Ms. McKay and Mr. Nero broached the idea with their wedding planner, Beth Helmstetter, who about a year ago started a website called the Good Beginning, to ease the process of charitable gift-giving for guests<br />and make gifts trackable the way they are in a regular registry for couples.<br />“When you do something so special as this at one of the two to three most important<br />days of your life, it sends a message to the people who are close to you.”<br />Ms. Culver said what made her happiest were the guests who were not sailors and did not know about Sail to Prevail ahead of time.<br />“What is important to couples is they want to be able to thank people for those donations,”<br />said Ms. Helmstetter, who charges 10 percent of the donation for the service.<br />Since it started last year, some 800 couples have used the platform to set up<br />charitable gift registries, including 10 of her client couples, she said.<br />“It’s easy for people who don’t have the dream of a registry for gifts in the traditional<br />way,” said Anthony Taccetta, a wedding and event planner in New York.
