Donations are the New Favors

Gifting a favor as a thank you to your guests is a timeless tradition. Often many bride and grooms gift sweets, frames, candles, or something that describes the bride and groom. Favors can be quite costly, especially if you have a larger guest count, and most of them go unused by guests. This is why we love when clients do donations. You can choose a charity of your choice and instead of spending the money on gifts that most people won't appreciate, you can donate those funds to a good cause.

Here are some great places to donate to:

UNICEF

I Do Foundation

Facing Our Risk

In Lieu of Favors

"In lieu of favors" is an idea that traditionally entails of the bride and groom making a charitable donation on behalf of their guests in place of choosing to present their guests with a physical favour on the day of the ceremony.

"In lieu of favors" is an ample idea leaving the bride and groom with the freedom to choose a charity which is close to their hearts and on some occasions the option to choose more than one meaningful charity to donate to.

Here are some simple guidelines which are notable to abide by when choosing to opt for in lieu of favors on your special day.

1) Make it a charity that is important to you and that you have some sort of connection to outside of the wedding

2) Sometimes it is best not to do cards for every table or every place setting or whatever. If you want to announce it, perhaps it is better to do so with some discretion and place a sign in an area of high traffic on the day like cake table or guest book table.

3) Don't do a favor on top of the donation that is themed to it, even if given out by the charity. However sometimes it is admirable to do both a small favour with a tag detailing about the donation made to the particular charity.

4)Do your best to ensure that it is not a controversial charity organization that some people at the wedding may be opposed to as this may create an unhealthy table time discussion at the reception!

All in all "in lieu of favors" is a pleasant way to donate to a charity which is close to your heart and leaves you with a securing sense of doing something charitable and worthwhile on your special day.

Donating your Wedding Dress

 

You had the perfect wedding and now what to do with your perfect wedding dress. You can try to sell it, but why not donate it for another bride to enjoy. You can to donate to local churches or specific organizations. Here are some organizations you can donate your wedding dress to for another bride to enjoy and help a good cause:

1. Brides Against Breast Cancer
2. The Bridal Garden
3. Brides Across America

 

 

    

Floral Donations

All of our brides spend so much on decor, especially the flowers. At the end of the night, we all try and figure out what are we going to do with the flowers. Sometimes the guests can take them home, but other times, the arrangements are so large or heavy that it's impossible. After your wedding, instead of throwing out the floral arrangements away, we have some options for you.

1. Reuse them-Donate them to the hospital, Maternity ward, Pediatric hospitals or nursing home. Donating to any of these will surly brighten someone’s day. There is non-profit organization in New York Flower Power Foundation who can help you in donation of your flowers to hospitals and nursing homes.

2. Flowers and centerpieces can be donated to retirement homes or assisted living center. Visit Nursing Home Info or Assisted Living Info for more information.

3. Recycle them- There are organizations that recycle these flowers. Organization like Floral Notes, will take all the petals from your bouquet or centerpiece and press them with recycled paper and make them into thank you notes which you can use to send thank you letter to your guests.

4. Ask your florist if they can delivery them to your home the next day or better yet, your Sunday Farewell Brunch

5. There are some organizations like Blooms From The Heart. Their volunteers come to collect the flower arrangements after an event at pre-determined schedule. Then these volunteers recycle the flower arrangements and break larger arrangement to smaller arrangements. These arrangements are then delivered to local hospitals, senior care facilities, homeless shelter etc.

Donation Favors

Providing favors to your guests is a must have at most weddings. Many couples have difficulty coming up with something that is both meaningful to them and pleasing for their guests. There are certainly many options to choose from but one which really stands out today is donation favors.

Donation favors have become widely popular in the past few years. The couple chooses their favorite charity or organization, and in honor of their guests, makes a donation. You can let your guests know of your donation on their behalf in several ways. You can prepare an elegant card giving the details of your donation and either place it in a picture frame next to your guest book so guests see it when they sign the book or at guests’ tables so they see the card when they sit for dinner. Some couples may simply choose to notify their guests by mentioning it in their ‘thank-you speech’ at the reception.

At a recent wedding, the couple chose to donate to “Doctors without Borders”, www.doctorswithoutborders.org , an organization that was very near and dear to them. “Doctors without Borders” is independently funded and is committed to bringing quality medical care to people in crises regardless of their race, religion, or political affiliation.



Other popular organizations you can choose to donate to include:

*American Cancer Society
*American Red Cross
*Your local SPCA
*National Arbor Day Foundation
*UNICEF
*Make a Wish Foundation

You can give to larger organizations or to some local charities in your community. Whichever you choose, it should have meaning to both you and your spouse.

What To Do With All Those Flowers

One of the most important aspects of your wedding day will be your decor. But after the big day is over and you have danced your last dance, what do you do with all the left over flowers?

Here are a few suggestions:

- Donate Your Flowers:
Check with your local nursing homes or assisted living centers to see where your centerpieces could be put to good use. The following websites will help you locate a nursing home or assisted living facility in your area.
www.nursinghomeinfo.com
www.assistedlivinginfo.com
www.alfa.org
www.assisted-living-directory.com

- Use Centerpieces as Gifts
One way to honor those who helped make your wedding a special day is to give them a bouquet, perhaps a centerpiece, as a gift. Everyone loves fresh flowers, and with the right care those flowers will stay beautiful for a week or two after your wedding. The people that helped make your special day such a success can relive the beauty of your wedding every time they look at your beautiful flowers.

- Preserve Your Bouquet
You can have your wedding bouquet freeze dried to preserve it after your wedding day. Be sure you have this professionally done, as it takes special equipment to remove all of the moisture from your bouquet and preserve its shape and beauty. Once it is preserved, you can have it mounted to display in your new home. As long as you do not touch the bouquet, it should stay beautiful for several years. Imagine being able to show your children your wedding bouquet one day!
http://www.hellerandreid.com/
http://www.frostedfloralmemories.com/

- Start a Compost Heap
Composting is probably not on your mind on your wedding day, but if you intend to have a garden in your new home, your wedding flowers are the perfect way to start your compost heap. You can designate someone to collect the flowers after the party and take them to your home where the compost area is set up.

Once the flowers are in the compost heap, they can remain untouched until you return from your honeymoon. Then, you can add your kitchen waste and gardening waste to the compost heap as you begin your new life together. Soon you will have healthy compost that you can add to the soil of your next garden. Whether you want to grow food or plant flowers, compost, created with your wedding flowers, will help the plants grow big and stay healthy