This month in Romance Wanderlust, we are visiting wedding venues. Specifically, wedding venues that donate their profits to charity. As always, this is neither a review nor and endorsement of any of these places, because I haven’t actually been to most of them. There is one exception: Casa Garden, where I had my own wedding almost twenty years ago.
Casa Garden, in Sacramento, California, is a restaurant and event venue staffed entirely by volunteers. All the proceeds from Casa events go towards the Sacramento Children’s Home. It gave my husband and I a great sense of pride to know that our wedding was going to benefit others, but honestly the decision to have our wedding there was primarily self-serving. We loved the garden (which is where we had the ceremony ). We loved the restaurant and the food. We loved that we could transition straight from ceremony to reception instead of going from place to place. We had the ceremony at twilight, dinner in the restaurant, and dancing in the garden as soon as the chairs from the wedding were cleared.
Also we loved the volunteers, who were so sweet to us and to all who attended. It was an affordable venue, which was very important to us since at the time we pretty much lived off of Top Ramen and we didn’t want to go into a lot of debt. It was so lovely that two other couples who came to our wedding subsequently decided to have their own weddings at Casa as well.
If you are interested in having your wedding be an event that incorporates giving to others, the Internet is your friend. A lot of nonprofits raise money by hosting weddings. You can find lists of venues all over the country on websites like herecomestheguide.org. You can also have a registry that asks for charitable donations instead of gifts, donate your flowers, give donations instead of favors, and donate frequent flyer miles. Sites like brit.co and confettidaydreams.com have a lot of ideas.
Non-profit wedding venues tend to be affordable, and they can be found in every part of the country, accommodating wedding parties of every size. Having a wedding at a non-profit venue can allow you to incorporate your values and interests into your day and share those values and interests with your guests. Since I worked with kids at the time of my weddings, and my husband worked with environmental issues, we had the wedding at a place that supports kids and asked for contributions to World Wildlife Fund. On a larger scale (in terms of number of guests and amount of money) my mom once went to a wedding at the California Academy of Sciences which sounds AMAZING. I may have to renew my vows just so I can take them in front of a bunch of penguins.
This post is California heavy because of my location, but similar venues can be found all over the place. Where was your wedding, and how did you incorporate giving (if you did)? Did you elope? Was Elvis involved? Penguins?! Or did you have the full-scale, tons of guests extravaganza? Let us know!
My husband an I got married in his grandparents’ backyard. We had really simple decorations and a pretty short reception, but it was lovely and inexpensive as well. ☺️
My husband and I were married at City Hall. Four months later we invited family and friends to join us at Kimball Farms in Westford, MA. The weather was perfect for a BBQ, all the ice cream you could eat, as well as mini golf, batting cages, petting zoo, etc. We got to visit with everyone and they got to play all afternoon. Even the teenagers had a blast!
I had no idea charitable venues existed. What a wonderful and even more meaningful way to celebrate. In 1976, none of us thought outside the box; bridesmaids’ dresses had to match down to the shoes, everything was done as it had always been. I am delighted when I attend weddings now because they seem so much more personal and intimate. Thank you for this.
We eloped to Vermont, and my family hosted a casual party in our backyard afterwards. I’m a trustee of a non-profit environmental education center and we also host an occasional wedding, mostly just the ceremony. It’s a beautiful setting in the Ramapo Mountains of New Jersey, and we had one couple who wanted to hike to the top of a mountain before exchanging their vows-in January, no less!
We had a relatively small wedding in a 300-year-old Colonial inn in the backwoods of Connecticut. We said our vows in front of a fireplace on Christmas Eve and the father of a friend was the JOP who officiated. We had our wedding night at the same inn (my in-laws also stayed there) and opened wedding/Christmas gifts in the morning.
My father never forgave me for not having the traditional huge Italian wedding but everyone else said it was the nicest wedding they’d ever been to.
We were married at the county courthouse. We had an appointment for 10 a.m. but when we arrived we had to wait while the district magistrate gave a lecture about controlling your temper to a man who was wearing pajamas and handcuffs. As the state troopers led him away the magistrate told us, “He threatened his wife with a gun.”
After the ceremony we went to a state park and had a pot luck family picnic and canoed on the lake. The whole thing including magistrate fees, pavilion and canoe rental, picnic supplies, and wedding rings (from a cheap discount jeweler) cost $100 in 1979 (about $300 now). We did have to replace the rings later because my husband lost his and mine wore out after a couple of years, but we will celebrate our 40th anniversary in two weeks so I guess the important parts stuck.
What a lovely post, CarrieS. I was at a wedding last weekend when my nephew married. It was held at a YMCA camping venue in PA; the ceremony was held outdoors and the reception indoors. (And the rain held off long enough for all to stay dry.)
My wedding was also an outdoors wedding; we married at Elliston Vineyards in Sunol, California.
I was married in a church and my reception was in the Gold Ballroom of the Hotel duPont.
We got married in the foothills of Albuquerque, with only two friends, the officient, and a photographer. It was fantastic! Totally about us, and not anyone else. Our families gave us some money which we used on a down payment on our house, since they didn’t have wedding expenses.
My husband got matching rings for $50. Every year on our anniversary, he gets us another set of matching rings. I love it, because I have a tendency to lose things. I don’t have to worry about losing a ring worth thousands, and I always have several styles to choose from. Plus I can have summer and winter rings to suit the size of my hands in heat or cold. Meanwhile, my husband tends to trash his rings, because he doesn’t take them off when working on the car or house, but he replaces them each year.
I do kind of want to have a charitable ceremony in front of penguins now though. Our 10-year anniversary is coming up….
Re-planned my entire wedding in a week due to 9/11 — which was odder still because I had chosen the original venue because it entailed no work for me… I didn’t want anything other than food, drink and people. Had the first-ever wedding at New Leaf Cafe near the Cloisters, which supported the New York Restoration Project. (founded by Bette Midler!) It’s now a wedding factory, but it’s still awesome and a slice of country in “upstate Manhattan.” I feel lucky we landed anywhere, but especially there. And since my mom was a romance writer, she had high standards… 🙂
Best wedding I ever attended was eight adults and a baby at Tassajara Hot Springs down at the Narrows which is a deep fissure a mile down from the property all granite outcrops. Everyone was naked. This was many years ago…..it was absolutely beautiful.
Another great CA wedding venue is Point Logos in Carmel, that’s where I got married.
Point Lobos. I hate auto correct with the passion of a thousand suns!
My goddaughter and her husband made a donation to their favorite animal rescue instead of giving wedding favors. She made up cute little cards with their rescue dog’s picture!
Mr. L and I were married at my family’s church and had a reception in my parents’ backyard. It was on the cheap because we were young and broke. Both sets of parents refused to pay for a traditional hall reception because they thought the marriage wouldn’t last. A friend made a gorgeous wedding cake as her gift, another friend designed the bouquets as her gift, friends who own a graphics company made invitations their gift, neighbors loaned banquet tables and chairs, and family friends who did catering gave us a crazy discount. My dress was from the sale rack at a favorite department store. It took a village and everyone had a good time. That was 35 years ago and counting ….
I had no idea you could do that! I don’t think it”s a popular thing in my country but I love the idea!!!
Yay the Aviary! They weren’t doing this when I got married, but that’s a good thing because my daughter and I adore the Aviary (she did an apprenticeship there her sophomore year of high school and it was amazing), and having had my wedding there would have ruined it for me now.
The bullets we dodge…