Sweet Charity Guest Donation Tokens

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"Sweet Charity" Guest Donation Tokens

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Videographer Andrew Hsu recently attended a wedding where he witnessed this new twist on wedding gift donations.

There was a time when weddings gifts were all about the bride and groom receiving them. Now days it seems almost as common for the bride and groom to decline receiving them and instead opt to ask for donations to a charity of their choice in lieu of personal gifts. Amy and Kendall took this idea one step further and donated their own money... With the help of their wedding guests!

Make a Wish Foundation Donations

With the help of their wedding designer/coordinator, Crystal Lequang, Amy and Kendall set out 3 glass receptacles and a container of attractively colored cardboard tokens. The sign instructed guests to place a token, each worth $1, into the container of their choice and the happy couple would make a donation to the charity chosen by each guest:

1) American Cancer Society - Both the bride and groom have had people they love suffer through and triumph over cancer. Because of this they felt strongly about including the ACS.

2) Make a Wish Foundation - Probably one of the best known charities in the country, Make a Wish grants the wishes of children suffering from life threatening conditions.

3) Acterra - "A Palo Alto based company that creates local solutions for a healthy planet."

This is such a thoughtful idea!

(ETA) A bride on Wedding Bee describes her inspiration for the "Sweet Charity" paper token idea and because so many other brides to be wanted to include the tokens at their wedding she created a tutorial showing how to make the tokens. CLICK HERE to view how to make the paper tokens yourself.

If you want to create collection containers with personality a toy dump truck for a kids organization, a dog bowl could be used to collect tokens for a shelter or rescue or you can create a DIY project making super cute and stylish custom signs for each charity while using simple containers.

Idea submitted by: Andrew Hsu

Visit Studio MSV

A special thank you to Event Designer and Wedding Coordinator Crystal Lequang of Amazáe Special Events for providing the details on this idea and to Photographer Augie Chang for the use of his images.

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Comments (2)

dena • 2011-01-16 17:58:46
Where did you buy or how did you make the tokens? DId you keep track of names so that they recieved a thank you from the donation?

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The Flirty Guide • 2011-01-19 10:36:07
Hi Dena,

After doing some sleuthing I found what may be the origins of this particular idea on Wedding Bee where a great description of the concept, including a DIY tutorial about how to make the tokens, was posted 3 years ago.

http://www.weddingbee.com/2008/02/05/sweet-charity/

The bride who first created this idea in the link above describes it as her "favor" option so it was far less formal than a wedding gift. As for Thank You cards I think there are two options. The couple could send a card to each guest without identifying which charity they chose, or because the Bride and Groom were the ones making the actual payment on the tokens there wouldn't be an expectation or need to send a thank you.

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