One Dubbo couples clever way to raise money for their upcoming wedding

Bride to be, Pagan Hockley and her fiancé Andie Lickiss have been collecting cans and bottles for years until an idea came to them earlier this year when they decided to use the money they made to go towards their wedding.

"I saw another couple I knew from school do a similar thing and I thought why not, we have friends and family that like to have a little drink so we approached them to ask if they minded collecting cans for us, if they did it for themselves we didn't want to impose," she said.

So far the couple have made three big trips to the return and earn and have made just under $1000.

It was in late April that Ms Hockley decided to put up a post on Dubbo's Community Page on Facebook about what they were doing.

"I thought I would put up a post about why we are doing it and see if anyone would like to get rid of the cans and bottles they've got and the community outpouring was very surprising, I wasn't expecting such a positive response to it," she said.

"I wasn't expecting so many people to want to continue to collect for us, that was a nice surprise."

With the wedding to be held at Dubbo Zoo on September 9, 2023 the couple have plenty of time to save up.

"We thought we could aim to pay for our photography with the bottles and cans and if we could do that then we would consider it a pretty damn successful venture," she said.

Ms Hockley said that being able to pay anything off this way, would be the cherry on top.

"That's how we viewed it, if the Facebook post didn't do well, it didn't. There's no harm in asking the question, people can only say no," she said.

"It's such a big help, even if we stopped now, that's still a lot of money that we haven't had to find for the wedding and it's been well worth the effort."

On her Facebook post, Dubbo Region Events commented "If you're attending the South Sydney Rabbitohs v Canberra game on 22 May there will be 'can only' bins to capture cans for recycling purposes. Members of the public are invited to help themselves."

"That was a big one, I was really impressed with them reaching out like that. Kudos to them for it, not often you will see an opportunity like that," she said.

Ms Hockley said she was very surprised with the positive responses she has received on Facebook.

"I didn't receive one negative comment on the post, I had people reach out and say how great of an initiative it was, or people telling me what they've used the money for, or even people saying that had never even thought of it but wished that they had," she said.

Ms Hockley said that it was also a good way to help the environment.

"I travel a lot for work so often in the afternoon I'm out doing my walks and take a bag and pick up cans around town and it helps the community by tidying up the place," she said.

Ms Hockley said that Andie and herself would like to thank everyone who has reached out to help and even those that messaged with kind words but couldn't donate.

"It's been a lovely outpouring of positivity and it was really nice to see," she said.

If you would like to help the couple out you can send Pagan Hockley a Facebook message.

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