When we first started this wedding planning website, Joy was one of the first tech companies in the wedding space that we bonded with. Very few companies were creating wedding tools that felt modern yet approachable, and Joy was a newcomer that was already leading the pack. Fast forward almost a decade later, and Joy is still innovating. Not only do they still offer one of the best wedding website creators, but the Joy registry has quickly become a favorite as well. They bill themselves as the “everything” wedding registry, and after testing it out recently we have to say we agree.
On top of the over 20,000 gifts Joy offers across every category you can think of, their universal registry feature is hands-down the best in the space. Add on their zero-free cash fund options, price matching, AI-driven thank-you notes, ship-when-you-want-it options along with a 20% registry completion discount (which is the best you’ll find for registry, most are 15%!), and their registry firmly tops our list.
While we whole-heartedly loved our registry experience, there are pros and cons to every platform, so we wanted to walk you through the process, what we loved about it and what could have been different, as well as all the perks you should know about in order to decide if it’s the best option for you. So if you’re considering starting a Joy wedding registry, keep reading!
Step 1: Create a Joy Registry
When you first land on WithJoy.com (or their app), you immediately see that you can do way more than just create a wedding registry. First, they have one of the best wedding website creators out there (they currently rank #1 on our list). So if you haven’t started your wedding website, they are a great choice. Especially since you can now integrate with their registry.
If you just want to start a wedding registry, there are a lot of reasons why you would want to choose Joy. First, they offer a true universal registry. Which means you can add actual products from Joy, or use their universal search or “quick add” browser button to ensure every item you may want on your registry is added. But before you do that, you need to first sign up for an account which we did.
To start this process for the review, I then added in a few details about our “wedding.” (Spoiler Alert: I’m already married.). I was then asked what we wanted to use Joy for (Wedding Website, Registry, Invitations & Save the Dates, and Guest List & RSVP). Our advice? Go ahead and select all that you need! But for this article, we’ll focus on the registry.
Pros: The setup process is super easy, and it’s a one-stop shop. You can sign up for basically everything wedding-related that you’ll need.
Cons: I forgot my login and had to go to a slightly-different looking screen so wasn’t sure where I was in the process, but once I entered in the new info I just went back to the original login page and I got right in.
Step 2: Personalize Your Registry
You start this process by letting Joy personalize your shopping experience based on your interests. Once you click “Sounds Good” you can choose to turn on recommendations from their catalogue of over 20,000 wedding gifts, or you can select that you’re not interested in physical gifts (which means you’d rather set up a cash gift fund instead). For this step we’re going to turn on recommendations so we can see what they have.
On the next page you can decide if you also want recommendations for zero-fee cash funds, or you can let them know you’re not interested in cash funds. We let them know we are interested in both cash funds and experiences, as well as a universal registry (which is the next prompt). I was then taken to a page of various interest categories, such as “Date Night,” “Decorating Our Place” and “Baking.” After choosing to ‘Start,’ I am then asked if I want to register now and “Save Later” with 20% off all remaining registry items. I’m not sure why I wouldn’t choose this, so of course I select “Love It.”
Based on those selections, they show me various items from those categories. It’s not totally obvious at first what to do on this page, but it becomes clear once I hover over each item, where an “Add to Registry” buttons pops up along with quantity and color choices. I select a few then press “All Done.” If you don’t love any of the choices on the page, you can also just X out of the page on the top right. After this page, you’re taken to your registry dashboard.
Pros: Joy walks you through the different registry options, which is super helpful.
Cons: I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted at that moment, so would have liked an option to just go straight to my dashboard.
Step 3: Take a Look Around and Start Filling Out Your Registry
Once I’m in the dashboard, it’s easy for me to see exactly what to do next. In the dashboard navigation bar, I can view and select gifts a few different ways. My choices are:
- Brands
- Collections
- Kitchen
- Tabletop
- Bed & Bath
- Home
- Travel & Leisure
- Cash Funds
- Experiences
I can also change my registry to public or private (or make it password protected), preview my registry, invite a collaborator, add my shipping address, set currency, edit a welcome note, change our event details, and more.
Further down the page, I choose to jumpstart my Joy registry and try their checklist feature. When you select that, a checklist pops up on the right of your screen, with dropdown options for each category, such as :
Kitchen Appliances
- Air Fryers
- Blenders
- Food Processors
- Stand Mixers
- Slow Cookers
- Toasters & Ovens
- Waffle Makers
Once you click into a category you are taken to that category’s page, and you can choose to add gifts to your registry from there (such as Air Fryers). When I did this it recognized that I hadn’t added my shipping address so it’s prompts me to do that. It also asks if I want to make this gift “Our Most Wanted.”
