"This is a great opportunity to help others and we wanted to share this amazing experience with the guests at our wedding. These loans are in their honor."
— Jeff and Laura, Mountain View, CA
Weddings
Sharing Kiva at Your Wedding
It's no secret that our lenders are a socially responsible bunch. It should come as no surprise, then, that so many lenders incorporate Kiva into their wedding celebrations.
"We decided to make a donation to Kiva instead of giving our guests favors at our wedding. We thought this would be a good way to give back and help more people learn about Kiva."
— TnT Wedding Party, Eugene, OR
How can I share Kiva at my wedding?
There are a couple of ways we have seen Kiva Lenders make Kiva a part of their wedding celebrations. Both make use of Kiva's new Lending Teams feature.
- Add Kiva to your wedding registry Some of your guests might not have heard of Kiva, so add Kiva to your wedding registry. Request that your guests either give a Kiva Card, or make a loan and associate it with your wedding Lending Team, e.g. "Emily and Jonny’s Wedding." To educate your guests about Kiva, add a link to this video or this brochure to your personal wedding website.
- Use Kiva loans as "favors"
Give your wedding guests a wedding favor that is unique, and that they'll never forget - a Kiva Loan in their name. Create a Kiva Lending Team for your wedding (read below to learn how) – e.g. “Emily and Jonny’s Wedding”. Then, make a loan for each table or for separate groups of friends at your wedding, and post a small sign on the table or a card at each place setting, e.g.
"In your table’s name, Emily and Jonny have made a loan to Maria in the Dominican Republic so that she can add a new line of shoes to her retail business."
On the card at each place setting, include a URL to your Lending Team so that guests can join the team and check out the loan! You can also print a Kiva brochure for each table to educate your guests about Kiva.
We welcome your stories and ideas of how to make Kiva a part of wedding festivities! Please email us at weddings@kiva.org.
Real wedding stories
"Kim (my girlfriend at the time) and I planned a trip to West Africa for December 2007. I had been turned on to Kiva in September 2007 as a great way to get involved in micro finance – a concept I believe strongly in – but I wasn't aware of a way to participate directly until Kiva.
Since we were going to Senegal, I contacted Senegal Ecovillage Microfinance Fund (SEM) who is a Kiva partner. After talking to their Executive Director in Washington, D.C. and communicating with their Senegal 'in country' manager – we were going to get a chance to see Kiva's work first hand.
In Dakar, we met with SEM employees – we saw files for loans including who funded them, when they were distributed and when they would be paid back. When you see for your own eyes the money you lend actually goes to the people you lend to – we became Kiva believers! Then in the village of Palmarin, we visited with several recipients of Kiva loans. Seeing the difference Kiva loans make in this small village was remarkable.
On this same trip, I asked Kim to marry me in Timbuktu. She said 'yes' and upon our return to Calgary, our friends threw us an engagement party. Instead of engagement gifts, we requested that our friends support Kiva. We received over $1500 to lend through Kiva and many of our friends have now become individual Kiva supporters.
Kim and I speak about Kiva with conviction having seen first hand the benefits recipients of Kiva loans experience – we share our "Kiva faith" with anyone and everyone we can."
— Grant, Calgary, Canada
Create a Lending Team for your wedding
You can create a Lending Team for your wedding to track all of your lending activity in one place and to give your guests a way to make loans count towards your wedding celebration.
A Lending Team is a group of Kiva lenders affiliated with each other as part of a team. Members of Kiva lending teams continue lending as individuals, but they have the added option to count each loan they make towards the overall impact of the team, a great way to share the Kiva experience.
Click here to search for other wedding Lending Teams, or click on the images below to see some wedding Leanding Teams already in action! For tips and tools on how to grow your Lending Team, click here.
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| Beth and Anthony's Wedding Team | Chris and Aliina's Wedding | Don & Jim's Family and Friends |
Thank you!
We would like to thank the following couples who have made Kiva a part of their wedding celebrations, sharing the joy of their happy day with many others around the world!
Ali & Hill Besaw, Beth and Anthony’s Wedding Team, Chris and Aliina’s Wedding, Don & Jim’s Family and Friends, Grant & Kim MacEachern, JBF Cooley Wedding, Jeff & Laura Breit, Laura & Ganoby, Petra and Scott Wedding, TnT Wedding Party Newburgh, 07/07/07 Wedding Table Morris.