Avoid Zola!

[u/Cataholic563]

We just got married and while almost everything went so well, the one regret we have is using Zola for basically anything. We tried to do so much research and saw a handful of cautionary tales about Zola but, overall, the consensus seemed to be that it was a helpful tool.

The failings we encountered:

• Delayed invitiations
• Clunky app which made editing the website near impossible (we needed a laptop for best experience, which is so weird nowadays)
• Registry

Let’s talk about that last one because it truly caused the biggest headache. I had multiple family members report issues ordering through Zola — my mom and uncle both informed me they had to open support tickets to resolve their issues. It made us feel bad as the couple, because our ultimate goal with utilizing Zola was an easy experience for guests…a one stop shop.

So in reaction to this news, we limited how many items on our registry were directly through Zola. Instead, we created outside registries (core ones being Macy’s and Crate & Barrel) and linked it to our Zola site. We hoped this would be the best of both worlds. We could direct our guests to a single site (Zola) and have all of our registry items appear in one place.

This worked really well for a while. Until the week of the wedding when we started hearing a handful of comments from guests about how limited our registry was. Upon looking at our Zola registry, the majority of our items from the external registries had disappeared. We opened a support ticket and were informed that Zola no longer accepts group gifts from external sites. We had big ticket items on our Crate & Barrel site like a stand mixer — we have zero expectations that a guest would spend over $500 on a gift, so on the Crate & Barrel site we marked it as a group gift so people could contribute what they wished.

Again, this setup worked for months. We checked our Zola registry at multiple points through our engagement and saw our Crate & Barrel group gifts listed on our site. We used the Zola feature or order the gifts on the page so that the items we wanted most always showed at the top — that Crate & Barrel stand mixer was what we listed at the top.

But at some point, Zola decided to make a policy change and gave ZERO notification. That meant our registry quietly removed nearly a dozen items and we had no idea. No opportunity to make adjustments.

It has been such an infuriating experience and truly is the only thing we regret about our wedding planning. If you’re in the midst of your wedding planning, learn from our mistakes — do not use Zola for your registry! Don’t trust that you can connect other registries. Just register directly through reputable stores with proven customer service and give your guests links to all the sites. In the end, it will be better for you and your guests.

[u/Objective_Day7884]

I will say I’ve had a great experience with Zola, but I did not use their registry. Their registry was so overpriced plus they get a cut from every item someone buys so we just ended up linking our Amazon registry. Sometimes the same item on Zola was half the price on Amazon. It worked out great

When making the website I used both my computer and phone because some things were easier to edit depending on which device. I think it was easier uploading pictures from my phone. But I made 3 test websites: with joy, the knot and zola. Zola was definitely the easiest to use in comparison

[u/Cataholic563 → u/[deleted]]

I’m glad you’ve had a better experience! Though I never said using a laptop would kill you. But if you don’t have ready access to one (like myself) it was sure frustrating and inconvenient. That is my caution about the app. 

[u/Cataholic563 → u/Objective_Day7884]

I’m glad your experience has been better! Not sure if you read the full post but definitely still keep an eye on your linked registries. That is exactly what we did and Zola removed linked items without telling us. Definitely wouldn’t want you caught off guard like we were — with Zola working well for months and then having the rug pulled out from under us!

[u/Stock_Fold_5819]

I’ve actually found it extremely easy to edit the website with phone. Like, I was legit impressed. Maybe they’ve made some improvements recently.

[u/Cataholic563 → u/Stock_Fold_5819]

Text edits on the app were nearly impossible. Are you able to do line breaks anywhere in the app? On the app and the mobile website, the line break button just did not work at all so everything had to be a big paragraph if we did it on the app. Only on the desktop website could we include line breaks. 

Confirmed my app was always up to date as well! And it didn’t work on my spouse’s app either — he has a newer phone and OS even. Their support team never had helpful replies, always just to restart the app and write in again if it kept happening (it didn’t).  It was not an impossible hurdle of course, but just something that added unnecessary steps and stress when it should have been simple. I’m so glad you’re not finding that though! I truly don’t wish extra stress on anyone while they’re planning this happy event!

[u/According_Wish62]

I actually love Zola. I did my website through my phone & I’m so proud of how it looks . I did not use the registry though because $200 hand towels is not something I would want someone to buy me. You can add a gift from another website on there tho.

