A Favor

In the big scheme of budgeting, favors were one of the first casualties. I dusted my hands and was done with that one.

It's funny how your future spouse can surprise you by being really passionate about something you don't expect while you're planning. Sure, Mr. Hyena was fine with not buying 130 people little boxes of candy or other tchotchkes, but since we weren't going to go with traditional favors, he wanted to do something to honor our guests and participate in an organization that is important to us.

Once upon a time, Mr. H received a Kiva gift card from one of his family members. Kiva is an organization that is helping eliminate world poverty by allowing small-business owners and entrepreneurs in undeveloped countries become self-sufficient. These entrepreneurs request loans to get their businesses off the ground, and "lenders" donate money to these businesses. As the loans are paid back, you can re-lend money to other entrepreneurs, so your donation goes a lot further than just a one-time payment.

For my birthday sophomore year of college, Mr. H got me a gift card too, and it's been a neat thing that we can do together. I'd never heard of Kiva before, but it's been one of the coolest gifts he's given me, because it gives us the opportunity to help others.

So favors may have been off the table, but we wanted to make a donation to Kiva instead. As the budget doesn't necessarily have wiggle room for "alternative favors" either, we decided that regardless we would want to make this donation, so we will do this out of our own pockets.

I created these little table cards to go with the centerpieces so our guests will know whassa goin' on:

Personal photo.

So cute! Ahhh I fall in love with our color scheme again every project I complete.

Are you doing any non-traditional things in lieu of favors?