Planning an eco-friendly wedding with minimal impact is really REALLY hard! And a lot of times it means spending an extra buck (or hundreds...). It's so incredibly easy to get swept up in everything that surrounds wedding planning and you suddenly realize that you're drowning in clutter and can't clearly see that goals you were striving to meet anymore. But if I remember correctly, holding true to our tree-hugger values was one of them.
Obviously, C and I don't have the means to have the ultimate green wedding. There will be energy expended, there will be carbon emitted, and there will be non-local products purchased. It can't be helped and I'm becoming okay with that. As I said, earth-friendly isn't cheap and, just as there's no such thing as "free energy", I don't believe that "energy free" really exists either. You can't create something from nothing but here are a few things we're doing to make our nuptials easier on Mother:
My dress. Handmade by me. Automatically eco-chic, right? Well, not always. Just because the gown wasn't made in a far-away factory doesn't mean the fabric used to make the gown wasn't. However, I know that polyester-based fabrics produce tons of waste and use lots of energy to make so I'm sticking with (as much as I can) 100% silk. Many don't know that silk is a natural fiber woven from the cocoons of little silkworms.
The ceremony and reception. We're on the brink of deciding to just have the two at the same place. A truly difficult decision for us because we really want an outdoor ceremony. However, our reception hall has tons of skylights and windows and a cute little terrace so it'll have to do. By having the ceremony at our reception hall, we're reducing the need for our guests to travel to different venues. We're also eliminating the "drag time" between the two events.
The reception hall. C and I have a lot of out-of-town guests that are invited. We're also having an open bar. These two factors automatically decided that we choose a hotel ballroom as our venue so guests will have the option of not needing to drive at the end of the night.
The flowers. Since the wedding is in June it shouldn't be a problem to find a local greenhouse to supply our blooms. One with organic practices is preferable of course, but not practical if it's prohibitively expensive. I love flowers but I'm okay with limiting them to bouquets and boutonnieres.
The centerpieces. I'm robbing Peter to pay Paul on this one. The truly eco-friendly thing to do in this case is to just use the centerpieces that the hotel provides (which are totally boring by the way). However, I'm justifying my stimulation of the economy by creating centerpieces that can be reused, say, as the following year's Christmas gifts. Apothecary jars are cool and multi-functional -- not like that enormous martini glass from so-and-so's wedding that's been sitting under my sink for five years.......
The food. We don't have much control over the food because we have to use the hotel's caterer but I am working with them on exploring some organic and locally-produced options.
The cake and cupcakes. I am lucky enough to have a friend who went to school to be a pastry chef. If I'm lucky enough to talk her into making my desserts, I can guarantee that they'll be made with organic ingredients and no preservatives.
The rings. Hand crafted by a local jeweler.
I guess it's kind of like a marriage -- sometimes you have to make compromises to find a solution that best suits everyone. Imagine that....
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