Charity weddings.

06 February 2006

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Donations to charities more than doubled in 2005, with Huricane Katrina, and the Tsunami, people of many countried donated more than their governments.

As many couples planning a wedding, nowadays have all the towels and toasters they need, more and more socially aware brides to be are incorporating charity into their wedding. Wether it's organising for the centrepieces to be sent to a hospital or nursing home, to cheer up residents, or sending leftove foods to a soup kitchen.

However, by far the most popular way of donating to charity as a way of celebrating a wedding is through the gift registry. According to the I Do Foundation, a Washington, D.C., non-profit organization that matches couples with charity options, 10 percent of today's engaged couples will include some form of philanthropy in their wedding.

Online gift registry sites are springing up all over the web. Couples can ask guests to donate direct to the charity in their name, by credit card, or, through links to their chosen gifts. The store will then donate a percentage of the purchase price to the chosen charity. As mich as $600'000 was raised in the USA, last year, through both types of registry.

One of the reasons for the increase in the popularity of charitable wedding gifts is that the age of the average bride is now 27, who is expected to marry a groom aged 29. They are likely to have set up home together and have everything they need.

Some couples are donating money to charity on behalf of their guests. the little bags of sugared almonds may be deep and meaningful, but they have proved no to be too popular with guests, so many couples simply place a card in it's place, to inform the guests that a charitable donation has been made in their name.

Yet more brides choose to donate their most prized and treasured posession. Brides Against Cancer is an organisation that collects second hand wedding gowns to sell on. The proceeds of each sale goes towards funding the last wishes of those with a terminal cancer.

With requests for charity donations now the norm at funerals and christenings, guests shouldn't be surprised to find the same request at a wedding, but it's still a refreshing and unusual way to ask people to help you celebrate your nuptuals.

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