Thanksgiving Day is tomorrow, marking the unofficial/official start of the holiday season. In the better part of my adult years, this time of year makes me want to give back — even more than usual. There’s a plethora of ways to do so during a season that has become too much about getting in my opinion. Plus as corny as it may sound, I always feel better about my own life when I do something selfless. Whether it is helping to feed other New Yorkers on Thanksgiving Day, giving away old coats, scarves and gloves to the city’s most needy or reading and donating books to children who will be hospitalized on Christmas Day. But a giving heart shouldn’t just be confined to the last two months of the year and weddings are an excellent vehicle for giving to your favorite cause(s). I’ve mentioned this on Triple B before but now that I’m planning my own nuptials, my fiance and I are figuring out what we want to do in the way of charity that truly reflects us and our passions.

One resource we’ll be exploring to do this is the I Do Foundation which I recently stumbled upon online. This all-encompassing resource allows couples to give to their desired charities in all their guests names and/or allows their guests to give through the I Do Foundation in lieu of or in addition to a traditional registry gift. No shame here — we definitely still plan to register at Crate & Barrel, Target and the like but it is nice to know what our options are, ya know? The information on the user-friendly I Do website is detailed yet easy to digest. Even if my honey and I choose to go another route to pay it forward on our big day, I think this foundation was more than worthy of being my pick of the week to share with the rest of you planning your nuptials and heading to weddings as guests in the near future.

Happy Thanksgiving from Triple B and remember these wise words from Marian Edelman Wright:

Service is the rent we pay for being.