Opening the mailbox sometimes can be overwhelming as a wedding professional. We get ads for every new wedding product imaginable from really gorgeous new dresses to dreadful things like bridal toilet decor. (We passed on that, creative though it was).
New brides-to-be also are surprised to find themselves drowning in mail, particularly after creating bridal registries. Everywhere you go, someone (legitimately) needs your name and address, and suddenly you’re getting catalogs from every store under the sun. Some of them are cool! Before you go to the bridal salon, it’s good to find a few foundation garments that work for you to bring along, so that Bare Necessities catalog that showed up could be handy. Williams-Sonoma, Macy’s, Crate and Barrel, if you haven’t firmed up all your registries, maybe these catalogs will help you figure out a few more things you want to add. But then you start seeing CB2, Pottery Barn, and Restoration Hardware, and then Design Within Reach, the Home Decorator’s collection…and it eventually devolves into Country Curtains. Way too much mail order decor. You don’t need all of that, and neither does the environment. But they keep coming. And as the companies sell their lists, you get more and more.
There is a remedy: a brilliant non-profit called Catalog Choice . They keep your in-box manageable and give the forests a fighting chance. They work with all sorts of junk mail – more than the name implies. You can keep the stores you want, and stop the ones you don’t. All from one easy to use dashboard. For free!
After all, your mailbox needs room for all those phonebook sized bridal mags. Plus, one of your great grand-kids might want an outdoor wedding of their own some day. Let’s leave them some trees, shall we?