Zankyou ~ Online Wedding List ~ New {www} Sponsor

I love the concept of {www}’s newest sponsor, Zankyou is a brilliant resource for the modern couple. If you feel uneasy about asking for money as a gift, and have been living together for long enough to have all the items you need…. or you simply like different things from different shops… this is for you… ultimate flexibility and options 🙂

I shall hand you over to the lovely Helen from Zankyou UK….

{w} Hi, could you firstly tell {www} readers a little bit about you?

We are Zankyou, an online wedding gift list and wedding website service. We operate throughout Europe and America and in 6 different languages and are perfect for anyone who’s looking for a nice way to ask for money as a wedding gift. It’s also a great way to get a range of unique and special things they really want from various places together on the one list, without being limited to a particular store.

Zankyou’s list lets you list a painting from a small gallery, a special piece from an antique store and a honeymoon from your favourite travel agent , for example, all on the one list. You can’t do that with any ordinary wedding list.

{w} How does it work?

The couple creates their online wedding list with any gifts they like and then Zankyou allows their guests to contribute to the gifts. The money is deposited in the couple’s Zankyou account and then we send them the money to their regular bank account. Our rates are low and the service is fast and efficient. Perfect!

We are also Helen and Jacqui, two born communicators who run Zankyou’s UK operations. We have a background in editorial and marketing and work together to ensure that Zankyou’s service helps couples plan their day with ease.

{w} What do you love/dislike about your job?

We love being part of a couple’s dreams and we love making their lives easier. It’s so great when you see a couple and their guests really getting the most out of their wedding website with comments and photos from the engagement party and hen night  uploaded and shared and exchanges between all the guests. It feels nice to have in some way facilitated that fun and excitement about the wedding.

In terms of dislikes, being soooo busy that sometimes we never lift our heads from the computer and just have a coffee. But hey, we can go without coffee for our Zankyou couples!

{w} How did you get into business and into the wedding industry?

Zankyou was founded in 2008 by two guys, Guillermo and Javier, who saw the need for this kind of service when they were planning their own weddings. They had lived with their partners for a while and had everything they needed. They were also people who had travelled a lot and so had many guests coming from abroad. As a result, they decided to create an international, multilingual way of getting contributions to the gifts they really wanted.

Helen joined the team soon afterwards and has been nurturing Zankyou UK since then. Now, Jacqui has recently joined the team so we’re hoping Zankyou UK will be bigger than ever in the coming months and into 2012.

{w} What do you aim to achieve for your clients?

We aim to make life easier for them, to tick one more thing off their long list of things to do when planning a wedding and to make communicating and sharing with their guests easy and fun. We are constantly listening to our clients in order to improve the site and create useful tools that will help couples plan their weddings online. And that’s not just through the wedding list service, but also the wedding website, where they can upload lots of useful information for their guests about their weddings.

{w} What style is your site?

That’s the best thing about Zankyou – it’s not about our style, it’s about the couple’s. The webpage and wedding list are totally customisable, so you can really create something that will go with your wedding look, your character and what you want from life.

{w} Could you tell us some information about your packages/prices?

Zankyou has two sets of rates that users should be aware of. We charge an admin fee of 2.85% on each contribution made to the wedding list. This charge can be paid for by the couple or passed on to the guest. Then, when the money’s in your Zankyou account, you can request a transfer to your bank account. The first transfer is free and any other transfers are charged at GBP 4.75.

In short, we have some of the lowest rates on the UK market and, in actual fact, if you pass on the charge to your guests and keep to the one-free-transfer allowance, you won’t actually have to pay anything for your website with Zankyou.

Zankyou also offers a guarantee that if you find better rates, we’ll match them.

{w} Do you have any tips for couples in selecting their wedding gifts?

Zankyou just underlines further how flexible weddings can be nowadays. If you want to collect money for your honeymoon, you can. If you want to collect money to buy furniture in different shops, you can. In other words, your wedding is what you make of it and Zankyou helps you to do that.

{w} How can we get in touch with you?

You can visit www.zankyou.com or write to us at jacqui_loadman@zankyou.com or helen_jones@zankyou.com

Thanks so much Helen! It’s been great to learn a little more about Zankyou, what a brilliant rescource for couples to create the wedding list to suit them 🙂 Be sure to visit the site and have a browse around 🙂 xoxo