How to Have a Green Wedding
Weddings are a big score. They may also be a huge source of waste. Wedding gowns are only worn once, and bridesmaids’ robes often likely as well. Wedding receptions generate a large amount of trash and unreal marriage favors that may be thrown out after the wedding. Many people travel a long distance to get to the weddings of loved ones, using up crucial resources and adding pollution to an already strained environment.
If you have been considering how to have your wedding without doing too much environmental damage, consider a green wedding. Green weddings are growing more and more popular. They are often less expensive are just as satisfying. All it takes is a little bit of planning, and you may have a wedding ceremony and reception that leaves you guilt-free.
Choose a marriage robe you can wear on other occasions, either as-is, or with some modifications. Likewise, the now well-liked trend of asking bridesmaids to just wear an identical color or general style of dress means they do not have to buy a pricey robe to wear only once. For guests in the local area, try organizing automobile pools to reduce the amount of cars wanted to get to your nuptials.
Look at your wedding reception hall, too. Many huge spaces suited to wedding receptions use up lots of energy. Consider an outdoor space instead, though you need to have a contingency plan if the reception is rained out. If you have your wedding reception catered, select items possessing a low ecological impact. Dodge endangered fish species and exotic foods that have traveled a long way. Typically , select local local food and drinks whenever possible. Also, ask your caterer to use reusable dishes, or provide your own. Dishes can be donated to 2nd hand stores or other charities after the wedding if you do not wish to store them.
Try sending out invitations printed on recycled paper, and reduce waste when it comes to wedding favors and place settings. Either give out edible wedding favors with at least packaging, or something practical that your visitors will be in a position to reuse at home. Wildflower seeds are a well-liked option.
To cut back the impact of the gold industry, you may have your wedding bands made from recycled gold. Local and seasonal flowers for the bride’s and bridesmaids’ bouquets, as well as for garlands and decorations cause less damage than hothouse flowers or ones that have to be imported. If you, like many couples, already have everything you need for everyday life, ask your visitors to donate to a good cause or offset some carbon emissions instead of registering for gifts. It is simple to have a green wedding if you remember the 3 R’s ? Reduce, reuse, and recycle.
What Makes Up Greenish Weddings
Green or greenish weddings are today’s fast popularizing type of wedding. It is probably the best way to spend such significant and memorable moment and get close and intimate with nature at the same time. Garden weddings are considerable greenish weddings with all the green plants and decorations accentuating the occasion. Greenish weddings have a certain fresh and purifying appeal to the newlyweds end even to the guests, which makes it a very interesting idea for a wedding celebration.
Aside from having a greenish set up for a wedding, a green wedding is also about eco-friendly products like organic flowers, peace silk wedding gowns, tree and seed favors, and recycled paper invitations. As global issues regarding our fast decreasing natural reserves continue to hit the news, green weddings are probably the best way to deliver a message of everyone or anyone doing a single part in saving our very own planet.
Eco-Friendly Wedding Favors: Great Tips for a Green Wedding
A hot wedding trend this year is planning events that are green, often referred to as “green”. With plenty more green products available to customers now, many couples are choosing to praise the earth by having wedding events that are less wasteful; more about giving something back to the earth.
Being environmentally conscious is a lifestyle choice and it’s starting with their wedding day. If you and your future spouse care more on the environment and less about having a frilly, wasteful wedding, why not consider becoming green for your own wedding with these superb new ecologically friendly marriage favor ideas?
Flowers in bloom. One of the greatest gifts an environmentally conscious couple can give to their wedding guests is seeds that can be planted in the earth to renew life. There are lots of wonderful eco-friendly wedding favors that incorporate this idea, like marriage favor flower packets, wild flower seed packets and flower pots. One cute way to use these as favors are to set terra cotta flower pots on tables with some biodegradable foam and moss in the base, mount the seed packets onto bamboo sticks and make an “arrangement” with them in the pot.
Guests can then take them home and plant the flowers in their own gardens, in the park or in window planters to enjoy them as they flower. The couple can even use this concept as part of their marriage celebration – rather than lighting a unity candle, they can place two seed packets into one pot and then convey that as the seeds sprout and grow, so too does their love grow and become something even more beautiful.
Go natural. There are many lovely natural products that can be used for marriage dcor and favors at your green wedding event. Some beautiful ideas include place card holders made out of bamboo shoots or sea shells. These things can be placed on tables for guests to enjoy during the wedding and reception, then later on, for displaying wedding photos, recycled paper marriage reports and other tiny treasures from your wedding day. Be certain to donate any items to the recycling or resale stores after your wedding so that others can reuse them.
Biodegradable is better. The green products that are available today include many products that are absolutely biodegradable – like paper products, beeswax and soy candles, and marriage dcor made with 100 percent recycled material. It’s not difficult to find just the right items that will not pollute the environment when you toss them or if they incidentally finish up on the ground. Some excellent biodegradable items include burlap wedding favor coasters and butterfly seed baskets. Just think plenty of natural fibers and you will find many excellent wedding favors that won’t harm the environment once the party ends.
Forget the AC – use fans. What simpler way to reduce electricity waste by getting rid of air-con at your green wedding? If you think ahead, you can plan your wedding on a pleasant warm spring or autumn day, but if it does happen to get a little hotter than common, one wonderful eco friendly marriage favor concept for guests are foldable fans made out of sandalwood or silk. These fans can even be customized if you like and used later on for other events as they fit neatly inside pockets and purses. Your guests will feel like they are in an old school marriage when you present them with fans like this as it adds a pleasant touch of charm for your green wedding day.
The eco-friendly wedding is a thoughtful way for you to remind others that it’s extremely necessary to take care of the earth so that we can all enjoy the fresh air, blue skies and all that nature provides for us to be happy.
