Funny story…

I was talking to my 7 year old niece on the phone the other day. I’d asked her to be a flower girl at my wedding so she’s very excited about the opportunity. All of a sudden, she asks me if I’m nervous. I ask about what and she replies, “about the wedding”. This is a strange question coming from a 7 year old because you figure they’re a bit too young to realize the permanence of marriage and the overall stress of having a wedding, but I answered her honestly anyhow, saying that yes, I was a little nervous. To reassure me, she replied with, “Don’t worry, I’ll be a great flower girl”. I initially laughed but then had to explain to her that I hadn’t meant I was nervous about her doing a bad job.

After getting off the phone with her I started thinking more and more about what it means that she’ll be a flower girl though. I’m not sure she has any clue, she’s just thrilled to be included in the event. But this wedding isn’t going to be your average wedding. We are having a ceremony and party all in one place, and it’s kinda gonna be a free for all. I’m not worrying about seating arrangements, cutting cakes, who dances with who, and I’m not gonna bore myself and my guests with all that stuff either (you can tell I’m not a big wedding person). [Bouquet by theRussian.etsy.com]

This means also, that there will be no aisle for a flower girl to walk down. And I wasn’t planning on having live plants at it either. So I’ve been thinking of different things that my niece can do as a flower girl that aren’t so traditional either. For instance, perhaps I make her a head piece made of reclaimed faux flowers, as well as a bouquet of salvaged faux flowers to hand out to people…

[Bouquet by ArguingTheMobius.etsy.com]

Or perhaps I just cover her head to toe in flowers made of recycled materials, and make her a literal flower-girl. I think she’d like the attention she’d get from that a lot. Whatever I decide on ultimately, I want the flowers we use to be eco-friendly in one way or another…

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RecycledIdeas came up with a very eco-fabulous idea indeed: Thank you cards made of recycled paper which can be planted so that the seeds contained within them germinate and grow! This is a double whammy of eco-awesomeness and I applaud it!

Just make sure you’re giving people seeds that are native to their neck of the woods! Invasive species can be a pain, for sure, as they are an environmental detriment.

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I love this alternative to using a real bouquet of flowers. Lilfishstudios came up with a bouquet made of vintage buttons and wire! It lasts forever and after your wedding it’s a wonderful keep sake for you, and a great decoration piece for your home!

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First and foremost, check out this wholly entertaining article in Etsy’s news section about a recycled wedding that happened down in Florida. Reading through gave me some great ideas for my own green wedding, which is actually set to take place in South Jersey this August!

So anyhow, one thing mentioned in the above article is a website called Alternative Gift Registry. Here you can create a registry for many different types of events and really make it about what you want, and truly need. It’s time for people to let go of the notion that you should want things because the are traditionally desired. If you don’t need them, don’t ask for em!

Alternative Gift Registry really gives you the freedom to add whatever you’d like to your registry list, and to provide your own links to where the items can be found. It takes care of the dilemma I and I think many other eco-conscious individuals face when it comes time to register. It truly is a magnificent alternative to the registries out there that I’ve encountered and I encourage anyone who needs to create a registry to try it out!

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If you’d rather not buy a brand new dress that is going to get a one-time use, you might consider buying an vintage dress instead. I’ve found a couple beautiful vintage dresses on Etsy…

[by Black Raven Vintage]

[by Ladies of Leisure]

Or simply buying a handmade dress rather than a factory-made dress that’s had no heart or soul poured into it can give it all the more meaning, beauty, and earth-friendliness:

[This is a 1930s Wedding Dress by MissBombShell]

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This “cake” by daisysanddots is made of paper and each individual slice is actually a box that favors can be placed inside of!

Filling each box with something edible, and unpackaged (one of her cakes has a shot of M&Ms inside) means cleaner and greener wedding favors. The box can be later recycled by guests, but even if not, it’s made of paper and thus will not take long to biodegrade.

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So, if you’re anything like me and you think your 7 year old niece can take more interesting pictures than a wedding photographer, you might dig what I’m about to propose. It’s simple really…request that your guests bring digital cameras to the “big day”, and ask them all to take tons of pictures! I personally think you’re gonna get a wealth of unique wedding photos out of this method.

