Local Bride Donates Wedding Catering Budget to Haiti

Planning Tips

Local Bride Donates Wedding Catering Budget to Haiti

For many wedding couples, financial negotiations over how much to spend on cocktails, food and music can be stressful. Will and Leah Nicholson of Maplewood were no different. They had skimped and saved to afford the wedding of their dreams. And then an earthquake hit Haiti.

“There we were, planning this lavish dinner for ourselves and our guests, for people who have everything they need, when not too far away, people were dying because they didn’t even have water,” Leah says. The heart-wrenching images of the destruction prompted the couple to make a surprising, and inspiring, decision: They gave a large chunk of their wedding budget—the percent they had earmarked for food—to Partners in Health, a Boston-based nonprofit organization that does humanitarian relief in Haiti.

“It was a snap decision,” Leah says, “but it was one of the best things we’ve ever done.” The couple’s initial donation was $2,500. However, once their wedding vendors learned what Will and Leah had done, many offered their services for free. Members of a local Haitian church stepped in and catered the reception with a homemade Haitian meal. Friends and family contributed as well, bringing Will and Leah’s total donation to over $6,000, or 61 percent of their wedding budget.

“Your wedding is a time that is all about you, but in donating some of our wedding money to Haiti, we were able to do something nice for others,” Leah says. “It brought a nice balance to our day and really set the tone for our relationship going forward. We want to be people who give back.”

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