diff --git a/CHANGES.rst b/CHANGES.rst
index 4285ab7..4b96df0 100644
--- a/CHANGES.rst
+++ b/CHANGES.rst
@@ -60,6 +60,14 @@ Features
 - Add ``normalize`` option to ``Decimal``, stripping the rightmost
   trailing zeros.
 
+- ``colander.String`` schema type now supports an optional keyword argument
+  ``allow_empty`` which, when True, deserializes an empty string to an
+  empty string. When False (default), an empty string deserializes to
+  ``colander.null``. This allows for a node to be explicitly required, but
+  allow an empty ('') value to be provided.
+  https://github.com/Pylons/colander/issues/199
+
+
 Bug Fixes
 ---------
 
diff --git a/CONTRIBUTORS.txt b/CONTRIBUTORS.txt
index 81a76cb..83b087f 100644
--- a/CONTRIBUTORS.txt
+++ b/CONTRIBUTORS.txt
@@ -124,6 +124,7 @@ Contributors
 - Gouji Ochiai, 2014/08/21
 - Tim Tisdall, 2014/09/10
 - Romain Commandé, 2014/10/11
+- Lucas Taylor, 2014/11/26
 - Nando Florestan, 2014/11/27
 - Amos Latteier, 2014/11/30
 - Jimmy Thrasibule, 2014/12/11
diff --git a/colander/__init__.py b/colander/__init__.py
index d641df6..d9f0617 100644
--- a/colander/__init__.py
+++ b/colander/__init__.py
@@ -1159,7 +1159,7 @@ Seq = Sequence
 class String(SchemaType):
     """ A type representing a Unicode string.
 
-    This type constructor accepts one argument:
+    This type constructor accepts two arguments:
 
     ``encoding``
        Represents the encoding which should be applied to value
@@ -1212,11 +1212,17 @@ class String(SchemaType):
        encoding.  If this is not true, an :exc:`colander.Invalid`
        error will result.
 
+    ``allow_empty``
+       Boolean, if True allows deserialization of an empty string. If
+       False (default), empty strings will deserialize to
+       :attr:`colander.null`
+
     The subnodes of the :class:`colander.SchemaNode` that wraps
     this type are ignored.
     """
-    def __init__(self, encoding=None):
+    def __init__(self, encoding=None, allow_empty=False):
         self.encoding = encoding
+        self.allow_empty = allow_empty
 
     def serialize(self, node, appstruct):
         if appstruct is null:
@@ -1240,6 +1246,9 @@ class String(SchemaType):
                             mapping={'val':appstruct, 'err':e})
                           )
     def deserialize(self, node, cstruct):
+        if cstruct == '' and self.allow_empty:
+            return text_type('')
+
         if not cstruct:
             return null
 
diff --git a/colander/tests/test_colander.py b/colander/tests/test_colander.py
index e3e6410..f9e4c2e 100644
--- a/colander/tests/test_colander.py
+++ b/colander/tests/test_colander.py
@@ -1466,9 +1466,9 @@ class TestSequence(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertEqual(result, SequenceItems(['a']))
 
 class TestString(unittest.TestCase):
-    def _makeOne(self, encoding=None):
+    def _makeOne(self, encoding=None, allow_empty=False):
         from colander import String
-        return String(encoding)
+        return String(encoding, allow_empty)
 
     def test_alias(self):
         from colander import Str
@@ -1481,6 +1481,9 @@ class TestString(unittest.TestCase):
         typ = self._makeOne(None)
         result = typ.deserialize(node, '')
         self.assertEqual(result, null)
+        typ = self._makeOne(None, allow_empty=True)
+        result = typ.deserialize(node, '')
+        self.assertEqual(result, '')
 
     def test_deserialize_uncooperative(self):
         val = Uncooperative()