Your wedding is a chance to celebrate your union with your friends and family, but it’s also an opportunity to share the things that are important to you. It is a great opportunity to showcase a charity that you care about – and it’s possible to do it without making it feel like a fundraising event. In this blog post, we explain how you can kick off married life while also making a difference to others.

Set The Scene
There are various ideas below but whatever you choose, make sure you set the scene and communicate what you are doing with your guests. As part of the speeches, get someone to explain what is happening, the charity you have decided to support and why. This will make a big difference to getting your guests on board and primed ready to donate.

Donations instead of Favours
The first big win comes in with favours. Traditionally, wedding favours are supposed to express thanks to your guests for attending your big day but like a lot of traditions, this is one that many couples now wish they could drop. The reality is, that guests often forget to take the favours with them, so it ends up being a waste of money and will no doubt have taken you a lot of time & stress to organise.

Why not give a donation instead of a favour so that the money you would have spent, goes to a worthy cause?

Leave a card printed on the table to advise what you have done – guests love reading these and feel good to think that you have done this on their behalf. And let’s be honest, you are already providing them with so much on the day they don’t really need a favour too but a charity will be so grateful to receive your donation.

Silent Auction
Everyone needs some entertainment on their wedding day, so how about holding a silent auction? If you’ve got some wedding guests who would give up their time, they could pull together a list of desirable prizes. It could be anything from getting the best man to do a funny dance, to a voucher for someone’s business. How does it work? Bids are placed on items during a set timeframe – once that time is up, the highest-listed bidder for each item wins.

Charity Photo Booth
If you’re planning to include a photo booth as part of the entertainment, this is an easy way to give your guests a chance to donate. It doesn’t have to be compulsory but you could suggest they can make a small donation to use the photo booth – you’ll probably find that most people will be happy to donate for a good cause.

Charity Drink
Finally, why not pick a special drink where part of the payment goes to charity. If it is a free bar then charge a fee when the special drink is ordered and for a pay bar, just ask them to donate a nominal amount when the drink is ordered. Maybe it will be your favourite cocktail or maybe a shot – you know your guests, so choose a drink that you think will be appealing. This is one of the easiest and most popular ways to get your guests to donate while enjoying themselves.

Use your Day for Good
Your wedding day should be about you, but you also have the chance to make a difference – even with small actions. Your chosen cause will be grateful for any size donation – 58% of charities say that generating income is one of their top challenges. So why not make your celebration a little different and get creative about how you could incorporate supporting a charity on your special day.

Photographer; Gemma Randall Photography