wedding day. Anything you were keenly eyeing that wasn’t purchased by guests, you can buy for yourself as a post-wedding gift! 

Random Side Note About Registries: One thing I do hope is changing in this space is the idea that couples must register with certain stores and add those stores to their wedding website. This adds additional steps for guests and makes the registry appear clunky. This is part of what drew me to Zola; their extensive partnership list eliminates the need to create multiple individual registries, which keeps things more organized for both you and your guests.

Customer Service: I have been blown away with the quality of the customer service Zola provides. I have spoken on the phone and traded chats + emails with their staff since July 2019, and have left every conversation with the satisfaction that all of my questions were answered. Their team has answered everything from “why can’t I add this particular gift to the registry” to “when is your next discount on stationery” in a timely, kind, and professional manner over the past several months, and I love them for it.

Stationery: I love Zola’s paper store. They have hundreds of save-the-date, menu card, invitation, and thank-you card options which match their website designs. It was incredibly simple for me to choose coordinating thank-you cards and add a photo from our engagement shoot. They also offer free envelope addressing, which is pulled directly from your guest list. This is key to saving many, many unnecessary hours of hand cramps! Perhaps most impressive, however, is the affordability of their stationery. Zola often has ridiculous sales on invitations and holiday cards, so you can frequently get a great deal on high quality stationery.

In Summary: Why Zola Rocks: All in all, there are more similarities than differences between TheKnot and Zola. Both offer free website design tools, options to add gifts from other stores on the registry, and free shipping + returns. Both have awesome (and incredibly important) tools like envelope addressing for stationery (with Zola, it’s free). The subtle details of the two online wedding suites, however, are what separates Zola from TheKnot in my view. Zola partners with more small businesses rather than big box stores, meaning that you can find more specific gifts on their registry builder without having to add gifts from other stores. The 20% post-wedding discount on everything with Zola is another huge draw. Zola’s customer service is truly top-notch. And their stationery is high quality yet at a great price. I have nothing but great things to say about Zola! They have been a source of calm + happiness throughout the entire wedding planning process, and I would recommend Zola to anyone!