Do Good While Getting Married

May 29th, 2010

Planning a wedding can feel like a charmed time in your life. While you are in the midst of all that bridal bliss, why not find a way to share your good fortune with others? From charitable donations to environmental good deeds to helping animals, there are numerous ways to do good while getting married. Take a look at these suggestions to get ideas that you can use to “pay it forward” as part of your own wedding.

Start with supporting local vendors in your community whenever possible. Get your bridesmaid gifts from the local boutique which handcrafts jewelry right in their back room. Hire an artist to handmake letterpress wedding invitations for you. Order a wonderful blackberry jam from someone at your local farmer’s market. When you do good in this way, it is a win-win situation for your wedding and your community.

Charitable donations are becoming increasingly popular for wedding gifts and favors. Perhaps you already have a house full of stuff; why not request that in lieu of gifts a donation be made in your name at your favorite charity? These gifts can also come from the bride and groom. In lieu of traditional favors, make a donation to a charity. Put out an elegant card at each place setting informing guests that a donation has been made in their name. Just be sure to select a charity which is going to be acceptable to everyone (animals are good, political causes are not).

After the wedding, there will be even more opportunities to do good works. You can donate your wedding gown to Making Memories, a foundation which raises funds for victims of breast cancer. Make arrangements to have surplus food donated to a food shelter at the end of the reception. You can even have your wedding centerpieces delivered to a nursing home to brighten the day of the residents. With so many easy and meaningful ways to make your wedding a time to share your good fortune, it will be simple to find a couple of things that you can do to pay it forward.

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What to Do with Your Centerpieces After the Reception

June 12th, 2009

You spend a lot of time and money planning the perfect centerpieces for your wedding. Your guests will enjoy them for the duration of the event, but then what? These are some great ideas on things that you can do with your centerpieces after the reception.

One of the nicest things that you can do is to donate your flowers to a place where they can really brighten someone’s day. These places include hospitals, nursing homes, and senior centers. Many couples especially like to take their centerpieces to places that have special meaning to their family, such as a retirement home where a grandparent lives or a hospital that once helped an ill family member. Elderly patients in nursing homes will enjoy hearing about a wedding almost as much as the cheerful flowers themselves; it would be very special if you included a few snapshots of the bride in her pretty gown and bridal jewelry with a brief note about the wedding.

Potted plants are affordable and beautiful centerpieces. They can also be wonderful because they will live on well after your wedding. The best idea is to choose a plant that will thrive when planted in your region. What many couples will do is to “raffle” off the centerpieces towards the end of the reception. Place a number on the bottom of the basket and have a corresponding number on the bottom of one of the coffee cups at the place settings on the table. The bandleader makes an announcement for each guest to turn over their cup, and whoever has the matching number gets to take home the centerpiece on their table.

Silk flowers are something that some brides choose for their wedding decorations instead of live plants. These days other non-floral items are also very popular for centerpieces, such as river rocks, painted tree branches, and so on. If you will be using any of these non-perishable elements for your wedding, rather than discarding them or letting them pile up in your garage after the wedding, sell them off on ebay or Craig’s list. It is a great way to recycle and to recover some of your wedding costs while also helping the next bride to plan her own beautiful wedding.

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Sharing Your Wedding Joy

June 17th, 2008

A wedding is a time of great joy, and often of great consumption as well. Sometimes couples who go all out planning their dream wedding feel a little bit guilty about having an extravagant affair when there are so many people out there in need. Certainly one way to mitigate the guilt is simply to scale down the wedding (kind of like switching from an S.U.V. to a hybrid). There are also ways in which you can use your wedding to benefit worthy charities.

Things you can do include:

  • Making a donation to a charity in lieu of favors (be sure to pick an organization that your guests would feel comfortable supporting).
  • Donating the left over food to a soup kitchen (make advance arrangement, as there are usually procedures that must be followed).
  • Donate you wedding gown to a charity that sells used gowns as a fundraiser. But do not feel guilty if your gown is too sentimental to part with.
  • Bridesmaid dresses can be donated to charities that give formalwear to underprivileged girls so that they can feel beautiful at their prom.
  • Don’t forget to recycle unused invitations, honeymoon brochures, etc.

The most important thing that remains after a wedding is the marriage itself. That, some photographs, and your memories are all that you really need. Oh, and your groom, of course! It is a beautiful thing to start your life together by using your wedding day to bring happiness to others.

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