Beyond Toasters and Placemats
My husband’s cousin is getting married next week. She and her fiance are both in their 30s, highly educated, with professional careers and a well-stocked home. They have a very short (one page) wedding registry at a big-box store, for just a few household items. But they also registered at Heifer International. I love this idea. Donating money to a couple’s favorite charity is a fantastic gift, and I love that they are asking people to do that instead of buying them more stuff.
Making a donation in honor of someone is a great idea – just make sure that you pick a charity they support, rather than one of your own favorites. In this case, they made it easy for us, by including it on their wedding registry – no need to guess. Another bonus is that they live out of state, so if we had bought them a traditional gift, we’d have had to pay to ship it. Now we can spend the money we would have used on shipping to make a larger donation.
If you’re getting married and already have dishes and a blender, think about asking your guests to donate to a cause you believe in – they’ll enjoy the change of pace, and you’ll feel great about raising money and awareness for a group you support. And you won’t have to find room in your house for a wagon-load of stuff.
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This is a fantastic idea. My husband and I are planning on putting “donations to Heifer International” (our favorite charity) on our Christmas list year. Or just gifts for the baby (she needs more of the next size clothes). We have a very small house with too much stuff already, so we would rather support a charity that needs it rather than try to find room for more stuff we don’t need!
A friend of mine just got married and had Heifer International on her registry as well as another charity. As it turns out, most people bought them things, but a group of us did give a donation to HI (or as we say, we bought them a goat). When they were opening presents the next day and opened the card with the donation info in it, everyone was impressed and surprised – they hadn’t even seriously thought of donating, but thought it was a very cool thing.
Wonderful idea. If I ever get married again, this is absolutely the way to go.
[...] keeping with the wedding theme, Frugal Babe suggests that couples request donations to their favorite charity instead of gifts for the wedding. I love this idea, especially since I was very uncomfortable with the idea of gift registration for [...]