Wedding Gifts List Alternative: 6 Wonderful Things To Do Instead of the List
Part of the wedding planning that wedding couples need to think of is their wedding list. Yes, after months of planning for the venue, dresses and gowns, honeymoon location, souvenirs, caterers and many more, you have to make your wedding gifts list.
And just like the price of the wedding ceremony itself, wedding gifts list are now changing along and keeping up with the time. Nowadays, more couples are looking for alternatives like asking for cash for their honeymoon or new home instead of the usual department store lists.
And one new trend that is being adapted by wedding couples, is asking for donations to organizations as their wedding gift. Yes. More and more couples are thinking of giving more for charity than that fancy oven toaster or kettle.
And here is a list of 6 organizations you can add on your wedding gifts list.
Wedding Gifts: 6 Amazing Things To Do Instead of A Gift List
1. Oxfam
It turns out that picking your gifts from Oxfam’s list is just as fun as trawling the kitchenwares of a big department store. But these donations will change a life. For just £6, your guests can buy a health check for an adult or child in a third world country. Oxfam Unwrapped also offers ‘Train A Beekeeper’ for £12, ‘Train A Teacher’ for £27 – or you can buy school supplies for a child for £8 and just £10 will buy safe, clean water for ten people. That’s no doubt less than the price of a round of drinks at your reception, right?
2. Make A Wish
One very special boy made headlines in San Francisco recently when his wish to be ‘Batkid’ for a day was granted by the Make A Wish Foundation. Five-year-old Miles Scott was diagnosed with leukaemia at the age of one but in November 2013 he became a superhero with the help of this amazing charity and tens of thousands of locals who joined in to make his dream a reality. Your wedding day will be the best day of your life. Why not give a young child theirs?
3. Action Aid
Action Aid has its very own dedicated wedding gift list service via Justgiving and will even send you a certificate showing how much your gift list raised. Now that really would look lovely in your kitchen. £25 will train a child in Afghanistan to become a tailor, while £40 could provide a hand pump for a week in Sierra Leone, and for the more generous of your guests, £125 will supply a whole class of children with their learning materials for a whole year in Ethiopia.
4. WWF
If your other half won’t let you have a pet just yet, do some good by helping feed or protect an endangered species. You can even look a little closer to home. In 2006, one animal-loving couple made headlines for ditching their gift list in favour of adopting almost an entire zoo. The newlyweds ended up with 27 animals from Chester Zoo which ranged from tigers to chimpanzees. A spokesperson for the zoo said it was the most unusual request they’d ever had… ‘Adopters help make a difference,’ they said, ‘and by buying shares in our animals they help us with our growing annual food bill.’Visit WWF, Born Free or enquire at your local zoo.
5. Present Aid
If you’d rather help out families from all walks of life, pay a visit to Present Aid, which offers a huge range of ‘gifts’ for those in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean and the Middle East. For just £9 you can buy a family a chicken to help them start their own business, while £268 will pay for an entire well to supply clean, safe drinking water and better sanitation, £19 buys a goat, while £58 will pay for a sheep. And £33 will send a relief package to families affected by the typhoon in the Phillippines.
6. Cancer Research UK
Making donations to this incredible charity will touch your guests like no other. Visit the UK site where you can create a pretty profile called a ‘Give in celebration‘ page. Donations can be anonymous if your guests wish, but we bet they’d be proud to write you a congratulatory message and know their kind gift is contributing towards the fight against cancer. Is there anything better than that?