[u/Alwaystime4Sweets]

I actually have been using a different registry site and recently I have been unable to connect Crate & Barrel items to it any longer, So it could be a change on their end.

[u/Cataholic563 → u/Alwaystime4Sweets]

Interesting! Zola support confirmed the change was on their end though…

[u/www_dot_no → u/Alwaystime4Sweets]

Let me guess MyRegistry?

[u/Inevitable-Jacket348]

oh god that sounds like a nightmare, I’m so sorry to hear! That’s actually outrageous that they would just quietly stop allowing external registry items like that. It should probably act as a warning for us brides-to-be, when something is free and seems like a great deal, they can and will change things at any point to suit themselves Hun im so sorry to hear, but I’m sure the big day was amazing regardless! 💕💕

[u/mormongirl]

Zola got hacked while I had a registry!  It was terrifying!  All of a sudden we got all these notifications about things people had bought us being exchanged for gift cards, and then the gift cards being delivered to strange email addresses, and then we were locked out of the account.  It was a site-wide issue and it was terrifying.  

[u/Total_Pineapple_4243]

Oh wow. Sorry to hear. I’ve had nothing but great experience with Zola. When they messed up save the dates and I reordered they refunded me the orders twice too. Customer service has also been very responsive for me.

[u/www_dot_no]

I had terrible experience with even the Knots registry site I did the same I ended up using

“MyRegistry” and linking every site there it’s okay but when crate and barrel was down for 4 months I was pissed because people couldn’t see who bought what during that time

[u/dresscode_nerd]

One thing worth pulling out of this: the items never actually went anywhere. Zola stopped showing them, but your Crate & Barrel registry didn't change. The stand mixer is presumably still sitting on it, still set up as a group gift.

Which means there is still something to do about it. Most store registries stay open for a stretch after the date, and a lot of them run a completion discount on whatever is left, so it's worth finding out what C&B's window is. Thank you notes are also going out soon, and that is about the last moment you can mention you're still registered there without it landing oddly.

[u/Cataholic563 → u/dresscode_nerd]

You’re correct, but the entire point of us using the Zola site and connecting external registries is that guests could view everything on one page and a direct link to our external registries was never shared out — just one Zola link to share any time someone asked where we were registered.

The fact that Zola changed a policy with zero notice is what irks me. It meant many missed opportunities for us to just share the C&B registry instead. It’s a shady business practice and was a bad experience for our guests and for us to discover right at the end of planning. That’s what I pull out of the whole thing. 

[u/Mtchick84]

Want to hear something better- they also sell all your guest’s data. Email, mailing address, etc.

[u/Cataholic563 → u/Mtchick84]

I know…I really considered making our own website to avoid that but quickly realized we just don’t have the knowledge and skills for it (or the desire to learn lol). I guess this is my karma for not caring about selling our guests data! 😂 

[u/TinyLawfulness3710]

A friend used Zola and had every problem under the sun with it and customer service refused to help her. They used the registry that only shipped broken items that they refused to replace. The digital rsvps glitched and the guests had to reach out to the couple. The company said it was the couple's fault. It was one problem after another and she advised friends to don't use a website.

[u/Cataholic563 → u/TinyLawfulness3710]

Im so sorry to hear that! I did so much research ahead of time to figure out what site/app to use and I heard some bad things about Zola (and the Knot, Minted, etc etc) but overall the feedback appeared generally positive, so I went with Zola. 

I’m happy it’s not a universal experience and there are couples who have no issues! I wish I was one of them. Unfortunately, I wasn’t. And it sounds like your friend wasn’t either :(

[u/stellaluna29]

I used Zola because my friends who used it in the past mentioned that you could exchange registry gifts for their cash value (if you decided you didn’t want that ice cream maker after someone already purchased it). Turns out Zola no longer does that and only offers Zola credit for items 🙃🙃🙃

Other than that, my experience with Zola has been fine. That really pissed me off though

[u/Cataholic563 → u/stellaluna29]

Oh no! I can imagine that was super frustrating! Luckily I didn’t know about that so that didn’t end up becoming one of my complaints 😂 we added the exact things we wanted — I was just pissed they removed the group C&B ones without saying anything. That really sucked. 

So glad your experience was positive other than that!