Ok, at this point I’m gonna come right out and confess that I didn’t come up with this idea. It’s been used quite a bit at weddings. The difference is that when used in the past, most of the time it was disposable cameras that were given to the guests. This is a no-no for two big reasons:

1. Those cameras are throw away! Green weddings mean avoiding just those two, anti-environmental words: “throw away”.

2. Giving your guests crappy little cameras that they have little to no control over or familiarity with is not the way to get them to take good looking or interesting pictures.

Digital cameras are so common now-a-days that it’s not an unreasonable request to ask people to bring them. Heck, half the guests bring them whether you ask them to or not! So why not avoid paying a photographer if you like the idea of spontaneous photos that aren’t staged?

Now, when it comes to the task of actually getting those digital photos from your guests, there are a few ways to go about this. One method would be to set up an online form where people can upload their photos to you. It can be hosted at a private url so that only your guests have access to it. Leave little slips of paper at each guest table that contain information on how and where they can share their photos from the day.

Or, if you want to go cheap and avoid all that techno mumbo-jumbo, perhaps set up a Flickr group that your guests can become members of and share their photos with you that way. Flickr hosts all the photos (for free), and when shared, they’re lumped into a nice wedding flickr group for all to view afterwards! I dunno about you but I love actually being able to see the wedding pictures after I’ve been to one, and yet that so rarely happens unless you visit the newly weds and basically request to see their album.

These are just a few of many possible ways to go about retrieving digital photos from your guests. Please share if you know of other convenient online locations where photos can be easily and cheaply shared! I’d love to learn about and share those locations as well!

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These teacup candles, by ecram1 could make for great favors or even neat additions to centerpieces at your next event! They’re made with a natural soy wax, plus the cups that contain the candle can be reused after the candle is burned out! I’m not sure if ecram1 uses cups found in thrift or antique stores, but if that’s the case, it would pretty much make these decorations eco-rrific! If not, and you’d like to take the greenness of this idea up a notch, you could always look into buying some cool retro-looking, used or discarded cups, and do something similar to this yourself, if you’re the crafty type. If you’re not so DIY inclined, perhaps purchasing natural tea candles would be a more hospitable solution to making your own wax.

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Took me long enough! I apologize for the blogging hiatus. Things have gotten and remained considerably busy, what with school and work and efforts to make some extra money on the side with my knitting antics. But don’t fear, I’m still planning on getting hitched, and I still have plenty of green wedding idears floating about in this biophilic brain of mine.

Cool fact: Thanks to my past green wedding blogging efforts, I was noticed by a man who is starting up a magazine called “The Big Day” which will be focusing on weddings, and is also geographically relevant, being devoted to a few counties in central NJ. A while back he interviewed me and the article will be appearing in the magazine’s first issue! I’m pretty jazzed about that fact now that I’ve had time to let it sink in. Here’s a link to the magazine’s website if you’re interested. The magazine will launch in March of 2008, so keep your peepers peeled if you’re a local.

Happy New Year!

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Want to save money AND the environment?

DJ your own wedding. Prevent the electric slide from even being considered as a suitable song to get the masses moving, and save your guests their dignity in the process. This is quite the noble task, even if it’s selfishly saving you hundreds of dollars that you’d otherwise spend on a DJ or band. While it’s not a huge impact on the environment, cutting out the DJ means one less vehicle driving out to your wedding and back.

I realize this may not be possible for everyone but let’s just give you a scenario of how it could be done, and you can decide if you’ve got the resources to do it. Well firstly, your best bet is a wonderful, music-packed, reliable iPod. It might take a few nights of thoughtful consideration to come up with the perfect playlist, but it CAN be done. And hey, maybe you can even throw in some recorded announcements to keep your party moving, and not have to worry that your iPod is hitting on all the single females while it’s making said announcements.

When considering what will be on your playlist, you don’t want to completely alienate any type of music lovers that might be attending (save the country music lovers, because they obviously have issues), so be liberal with your selections, and yet throw in your own personal touch. I don’t know about you but I’m personally tired of the generic music most DJs pump out there at weddings because they have no clue what your personal tastes are, or they simply don’t carry anything that’s not uber mainstream, which is sad but slightly off topic.

Now the big question is, what the HELL do you use to play this music with? You should ask someone running the event if they might have a sound system that you could hook up the iPod to, for starters. If that isn’t possible, perhaps you’re lucky enough to know someone with a sound system. If it comes down to it you could possibly rent one although that might turn into more trouble than it’s worth, albeit it might still be cheaper than the DJ, it won’t necessarily cut back on that extra vehicle trip you were looking forward to avoiding.

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