Everybody likes to receive wedding favors from the couple, whether it is of the edible kind, the practical type, or the displayable variety. For your wedding, you are thinking along this line and looking at catalogs for wedding favors like cute wine bottle stoppers, quirky scented candles, sweet mints and candies, delectable cookies and cupcakes, sweet picture frames and fridge magnets.



However, you can make your wedding more memorable by giving donations to charitable causes of your choice. You can always provide for the abovementioned wedding favors if you have the budget for them and you want concrete objects to have and to hold; your guests will surely love your thoughtfulness.

Do Your Research

Before you make charitable donations to the organization of your choice, be sure to do your research. Organizations have different approaches to accepting donations and spending contributions, which you need to be aware of before you sign that check. You can check the Internet first.

You have to make sure that your choice of organization issues an official receipt for your donation, which could be used for tax deduction purposes. Otherwise, you need to start looking somewhere else lest you run into trouble with the law. With the problems you face in your wedding preparations, you definitely do not want trouble in your wedding favors where there is none expected.

Donation Ideas

First, determine who and what you would like to help. This way, you can narrow down your wedding favors cum donations to these choices:

* Environmental Causes

Visit the website of your favorite environmental group and make a donation through your credit card, which should take you very little time. You can check out National Arbor Day Foundation, Save the Elephants, Greenpeace or any local environmental group you want. For example, National Arbor will plant trees in the name of your guests.

For presentation, you can place a table card with an image of a tree, the guest's name and your favorite tree quote. Your guests will be thrilled to know that a tree is planted in their honor!

* Disaster Causes

You can donate to organizations helping to assist victims of disaster rebuild their lives. Check out the Twin Towers Fund, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army and any local organization helping your neighbors.

Furthermore, you can save on the cost of your wedding since you determine how much you donate. You can present this donation through cards with messages of thanks from the organization and from you.

* Cancer Research and Patients

You might have a family member battling the Big C. Your donation to cancer research will warm his heart and those of your guests, too. You can check out the hospitals that have cancer wards and ask around for the patients who need help the most. You can also directly donate to cancer research institutes.

The documentary requirements to make the contribution legal will be more complicated but it is worth the trouble. Check out the Make a Wish Foundation, The American Cancer Society and your local hospital.

These donation ideas are just a few but when you put your mind to it, you can find other causes to support. How about feeding the hungry? Or clothing the poor?

Whatever you decide on for your wedding favors, always remember that it is your thought that counts. If you decide to give both donations and concrete favors, then everybody gets to be happy on your most special day.