Favorite Favors

From RoomtoRead.org

Let me begin by saying the point of this blog is not to give away all the "secrets" and "surprises" of the wedding. Trust me, I'm sure something will happen April 9th that will prove surprising even to me. I just feel that it all goes by so quickly on the actual day of the wedding. Hopefully all the little details will come together into the "big picture" I have in my mind, but I want people to really notice those little details... I have spent a LOT of time on those details.

Today we received the wedding favors in the mail. I felt very strongly about using our favors in a charitable way. Although I'm sure our guests would enjoy the traditional jordan almond, I wanted to do more. Christopher and I decided to make a donation in honor of our guests to my favorite charity - Room to Read. Room to Read is a literacy charity that supports the education of children in third world countries. Because we made the donation during the holiday season, the Financial Times matched our gift and therefore we ended up being able to do more than we had hoped.

Many people who choose donations in lieu of favors leave a little scroll or a note at the table explaining the gift. I thought that it would be cute if we made bookmarks. Get it? Literacy. Bookmarks. On one side it tells our guests about our choice for a charity donation and on the back side it provides information about the charity. Our hope is that people will use the bookmarks regularly and will be reminded of our wedding. But even more, we hope our guests learn to love Room to Read as much as I do and choose to make their own donation to help support the organization.

Here's a sneak peak of the top of the bookmark - side one.

If you want to learn more about Room to Read, you can visit their website at www.roomtoread.org. Here's a little bit about their work:

Room to Read is an innovative non-profit leader dedicated to promoting and enabling global education. Founded in 2000, the organization is based on the belief that education is crucial to breaking the cycle of poverty in the developing world. Since then, the organization has supported over three million children by providing increased access to higher-quality educational opportunities. Room to Read has established more than 800 schools and over 7,500 bilingual libraries with six million books, and continues to support the education of more than 8,700 girls.

P.S. I have to go back to work tomorrow. BOO. But, we do have a two-hour delay. ;-)