Share the Aloha - Hawaii Wedding Floral Donation Charity
Best Day Ever Hawaii - Events & Weddings, Honolulu, HI, USA
ABOUT US
Share the Aloha is a charity started by Nicole Salmoiraghi, owner of Best Day Ever Events & Weddings.
As a wedding planner, Nicole knew first hand how much work and money go into wedding flowers. Often times this is thousands of dollars and hours upon hours of work. It is not uncommon for these beautiful floral arrangements to get discarded at the end of the night and go to waste. There are arch pieces, head table florals, ceremony florals, bouquets and so many more pieces that were just getting left behind. Most times, these pieces just get given to pretty much anyone who is willing to take them home... and many times, they just get left on site.
At the time Nicole was also caring for her grandmother and grandfather in her home. She knew how rare (and important!) visitors were to them and to the many seniors who often spent the majority of their time alone. This is when she had a lightbulb moment and thought she could do something special. She got in touch with several of the local nursing homes, formed partnerships and started regular visitations to deliver beautiful wedding flowers. This soon spilled over to also include several children's hospitals and our little charity, “Share the Aloha”, was born.
Share the Aloha recycles wedding flowers and shares them with seniors at Island Nursing Home, Hale Nohea, Maunalani Nursing Home, Pearl City Nursing Home, The Plaza at Punchbowl, and The Plaza at Mililani. We also have just partnered with Kapiolani Medical Center, childrens cancer floor and Shriners Childrens Hospital.
Couples contact us by email and let us know they are interested in donating a portion (or sometimes all) of their wedding florals. We hand deliver the flowers to Nursing Homes and Children's Hospitals around the island of O'ahu. We also spend time visiting with the lucky recipients, just hanging out, and telling them stories about where their beautiful florals came from. If we are able, we also often take photos for the couples so they may see who got their beautiful flower arrangements.
We are often asked, why we do this for free, and how we have the time... the simple answer is it's not about the money, and we make the time, because we love it.
Seeing the flowers go full circle from the love present at a wedding ceremony to the tears of joy that come from a senior who perhaps rarely gets visitors, is what makes our jobs worthwhile.
It's free, it's simple, and it really does make a big difference in so many lives.
If you would like to make a donation, or would like to find out more about how to get involved, e-mail us today!
