Photo: Charity Hope Photography
It is often believed that a wedding will be one of the most significant investments that you will make within your lifetime. Have you ever considered leveraging your purchasing power to create a substantial impact within your wedding weekend destination of choice? What if there really was a way to plan charitably while curating the most magnificent wedding of your dreams?
With over a decade of experience supporting couples and their families to plan destination wedding weekends in New England, South Florida, and beyond, at Delsie, what brings us the greatest joy is partnering with our clients to give back to organizations and initiatives that are sentimental to them.
As you desire to curate an elevated experience with intention, consider Delsie’s seven strategic ways to incorporate philanthropic practices into your wedding planning process.
Partner with Purpose
During our vendor hiring process, our planning team takes the time to learn about the people behind each wedding service and their values. We help guide our clients to invest in businesses that not only display unparalleled talent but whose values align with their own, such as supporting vendors that are committed to sustainability practices and other social initiatives.
This strategic matchmaking process is how we remain committed to investing responsibly.
Support Local
Whether curating a quintessential wedding weekend within the seasonal seaside oasis of Martha’s Vineyard or celebrating vibrantly in glamour and grandeur in Miami, at Delsie, our commitment is to design experiences that incorporate the creatives within the destination’s community. Especially with seasonal destinations such as Cape Cod, local businesses rely heavily on the revenue that events generate throughout peak months to support their families and loved ones all year long.
Supporting the local community is a benefit for our clients as it allows our planning team to curate an authentic experience that guests won’t find anywhere else. Additionally, we maximize our investments by hiring local creatives as this strategy lowers associated production costs related to shipping and travel.
Donate Your Wedding Dress
One will rarely wear their wedding dress for a second time around. For this reason, we recommend donating your wedding dress to support a great cause, such as Brides for a Cause Funds raised from your donation will support a variety of local and national women-focused charities across the country. To date, Brides for a Cause has recycled over 25,000 wedding dresses and given over 2 million dollars to charity since its conception in 2012.
Before donating your wedding dress, you may want to save a piece of fabric to repurpose it into a family heirloom. This way, your wedding will live on for generations to come.
Consider the Culinary Experience
Our passion is partnering with premier caterers such as The Catered Affair in Boston, that are committed to supporting local farmers who provide fresh quality produce, as well as job opportunities for local residents.
While many health code regulations in states such as Rhode Island and Massachusetts prohibit clients and businesses to donate food directly to charities, partnering with organizations such as Food Rescue allows us to mitigate waste and stand in unity with our couples to fight food insecurity by donating leftover food after events to local soup kitchens and other establishments in need.
Repurpose Florals
After the last dance and the fabulous send-off, what is left is the reminiscence of the magical day. Consider sparking joy for a local charity, hospital, assisted living facility, church, or organization of your choice by donating your wedding flowers.
At Delsie, during our final meetings with our couples, we identify organizations that are significant to them and partner with our floral designers to organize a donation on their behalf following the wedding.
The Venue
The wedding venue is at the helm of any extraordinary vision. Therefore, great care must be taken to make the right decision.
Our niche at Delsie is transforming non-traditional structures, such as museums, estates, and parks, into grand event spaces. This approach provides us with the opportunity to re-imagine non-profit venues such as the Museum of Fine Arts Boston or the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) Boston as a blank canvas for our creativity.
The Registry
Whether you are passionate about supporting education, technology, or even non-profits that align with your favorite social cause, In lieu of gifts, consider inviting your guests to make a donation to a local charity on your behalf. When designing our clients’ wedding websites, we include this feature upon request for discrete yet effective communication with wedding guests.
Alternatively, if the wedding registry is a feature of your wedding day that you simply cannot live without, consider supporting local or small businesses whose values align with your own. Spennie, a woman-owned small business, is a new registry service, committed to amplifying the product of local artisans across the county through her online registry platform.
In conclusion, collaborating with a full-service wedding planner to design the ultimate wedding weekend is an investment that will empower you to create an intentional experience for your guests while creating an impact within the local and global community
About the Author
Pearl “Delsie” Farquharson is the Owner and Creative Director of Designed by Delsie.
As a destination wedding planner Based in Boston and Miami, Pearl’s trailblazing approach to curating intentional and diverse events, hallmarked by meticulous planning, her company’s core values, and bold, breathtaking design has earned her the title of the #1 Wedding Planner in Boston by Boston Weddings
The Delsie believes the most special of days, there is no room for error or the ordinary. For your special moment, which will only happen once in a lifetime, we believe that the guest experience is everything. Your milestone should be celebrated both intentionally and vibrantly in a way that honors innovation, culture, and tradition.
Our team is as obsessive as you are about the finite details, and we are committed to delivering the most elevated affair in a way that captivates your style, with sophistication and guest experience at the helm of our vision.