Do me a favor... be honest

I came across a brilliant post written by Manolo for the brides. The post was about giving favors and the good and not so good choices. It was extremely well written and straight to the point. There was just one part of the post that hit a soft spot. This is what it said.

Just do me one favor, if you’ll pardon the pun: if you decide not to give out favors, for the love of all that’s holy do not put out some sort of notice that you decided rather than spending the money on your guests, you’ve given it to charity for them instead. For one thing, people should be allowed to choose their own charities. I don’t care who you give it to, you’re going to at least annoy and possibly offend someone. More than that, though, those notices tell your guests that it wasn’t spending the money you minded, but spending the money on them which is an incredibly rude thing to say. Go ahead and give to the charity of your choice. Just don’t try to tell me that’s my party favor, because it isn’t.

After reading this... I started to question myself. Let me give you a little history : As a favor for my guest I was planning on giving a donation to the Quebec Breast Cancer Association. This is really important to me because 5 years ago my grandmother passed away because of breast cancer. Also, my mom was diagnosed with the cancer several years back and she can now call herself a survivor. I thought a donation to a known charity with some significance would be nice, instead of offering the not so useful favor.

I still wanted to highlight the whole breast cancer thing because it is important to me but at the same time, we did not want our guests leave empty handed so Mr.Flamingo and I thought it would be nice to offer a little something. We thought that maybe some truffles could be a neat idea, but then again, we need to buy the chocolate, the packaging so the price would go up rather quickly. Then there was the option of a bottle of imported sparkling water which could be a god choice. Someone also suggested pink m & m's but they only come out in October which is breast cancer awareness month, and the ones left in the store will be stale by my wedding. Of course there will be pink and red ones for valentine... but that defeats the purpose since there is no donation given.

I personally wouldn't mind going to a wedding and having that as a favor. I find it to be a really neat idea, both 'green' and for a good cause. But is that just me? am I totally out of the loop?

What do you think readers and bees? How would you feel to receive a donation as a favor. Please be honest. I don't want my guest to be offended! Thanks a million.

{Images courtesy of : Marthastewartcrafts.com}