The internet has revolutionized crowdfunding by creating an unprecedented interconnectedness that allows people from all over the world to hear each other’s stories and help those whose stories touched them in particular. Today, you can send aid to hurricane victims in Florida, help a single mother start her small business in Ohio, and even help this couple from Saskatchewan make their dream wedding a reality, all in just a few clicks.
Jason Mielke and Rebecca Winter Hansen from Saskatchewan, Canada are engaged to be married, but they need some help making their wedding a special one. Young couples ask friends and family for help planning their big day all the time, these two lovebirds are actually asking complete strangers to basically sponsor their nuptials. They’ve set up a website where they try to explain why they opted for crowdfunding to celebrate their union with a wedding that accurately captures their unwavering love instead of simply eloping, and hope that their love story will make people and corporations want to give them a hand.
Photo: Jason Mielke and Rebecca Winter Hansen
“When a brand or product service or company makes a donation and gives to us, it’s an association that is made with a happy, positively emotionally charged moment,” Winter Hansen told CBC. “And the result is always a long-lasting and double-fold reciprocal return. The power of giving always moves everyone towards greatness and making the impossible possible.”
The couple met in 2015, when Winter walked into the Southland Mall Library, to destress before an exam. It was there that she saw Jason for the first time and it was love at first sight. She recalls his “just phenomenal haircut”, sitting down across the table where he was reading. “I said, ‘Hey, how ya doing’ and the rest was history,” Winter said. They’ve been together ever since and now want to take their relationship to the next level with an elegant and spectacular wedding.
Photo: Jason Mielke and Rebecca Winter Hansen
Both Jason and Rebecca have faced abuse and trauma in their past relationships with family and significant others, which has made their bond to one another that much stronger. They have found solace and peace within each other and they wish to celebrate their love with a wedding that accurately captures that devotion.
Unfortunately, as Jason puts it, “the closing of career doors have halted the process of giving Rebecca our Dream Winter Wedding.” Mielke lost his job in the oil and gas industry last January, but the couple didn’t let that small financial setback ruin their dream. They turned to crowdfunding instead, asking strangers to send anything they could spare so that Jason could give “the girl of his dreams” all that she’s ever wanted.
Photo: Jason Mielke and Rebecca Winter Hansen
If you’re wondering what your money will buy, Jason and Winter mention some of the things they’d like, on their Dream Winter Wedding website. The list includes pre-spa services for the bride and made of honor, a red carpet leading to the church, Saskatoon berry champagne, and a gluten-free wedding cake.
So, if you’re a sucker for a good love story and you’ve got a comfortably cushioned wallet, this might be the perfect act of kindness for you to partake in today. And, apart from that warm and fuzzy feeling of making someone else’s dream come true, sponsors also receive an invitation to the wedding, on November 25.
