Wedding Ask

Hello family and friends!

First and foremost, your presence in our lives and hopefully at our wedding is the greatest gift you can give us.

Instead of a typical wedding registry, we put together the list below with the intention to open the door for conversation and engagement around issues that are important to us. What more powerful way to create change, than through a ceremony of love with support from the people that love us the most. We encourage you to consider what feels most aligned with your values, background, and financial situation. As always, questions are more than welcome!

Option #1:  Land Acknowledgement

Turtle Island (the United States) was brutally colonized over 400 years ago. Indigenous people have been fighting for sovereignty ever since, but the colonial government continues to encroach on their lands, lives, and freedoms (like in this case). If you feel called, consider using your privilege to redistribute money, land, and power.

  • Pay a land tax to local Indigenous peoples - Not sure whose land you're living on? Check out this map here, do your research, and find a local Indigenous farm/organization and send them some money. For example, if you live in San Francisco, you can pay your Yunakin land tax here.

Option #2: Reparations

  • Invest in Black communities - A way to pay reparations is to make a yearly contribution to local Black-led organizations (perhaps even based off of your salary) - you can learn about redistributing your wealth here, or here if you live in the Bay Area. For folks living in the Bay Area, The Black Solidarity Fund, started by the Community Ready Corps (a liberation organization) is a great place to start. Soul Fire Farm is another amazing East Coast farm and resource to find organizations near you for giving reparations.

Option #3: Show up!

  1. Show up! - Whether you are fighting to stop the closure of 12 Oakland schools that would displace over 1,300 Black students, protesting the Chevron refinery in Richmond, CA, taking it to the streets when yet another Black person is murdered by police, or protesting your local Wells Fargo or Chase for funding Line 3 (an oil pipeline) - showing up in person can be a very powerful way to make change.

Option #4: For folks invested in the stock market

As you know, May 21 is our wedding day. It is also a global day of action that communities affected by environmental racism call “Anti-Chevron Day”. Raye was inspired to make this ask to our loved ones when they realized what it meant to own stock in an oil company and decided to divest from Chevron. Raye thought, “how cool would it be if our wedding ask inspired just one person to divest from harmful things and reinvest in our planet and communities”. If you have money invested in the stock market, please consider the following:

  • Invest in Transformative or ESG Investing (Environmental, Social, Governance) -

    1. Transformative Investing: If you are looking for something more radical, check out this AMAZING living google doc and Resource Generation’s website. “Transformative investing resources a solidarity economy that works for all by pulling money off of Wall Street to invest in community wealth building.”- Resource Generation. Next Egg is another good resource to help invest your money in building communities instead of Wall Street. We don’t know about you all, but this is the kind of world we’d like to live in and help build :)

    2. ESG investing is a form of more sustainable investing that tries to avoid the fossil fuel industry and other morally bad things. This website is VERY user friendly and will let you know how sustainable your investments are by using a grade of A to F in different categories like the fossil fuel industry, the military industrial complex, the prison industrial complex, women, queerness, etc.


    Divest from fossil fuels - Got $$ in Chevron, Exxon, Wells Fargo, Chase or any other corporations that fund fossil fuels? Get out of there, silly! Raye recently switched from Wells Fargo (#1 bank worldwide for funding fracked oil and gas projects) to Patelco (a credit union where the money stays local). You can also check out Aspiration - a bank that keeps your money 100% out of fossil fuels. Not sure what the difference is between a bank and a credit union? Check out this quick 2 minute video or the explanation here.

Option  #5: Our life/honey fund

Again, your presence in our lives is the greatest gift. However, if you do wish to celebrate with a gift, a contribution to our honeymoon fund would be much appreciated. You can do so via check, venmo, or paypal (Venmo: @Mia_Cooper or Paypal: @RachelKahn599)

Thank you for reading!

If you explore/complete ask #1-4 we’d love to hear from you! Send us an email and let us know so we can send some love from our end:)

Thank you for being you, thank you for whatever ways you are showing us your love, and we can’t wait to celebrate with you soon. Here’s to love of all forms and making the world a better place for the next 7 generations.