Wedding favours are going to the dogs
Pair donating to St. Catharines animal control agency rather than giving gifts to guests
There’ll be no decorated wine glasses or personalized bags of mixed nuts for guests at the wedding of Michelle Presse and Tyler Wittmaier.
Instead, the Beamsville couple has adopted their own pet project for the day they celebrate their nuptials in October.
They’re taking the money they would have spent on gifts for the 175 or so attendees and will donate it to
Lincoln County Humane Society.
Yes, it’s going to the dogs.
“We had friends who did this probably five years ago,” said Presse.
“And it’s the only thing that I can think of that if somebody asked me, ‘What favour did this person have?’ that I would immediately remember. It stuck with us.”
Donating to animal care agencies or other community groups, rather than gifting the guests, is a growing trend in weddings.
LCHS as well as Niagara Falls Humane Society and Welland and District SPCA all have information on their websites for ways people can donate while they celebrate weddings, anniversaries, birthdays and other occasions.
At Lincoln County Humane Society, it started several years ago with a child’s birthday party, said executive director Kevin Strooband.
“That really started us receiving money from people who were celebrating something … it just kept chugging along,” he said, adding the animal control agency gets one or two similar donations each month.
“If kids are doing it, it might be $50 or $75, but it gets up into the hundreds,” he said.
“We’ve approached $1,000 a couple of times … it’s pretty amazing what people will give to other people for a charity.”
He said the donations will make a difference.
“How many people, I’m sure we all do, have something at home from somebody’s wedding that’s in a drawer or a closet somewhere.”
More than 3,500 animals arrive at the Fourth Avenue animal shelter every year. It supplies animal control services to St. Catharines, Thorold and Grimsby through contracts with each municipality.
That’s where it gets its funding from, as well as donations, adoption fees and payments it receives from the province for conducting animal cruelty investigations.
At the St. Catharines office, people can offer just a general donation or they can give to a specific program.
“In this case, (Presse and Wittmaier) chose the Lady and the Tramp fund,” said Strooband.
Lady and the Tramp were the nicknames shelter staff gave to two emaciated German shepherd mixed-breed dogs that were brought there in 2007.
“That was a guy that turned over the two dogs, he said he didn’t know where they came from, they were strays,” said Strooband.
The St. Catharines Standard reported on the dogs, and by that night “we had dozens of calls saying ‘that guy owned the dogs.’”
“So we charged him with animal cruelty, and he was convicted,” said Strooband.
“We had so many donations for their care — I think it cost us $2,500 and we had over $10,000 or $12,000 donated.”
The fund is still active and pays medical costs for extraordinary cases of animal abuse or neglect.
“It’s a cause we care a lot about,” said Presse, 26, adding she and Wittmaier, 29, own two cats together.
“We told some people this is what we’re doing, and they all pretty much said, ‘Wow, we never even considered the option.’ So I hope some people will take it.”