How the Bottom Drawer works
Today, the vast majority of couples getting married use a gift list service. As nearly all your wedding guests will want to buy you a gift to celebrate your wedding, using a gift list simply helps to make sure your guests get you something you want rather than take a chance on buying a gift you may hate!
Up until now, almost all gift lists have been held with the big department stores like John Lewis and Debenhams. Whilst they certainly have a large range of traditional household items, the question you need to ask yourself is do you really need an expensive dinner service that sits in a cupboard all year because you're too afraid to take it out in case it breaks!? And you're also limited to the items and prices that store charges, which can be quite a lot more than other stores charge that don't operate a gift list service (for a detailed comparison of gift list services click here).
So, wouldn't it be great if you could use your gift list to get something you really want? At The Bottom Drawer that's now possible. You can still use our gift list service for traditional household items if you wish, but why not use it instead for a garden makeover or new bathroom or for your dream honeymoon? Instead of a dinner service broken down into each plate and saucer, you could have a new patio broken down into each square metre of paving and each man hour to lay it. Or your honeymoon could be paid for by your guests contributing towards each nights accommodation, each 100 miles of flight to the resort and each romantic meal. The possibilities are endless!
The Bottom Drawer gives you total flexibility with your wedding gift list. We combine all the best functions of other gift list providers into one service (see our comparison page for more information). Even with all this flexibility, however, the type of gift list you have will typically fall into one of three types (or a mix and match of these).
1) Gifts which you buy direct from The Bottom Drawer
If you choose to have gifts such as these on your list then you buy them direct from The Bottom Drawer when your list closes. We have marked these items as BD Direct on our gift pages. There are no charges for using our gift list service if you buy just these type of gifts, either to you or your guests (see our charges page for detailed information).
2) Gifts which you buy from companies we have a relationship with
These type of gifts fall into two categories. The first is the large list of affiliated companies you can buy gifts from if you use our gift list service - these are marked as "Affiliated" on our Gift pages. Affiliated companies are ones where we provide a dedicated link to their online store, and include many household names. There is no administration fee to you for using our gift list service if you buy from these companies via the links on our site as we earn commission from the store instead. Please note however that your guests may incur a small credit card transaction charge of 2.75% if they use a credit card to contribute to your list (see our charges page for detailed information).
If you wish to have items on your gift list from these affiliated suppliers you simply browse through the online stores of these companies following the links on our site and manually add the details of any items you would like onto your list at The Bottom Drawer. When you are ready to buy from these stores (typically after your list closes but possibly before if you are booking a honeymoon through one of the travel company affiliates) just log-in to our site first, then follow the links on our gift pages (these links are unique to The Bottom Drawer and are what allow us to waive our admin fees if they are used). You buy using your own debit/credit card whilst we transfer the funds collected on your gift list to your own bank account.
The second category we call “Partner” companies. We have set-up separate arrangements with these companies so that they pay the normal administration fee on your behalf. Please note, however, that your guests may incur a small credit card transaction charge of 2.75% if they use a credit card to contribute to your list (see our charges page for detailed information).
3) Gifts where you simply use your list to collect contributions to spend wherever and on whatever you wish
If you aren’t able to buy the gifts you want direct from us, or from one of our affiliated or partner companies, then you can simply use your list to collect contributions which are then transferred out to your own bank account when your list closes. For these type of lists our standard administration fee is deducted from your funds when they are transferred to you. Your guests may also incur a small credit card transaction charge of 2.75% if they use a credit card to contribute to your list (see our charges page for detailed information).
With all three types of gift list, the gifts aren’t actually bought until you are ready and your list has closed - so you can change your mind right up until that point. Your guests are simply making contributions towards your chosen gifts, not actually buying them. All the contributions go into your gift list fund for you to spend as you wish when it closes.
In all cases you have complete flexibility in how you describe each gift. You can also set what price and how many are available. This means it is very easy to break down high value items into smaller amounts so that your guests can easily contribute towards something. So, if you wanted a High Definition TV costing £1,000 you could have that as one gift list item, but with a value of say £25 and 40 "units" available for your guests to buy. That way you don't need a very wealthy relative to get something more expensive! Likewise, a garden makeover could be broken down into each square metre of patio, each new plant and so on. It's just like breaking an expensive dinner service down into each plate, saucer, cup etc on a traditional gift list.
For more detailed information on the service we provide please see our list of Frequently Asked Questions.