Wedding Foundation Provides Charitable Vows

When time is something that’s running out, it’s important to make every second count. Wish Upon a Wedding is seeking to provide dream weddings and vow renewal celebrations to adults facing extraordinary circumstances, like terminal illness. The California-based charity believes no one should miss out on the opportunity to celebrate a union with someone they love.

“Wish Upon a Wedding was founded based on the concept that two people in love should never be denied the chance to marry their soul mate,” Liz Gutherie, Wish Upon a Wedding’s Founder, explains on the organization’s website. “Even if they only have a few years (or months) to live, or if they’ve faced other serious circumstances which have dramatically altered their lives.”

Wish Upon a Wedding has facilitated four weddings since its inception seven months ago, beginning with the marriage of Michael Davis and Florence Williams. Williams, diagnosed with breast cancer, found herself unable to plan and finance a wedding between chemotherapy treatments and medical bills. After meeting a wedding planner at a Brides Against Breast Cancer event, who contacted Wish Upon a Wedding, Williams and Davis tied the knot on March 13.

The organization operates almost entirely on donations, from cash gifts to services supplied by vendors free of charge. From certified wedding planners to licensed florists, Wish Upon a Wedding provides a personalized team of vendors, called “Wish Granters,” for each ceremony.  Currently, they have a network of over 400 Wish Granters, many of whom whose services are tax deductible.

“Once approval is granted for a wedding or a vow renewal, a wedding planner and local vendors kick into high gear to try to make the event happen within six weeks,” Laura Coffey writes for MSNBC’s Today on July 22.

“Absolutely everything happens on a fast track. Photos and videos are delivered to the couple within four weeks of the wedding. To make life a bit easier for wedding planners and vendors, Wish Upon a Wedding tries not to hold weddings on peak days of the week — Saturdays, for instance. It’s often simpler to arrange for Sunday and midweek weddings at nice venues.”

Although only four weddings have taken place so far, Wish Upon a Wedding has achieved impressive popularity. A view of the organization’s Facebook page reveals 5,451 fans and 16 chapter locations launched across the United States, with nine more planned to open during the next year. According to their website, Wish Upon a Wedding hopes to expand to provide hundreds of weddings and vow renewal ceremonies every year.

Their good deeds are also coming to the attention to blushing brides across the country.

“I, 100 percent, love this idea,” Paige Peterson, a Michigan student and bride-to-be, says. “Almost every girls’ dream is to one day be married, and for an organization to grant something like this to someone [who is] terminally ill and dealing with all the hardships of treatment is simply amazing.”

The compassionate nature of Wish Upon a Wedding is seeming to melt even the coldest of hearts. Perez Hilton, the gossip blogger perhaps most famous for his slew of celebrity rivalries and bashing Tweet-offs, described the organization as “a very worthwhile cause.” Hilton also linked to the Wish Upon a Wedding website, encouraging his readers to get involved.

But what about the couples in need of Wish Upon a Wedding’s services? What does it take to qualify for one of their weddings?

“To qualify as wedding recipients, couples must be willing to sign Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) forms giving doctors permission to communicate directly with Wish Upon a Wedding,” Coffey writes in the MSNBC article.

While Wish Upon a Wedding was started with the idea of offering weddings to individuals with less than five years to live, the charity revamped their guidelines this week. Instead of limiting themselves to only helping the terminally ill, Wish Upon a Wedding will now provide a limited number of weddings to individuals facing other difficult circumstances, such as emotional, physical and other debilitating issues. An upcoming wedding for the organization will see the August marriage ceremony of a same-sex couple from the Washington, D.C. area. One of the men is suffering from lung cancer, and doctors have given him just a few months to live.

“We grant weddings regardless of sexual orientation,” Sasha Souza, the president of Wish Upon a Wedding, tells Coffey. “We want families to be able to have this special time together while they can.”

That special time together takes shape in some of the smallest moments — the first kiss, a couple’s initial spin across the dance floor, cutting the cake –which Wish Upon a Wedding believes every potential bride and groom are entitled to, though it isn’t always about the person facing illness.

“The thought of terminally ill marrying just prior to death both breaks my heart and makes me joyous for them all at the same time,” Melissa Neumann, a bride-to-be from Davenport, Iowa, gushes. “One specific point stood out to me though. The man saying to his fiance ‘Wouldn’t you rather be my wife before this surgery?’ Girlfriends and fiance’s have no say so in the medical care of their loved ones. Wives do.”

Are you a wedding vendor who would like to get involved with Wish Upon a Wedding? Are you interested in starting your own chapter? Want to help a couple facing extraordinary circumstances have their own wedding or vow renewal? For more information, visit the Wish Upon a Wedding website.

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