Couple donates portion of wedding budget to charity

WKRN Posted: Oct 11, 2010 5:58 PM CDT E, Tenn. – Instead of a having a lavish wedding, one Nashville bride-to-be is donating a chunk of her budget to a non-profit organization half a world away to improve young lives. Christin Negley and her fiancé Ben Humeniuk got engaged earlier this year. "We got engaged in April. Ben and I have been best friends for a long, long time so it was really exciting," she told News 2. Once the ring was on her finger, Negley and Humeniuk began planning their special day with her parent's help. "They were very wise for the last few years and basically set aside a certain budget for us," Negley explained. Now, instead of using that money to throw a big wedding, the mission-minded couple decided to scale back and donate a portion of their budget to a better cause. The money will go to Preemptive Love Coalition, a non-profit based in northern Iraq that funds life-saving heart surgeries for Iraqi children. "It's a holistic process and we very much believe that the good news we're called to spread includes people finding new life physically, so a wedding is a perfect opportunity to represent that," Humeniuk said. The cause is close to their hearts. Negley, now a teacher, was once an intern with the organization, an experience that changed her life. "[There is] a very high number of children who have congenital heart defects. They can't run because they don't have enough oxygen to run," Negley explained. "They don't even have enough oxygen to blow a pin wheel." The couple is reducing costs by downsizing the wedding, making decorations instead of buying them and cutting out favors for guests. Many of the vendors are giving them generous discounts as well and with all the money they won't be spending on their wedding next month, the couple will be able to pay for a large part of a child's upcoming surgery in February. "When you're saving a child's life, it's pretty easy to get on board for that goal," Negley said.