Make Your White Wedding A Little Green

This wiki will be your knowledge powerhouse for greening your wedding.  Let's face it, some of us have large families and they have large expectations!  But there is a way to make everyone happy, including the environment.  So if eloping isn't an option, here are a few ideas that might make you stay sane!

Preparations:

Invitations:

• Naturally Ever After’s collection of wedding invitations are made from quality, recycled paper containing at least 30 percent post-consumer fibers. These wedding invitations and accessories combine nature-inspired artistry with richly textured colorful papers certain to make you proud of your wedding ensemble choice.  Website
• Twisted Limb Paperworks designs 100% recycled wedding invitations.  Twisted Limb even offers seed paper, which allows you to send invitations that incorporate wildflower seeds in them; your guests can bury your invitation directly in the ground to grow beautiful flowers!  Website
• InviteSite offers tree-free invitations, made from materials such as mulberry and mango leaves, in addition to recycled-paper options. They also use vegetable-based inks and letterpress printing, which reduces paper waste from printing. Website
• Make some fun for the two of you, make your own paper for your invitations!  Here is one site to show you how...
• Have a lot of friends in the internet generation?  Send out nice e-vites.  There are also websites like OurWeddingDay.com that let you send out save-a-dates, invitations, and other updates as well as track your RSVP and get updated addresses so less mail gets sent back.
• If building a "wedding website" doesn't sound like a tacky idea to you, consider creating one to provide all the details for your guests. You'll eliminate paper and additional postage by not printing extra cards for reception info, hotels and directions. Sites like ewedding.com allow you to set up online RSVPs and password-protect them, so you can get rid of paper RSVPs altogether.
• Keep it small.  Let's face it - your aunt's cousin's roommate's friend's hairdresser doesn't really want to come to your wedding.  As with anything, the smaller the event, the lower the environmental impact.

Transportation:

• Charter a bus (or a few buses) to take guests to and from hotels or homes in the area.  They will appreciate the ride and so will the environment.

Other:

• For more ideas, check out the book "Organic Weddings: Balancing Ecology, Style and Tradition" by Michelle Kozin.

Showers:

Registries:

• Ideas?  Enter them here... 

Food:

• Ask the party planners to have a vegan/vegetarian spread with as many local, organic ingredients as possible!  You can find plenty of tasty recipes at the Post Punk Kitchen or you can make delicious vegan cupcakes using this wonderfully delicious book Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World!
• Ditch the usual disposables and use tree-free, petroleum free alternatives for your tableware like the ones found here or you could try some recycled, re-usable table wear like that from Preserve. 

   

Gift Ideas:

• If you want nice new things to start your new life, don't forget to donate your old things!  It is understandable that you have been waiting for that chance to ask for the fancy new griddle or the latest outdoor grill, but don't be wasteful, if you can't do without the new stuff, take your old things to Good Will, or give them to a local charity auction.
• If you already have most of what you need or you don't want to ask for items, then give your family and friends the name of some charities that they can donate money to in your name.

Attire:

Dresses:

• Shop at a consignment store or reuse a family dress.
• Make your own! Near Sea Naturals has a wide selection of fabrics, laces, and ribbons, including formal white silk/hemp blends.
• If money isn't an object, then spare no expense, there are several websites where you can order organic hemp, cotton, and silk wedding dresses:  Rawganique, Rene Geneva, Conscious Clothing, Tara Lynn, Annatarian, Deborah Lindquist,  Chris Kole’s Cotton Bride Collection, Threadhead Creations, Olivia Luca,  Morgan Boszilkov, Justin Alexander's Pure Collection, a few of the Clair Pettibone are natural, Jessica Iverson.

Shoes:

• Born Shoes
• El Naturalista - stylish footwear with a smaller footprint
• Beyond Skin - a vegan shoe boutique
• Melissa - plastic shoes
• Mohop - This is a studio in Chicago that makes low, medium, and high heeled platforms for shoes out of maple, cherry, or walnut from sustainable forests. You then choose ribbons that lace in the sides of the platform to strap your feet on.

Tux:

• Rather than buying a new tux, rent or buy a used one.  That way you save money and aren't wasting energy and materials in making a tuxedo that you'll only wear once or twice in your whole lifetime.

Jewelry:

• Brilliant Earth provides the highest quality jewelry originating from pure sources and harvested using socially responsible practices.

Accessories:

Flowers:

• Get locally grown flowers or make your own from fabric/clothing you found at a thrift store. You can even make arrangements from recycled paper or sweet fabric flowers!

Decorations:

• Use Potted plants instead of cut floral arrangements, several places rent out plants for special events, try to find one that grows local varieties and doesn't use chemicals or pesticides.
• Go to a thrift store, or just go through your Grandmother's garage/attic.  Old lace shower curtains and other frilly things from those days are perfect for decorations - birdseed bags, ribbons for center pieces, and anything else you can imagine that uses lace!
• Light up the occasion with some naturally scented soy candles.

Other:

• Wedding Party gifts - it is usually customary to give a gift to those that participate in your wedding, try gift baskets containing organic products like lotion and soap for the women, and shaving cream and hair gel for the men.  Throw in some organic candy, some soy candles, and maybe a gift card to Whole Foods, you'll have them taken care of!

Ceremony:

Location:

• Have an outdoor wedding.  Keeping the ceremony outside means you're not using the energy to heat/cool/light/etc. a large building, and can also make for a more memorable setting.

Timing:

• Take energy consumption in to consideration -summer and winter events will require heating or air conditioning, plan for a mild time.  Also night weddings will need to be lit, you can always buy some carbon off-set credits to balance the light bill.

Length:

• Keep the ceremony short.  There's no need to put all of your guests to sleep during a long boring sermon.  Get through the ceremony, lower the total energy consumption, and get to the good part - the reception and honeymoon!

Reception:

Location:

• Try to have your reception and ceremony at the same location to cut down on transportation.
• If you choose to go with an indoor location, or weather doesn't permit and outdoor one, research some non-traditional locations. Some venues are naturally heated and cooled (geothermally), which reduces energy consumption. (The Wabasha Street Caves in St. Paul, Minn., is a good example.)

Catering:

• Get food that's low on meat to reduce your catering environmental impact.
• If you are having a smaller wedding or your reception is at a home or public setting, think about having homemade food, get your family involved.  Here are some guidelines on servings that might help.
• Find a venue that uses fresh local and/or organic ingredients for a delicious celebratory meal
• Serve organic wines and local beers at the bar
• Don't over-do the food, remember quality not quantity!  If all else fails and there still is tons of food leftover see if you can donate some of it to a homeless shelter or soup kitchen.

Entertainment:

• Instead of sitting around in a building using up energy, do a fun activity outside.  Throw some frisbees around.  You can even print your wedding date/information on the frisbees and give them out as favors.

Other:

• Ideas?  Enter them here...

Honeymoon:

Locations:

• Look for a fun honeymoon location that's not too far from your hometown.  You'll probably be spending most of your time in the hotel anyway, right?  Nudge, nudge.
• Go on an Eco-honeymoon!  There are plenty of green getaways everywhere from Tropical locations to more adventurous destinations such as the ones found here!

Transportation:

• If you fly or otherwise travel a long distance, offset your transportation emissions with renewable energy credits or carbon offsets.

Romance:

• Need some Eco-friendly romance advice, here is a link to another wiki - how to green your bedroom fun, and here is a thread recently posted with several ideas!