Forget the flowers, the cake, the first dance.
A Toronto couple are spending what would have gone toward their wedding on what they see as a much more important cause, which is sponsoring a family of Syrian refugees, and they asked their would-be guests to do the same.
Yahoo! News reports Samantha Jackson and Farzin Yousefian had everything set for their wedding next year: the venue, the caterer, invitations, but a fundraising challenge from a Toronto university helped change their minds.
“We realized as we planned for our wedding that the average cost of a wedding is almost the same amount as the average cost of sponsoring a family of four,” Jackson said to Yahoo. “Seeing how far donations go and seeing how much the money fundraised really means to people who are going through the program both as sponsors and people being sponsored … it just seemed logical that we would switch gears and make our wedding a fundraiser instead.”
She’s a doctoral student studying refugee health care policy and has been involved with the Ryerson University Lifeline Syria Challenge since July. Instead of a ceremony, they quietly tied the knot at Toronto City Hall in October then held a tame dinner affair afterward. The venue and caterer were on board with the couple's decision.
They have raised CA$17,500 so far.
"We realized right away that our wedding would be a great opportunity to come together with our friends and family to support this cause, and transformed our wedding into a fundraiser with the hopes of helping a Syrian family start a new life in Toronto," Jackson told The Huffington Post.
Canada plans to resettle 10,000 Syrian refugees by next September.
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