We are so grateful and honored to have our family and friends travel from all over the country to see us get married. Your presence at our celebration means more than anything to us, and nothing more is requested or expected.

What do two 30-somethings that have lived on their own and/or together for over a decade really need? Truthfully, nothing! We've already got pots and pans and sheets and towels; we even have the much-coveted Kitchen-Aid.

We have given a lot of thought to the fact that there are so many people out there that are truly in need. So, we hope you'll consider donating to a charity in honor of our wedding. We have registered at a site that allows you to donate to a few charities that are important to us.

And for those of you that want to help us become even better cooks than we already are (ha ha!), we have registered for a few select items at Macy's.

Thank you all for sharing this wonderful moment with us.

More about the charities

We selected four charities for our registry. The first, American Heart Association, is in honor of Bo's mom. Although she's no longer with us, a heart transplant let her watch her kids grow up and meet her first grandchild.

We chose the second charity, Habitat for Humanity, to honor the volunteer work that Karen's mom and dad have done and continue to do with Habitat.

The third charity is the Algebra Project Network. APN strives to improve mathematics achievement for African American and other minority students who have not been reached by existing efforts at education reform. We picked this one because, well, we're nerds and we like math and believe in the power of education.

The fourth and final charity is the Sierra Club Foundation, chosen because even though Karen's career has taken her in different places than she thought when she got her Natural Resources degree, she (and Bo) still believe protection of the environment and natural resources is important.