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This December, Livia and Biz Stone are expecting their first baby. Rather than registering for new baby items, Biz and Livia have chosen to have a “virtual” baby shower: they’re asking friends and family to support classroom projects in lieu of gifts.

In their words: “We want to celebrate this new life by helping other children make the most of theirs”.

We’re so grateful and honored to be a part of this special event in their lives. Thank you for including us, Biz and Livia!

To congratulate the Stones on the new addition to their family, consider supporting a classroom project on their Giving Page: DonorsChoose.org/biz-livia

Larissa, who currently lives in New Jersey (but is a North Carolina girl at heart!), recently celebrated her birthday in one of the nicest ways we can think of – she donated it to help students and teachers in need!

We talked to Larissa about her birthday, and this is what she had to say:

“I am a big supporter of DonorsChoose.org and try to help as much as I can, either giving or promoting. For my birthday, I always try to pick projects at the small rural elementary school in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains where I went [to school] for my page as I understand firsthand how much they need.  This year I also added one from Joplin, which was hit by the tornado. Nothing makes me happier than getting the projects I pick for my Giving Page funded.”

What an awesome way to celebrate your birthday, Larissa! Thank you!

To join Larissa in celebrating, create a Giving Page, then ask your friends and family to donate in lieu of gifts!

Another amazing couple made a huge difference to classrooms by donating their wedding to DonorsChoose.org! Newlyweds Gary and Carey made their commitment to each other in Westport, Connecticut on May 21, 2011 in an early summer wedding on the water.

After the ceremony, each guest received a DonorsChoose.org gift card on his or her place setting. Each gift card included the following note inviting each guest to choose a project and donate:

Family & Friends,

Thanks for celebrating our wedding with us!  We hope that you will enjoy giving back to a classroom when you get home.

Love,

Carey & Gary

Gary and Carey have been supporters of DonorsChoose.org for some time now, inspired by Carey’s parents who were both elementary school teachers.

Thanks so much for introducing your guests to DonorsChoose.org and giving them the opportunity to give to a classroom!

We’re grateful that a number of couples have chosen to include DonorsChoose.org in their wedding celebrations. Check out the stories below of couples who used charitable wedding favors to thank their guests for joining them on their special day!

	Lauren and Justin were married in April, and thanked their guests for attending their wedding by sending them all DonorsChoose.org gift cards. Each guest was then able to choose the classroom project that inspired them. What a great way to thank family and friends for being a part of your special day! DonorsChoose.org gift cards are available in any denomination, and can be used as gifts or favors for any occasion!
	Kristi and James made a donation to classrooms requesting games in honor of guests at their March, 2009 wedding. Each guest received a note about the donation, with a Scrabble magnet attached, in honor of James’ proposal during a game of Scrabble!

Uyen and Niko got married in 2009. After struggling with traditional gift registries, they decided to have an untraditional gift registry…full of classroom projects! Read on for the story of how they learned about DonorsChoose.org, and their advice for celebrating a wedding with DonorsChoose.org.

1. Uyen, thank you so much for taking the time to tell your story! First of all, we’d love to hear how you found out about DonorsChoose.org.

I first learned about DonorsChoose.org when it was featured on a news program over the holidays in 2006/7. It immediately caught my eye and it jumped out as the perfect holiday gift for my now in-laws (Mary and Mark). The news program had an uncanny timing because that year I was spending my first Christmas with them.

Mark is a retired grade school teacher and Mary was then an elementary school principal – and they are passionate about education. Mark still gets postcard updates from his former students telling him about their own kids and Mary would get thank you notes from parents as she would fight to get reading specialists at her school.

So that Christmas, I scoured the DonorsChoose.org proposals to find the perfect match for Mary and Mark. For Mark it was a set of children’s book that captured the imagination of students and for Mary it was huge post-its for a grade school classroom learning to write their ideas as they read along in a book. It was so much fun going through these projects and I could immediately see how with each of these projects I could match it with someone I knew. After funding these projects I created fake certificates (akin to a bond certificate) and pasted the text of the teacher’s request on them. I then rolled each “certificate” and tied it with a nice ribbon.  His parents were tickled pink by it and thought it was a wonderful gift – so much that 2 years later when Niko proposed they almost blurted out “About time!”

2. How did you decide to include DonorsChoose.org in our wedding?

Niko and I are both products of public schools and education is near and dear to our hearts. For Niko, his parents were both teachers and he had amazing teachers that encouraged him to keep pushing his potential. For me, my parents were war refugees who came to the US without knowing English or having any technical skills, and I too had amazing teachers that encouraged me to keep pushing my own potential.

As we were planning our wedding back in 2008 (we got married August 2009), the registry topic was a bit anxiety ridden. For me having a registry at all was foreign since in Vietnamese culture wedding gifts came in red envelopes stuffed with money – so going shopping with a scanner for things I wasn’t sure I quite wanted…was a bit odd. Niko insisted that we have some sort of wedding registry since it was a way for our guests to be sure that they gave us something that we really wanted. That was when I thought of having a DonorsChoose.org Wedding Registry! So, instead of picking out more vases, I started by picking a dozen projects that I felt were expressive of me and Niko.

Our registry was a hit with our guests. It was nice to every now and then check in to the registry and see how much was getting funded and why our guests chose the projects that they did with the “I gave because…” feature.  One of the more unexpected projects was from a college friend who is an all around tough guy, who specifically chose a project called “Glitter Makes the World Sparkle”.

3. What tips and tricks would you offer to others who want to celebrate with DonorsChoose.org?

• If you are thinking of doing a DonorsChoose.org registry, definitely use the category feature as a way to make sure that your registry always has a few projects in it. Though it was nice to pick very specific projects, it turned out to be very hard to maintain because the speed in which your guests may give may not match up to when the teachers will need their projects funded.
• Have fun talking about what types of projects would be most reflective of you in your Giving Page. If you think there should be more art taught in public schools, fund art projects. If you think that having field trips really opened your eyes to the world, fund field trips.
• In your description of the Giving Page, say why you chose the projects that you did. All of my wedding guests really appreciated that the projects below meant something to us. Also, there is an option where our guests could search all DonorsChoose.org projects and just gave in our name, so that they chose projects that they felt connected to.