As soon as a gift is added from a category, it will update on your checklist.
Next, I decided I want to search by category, so I go to the nav bar and select Bed & Bath. In each category I found a really, really great selection of Joy-curated gifts. Once I found something I liked I tended to just use the quick “Add to Registry” button once I selected the quantity and color. However, whenever I wanted more info I just clicked into the product itself where a product detail page comes up.
Step 4: Get Inspiration from the Pros
One feature that I really like on the Joy registry are their super helpful curated collections, such as Best Sellers and gifts for the Couples Who Already Have it All.
My favorite are these great videos from pros such as Pamela Salzman and Chef Charlie Webb, who walks you through what his kitchen essentials are (such as an Immersion Circulator and Indoor Grill).
Pros: You can find great product tips and advice from the pros to make your registry really useful (and unique!)
Cons: I want 100 more videos! LOL. I’m really excited for them to release more.
Step 5: Add Gifts from Any Store
In addition to adding gifts from the Joy registry, you can go to most any other store and add gifts from there, too. There’s a prompt in your dashboard to add the “Quick Add” button to your browser bar with instructions. Once I added it to my toolbar, I just navigated to a site I love (like Etsy) and once I found a product I wanted to add to our registry I just clicked the “Add to Joy” registry and a box popped up. It was super easy.
Pros: This universal registry actually works, unlike other clunky ones
Cons: While you’ll get a 20% discount on any post-wedding, unpurchased gifts from the Joy collection, you won’t get to take advantage of a completion discount from a store like, say, Pottery Barn if you only add individual items via the Universal Registry button vs. setting up a separate Pottery Barn registry. However, you can always set up multiple registries from different stores and connect them to your Joy registry instead. Editor’s note: The completion discount at these stores isn’t always that great anyways (IE: it’s only 10% at PB), so be sure to see if it’s actually worth the pain of setting up separate registries!
Step 6: Add Cash Funds and/or Experiences
Looking to add more than just physical gifts? You can easily create or choose from a list of Cash Funds (such as for your Honeymoon, Road Trip, etc.) Gift Cards from companies like The Container Store and Uber, or Charities you would like guests to donate to (like Make-a-Wish). What’s really amazing is that even with cash gifts, Joy has integrated with Venmo, PayPal, and Cash App so that guests can easily send you cash gifts without being charged a credit card processing fee or any other fee. (There is a standard processing fee of 2.5% if they use a credit card). There’s also a way for you to indicate you are OK with guests giving you a cash or check in person as well.
Pros: Setting up cash and experience gifts as well as charitable donations is super easy.
Cons: None, really!
Step 7: Get Help Writing Thank You Notes as the Gifts Come In
Etiquette says you should write wedding thank-you notes for all gifts received within three months of receiving your gift, but we think the sooner the better! Joy makes it easy to send digital thank-you’s for every gift purchased. Just go to the tracking tab and you’ll see the option to “Write a Thank-You” next to each purchased gift. Joy technology utilizes AI to create first drafts for your thank-you’s using information from your registry gift tracker.
Pros: Easily keep track and write thank-you’s for each gift.
Cons: This only sends a digital version, so I would personally recommend sending a physical thank-you note as well. I would tweak the digital thank-you to say you while you are going to be mailing them a thank-you note, you just wanted to first let them you know got their incredibly generous gift!
Take Advantage of Joy Registry Perks
Joy offers a ton of registry perks which really makes it worth setting up a registry with them. A few of them include:
- Free online returns of Joy gifts
- Choose to have the gifts shipped when you want (IE: After the honeymoon)
- Get free expert advice on what to register for from the pros
- 20% off eligible gifts remaining on your registry for up to 6 months after your wedding
- Gift Tracking: See which gifts have been purchased, view your cash funds progress, and send free online thank you notes
- Price Matching: If you find a better price on eligible products just send them a chat and they’ll see if they can match it.
- Group Gifting: Let multiple family and friends contribute to gifts over $350
- Data protection: You can choose to keep your registry public, private, or password protected. Joy says they will not sell your info either way.
- Match your Joy registry to your Joy wedding website
- Baby Registry: They also have a baby registry if the day comes when you need it!
Phew. That was a long list. Overall, we thought the process of setting up a Joy wedding registry was fairly easy, and would highly recommend the platform. Ready to begin your Joy wedding registry? Start here!