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Green Wedding Preparations
Global warming has alerted everyone around the globe that even the most blissful ceremony-the wedding- has turned green. Wedding planners are becoming concerned for Mother Earth that they have taken heed to the world-saving tips of how a wedding must be.
The question is how to make a green wedding. The answer is go for inexpensive wedding preparation, ceremony and reception. That will surely mitigate the crime we have done to nature! So, how exactly to do it? Just read on.
For invitations, use vegetable-based inks and recycled papers. Or better, send your invitation through e-mail. It allows your guests to promptly respond to your invitation.
As to the gown, a green bride must go to vintage stores or rental shops. She can also dig an old chest where a lovely sentimental heirloom gown is laid. If these are not enticing, buy a wedding gown made of hemp silk.
For the decors, make use of locally grown plants for the bouquet and small lovely potted plants as centerpieces. Take your potted plants to the location and, to the reception.
The perfect locations for any green wedding are any places like art galleries, botanical gardens, eco-friendly restaurants, hotels and parks. Do not choose a place far from guests’ homes in order to minimize carbon emission. To save a lot, make wedding ceremony location and reception the same.
The perfect honeymoon activity is to take a green vacation to green hotel resorts or make an eco-friendly tour. Better, volunteer for a preservation project. That makes your honeymoon helpfully romantic!
Green wedding is definitely cool. Sooner or later, nature will blossom again to applaud it.
Green Homegrown Apples Are Good to Use for Wedding Decors
Brides are always attempting to find fresh and creative concepts for their weddings. Instead of limiting yourself to flowers, consider using some fresh fruit in your displays as well. For summer weddings, green apples will look terrific.
If you have not thought about using fruit in your marriage dcor before, you may not realize how flexible it can be. Apples are a good choice, because they are hardy, readily available, and inexpensive. Not to mention that they can be eaten after the wedding. Red apples will give your wedding an autumnal look. For summertime receptions, the fresh color of green apples will be perfect.
The bright spring green of a Gramps Smith apple looks amazing as an accent color for a pink themed wedding. One of the most interesting ways to use the apples is to fill clear cylinders with them. You can then use that as the base for pink floral displays for the centerpieces. The green apples make a great contrast with the pink flowers. The pop of color will add liveliness and dimension to your tables.
Another nice way to use green apples is for your escort cards. Tie a tiny card bearing the name of each guest to the stem of an apple. It might be cute if the cards were in the shape of a leaf. The green apples will make a striking display lined up in rows. These escort cards make a nice change from the basic white ones.
Once you have found some places to use the fresh apples, you may need to carry that pop of green into other parts of your wedding. It is such a straightforward color to use ; it appears to be great paired with ivory or ivory, purple, pink, and even brown. Because it is an attention-grabbing color, a little will go a long way.
A nice place to bring in the apple green color is in your candles. Little round green votive candles will look wonderful in clear glass holders. You can position them around the centerpieces on the tables. You can also use them to brighten up the powder room. Placing a few green candles with a mini from your centerpieces in the flowers from your centerpieces in the ladies’ room is a great way more pleasant. It is those sorts of details which may set your marriage except for the crowd.
There are other places where an astonishing pop of apple green color would be a nice touch. For instance, an all-white bridal ensemble might be brightened up with some handmade wedding jewelry featuring the apple green. Wedding jewellery can be handmade using apple green Swarovksi crystals scattered in with white pearls. It is a very fresh and pretty look for your bridal earrings and necklace. Your visitors will be sure to notice your unique jewelry.
Of course, you will not need all of that great fruit to be wasted at the end of your reception, so make plans to use it. The escort card apples can definitely be eaten by the guests. If you have apples submerged in water as a part of your centerpieces, you will doubtless not need to fish them out for distribution in the reception. An alternative would be to have the florist or caterer retrieve them after the party to donate to a shelter (you would need to have advance approval for this, as not all places can accept perishables ) .
Another terrific way to use the apples would be to have the caterer give them to somebody to make home made jars of applesauce and applebutter. When they are sealed in jars, these things have a particularly long shelf-life, and would make a mouth watering memory of your marriage. Each time that you pull a jar of your wedding applesauce from the cupboard, it’ll be a content reminder of your special day.
Green Wedding Favors of Your Own Making
I have ceased being lazy and so I shopped for decors for my wedding. Here are what I bought:
• My mom bought for me three-yard rolls of French Damask wired ribbon which she spotted on the bottom shelf at a Joann’s fabrics for about $4/$5 a roll. I went to another Joann’s branch and bought the only roll left. It’s the most beautiful damask type ribbon I’ve ever seen and it’s cheaper than online.
• FH and I bought a wax seal stamper which we found in Michaels. It stamps our initials in small letter except for FH’s F for his last name.
• I actually ordered 2 and 4 karat sized acrylic diamond confetti but what were delivered to me were in 1 karat sizes. I ordered it online but the webpage did not say the product is from Hong Kong. I just knew that I was charged with foreign exchange fee in my bank account. Apparently, I found the products off but I will find uses for them. But, I will still look for what I am looking for in other stores.
• I also bought small damask appetizer/cake paper plates in black and white colors. I found them at Target for $2 per 10 packs.
• I did my bridesmaids a favor. I bought for them cute magnet frames at Target which were worth $1 each.
New Couples Today Welcome the Idea of Green Weddings
Is it stylish to have a green wedding? Yes, it’s a trend but is here for good. Having a celebration and leaving a little footprint on the planet is the new way to demonstrate the couples love and their love for the planet. Today’s eco aware couples are incorporating their beliefs into their wedding planning.
Green marriages can be achieved in tiny steps or giant leaps. Every small step is a positive step for the environment. Some couples will attempt to have as close to a hundred percent green wedding, although that is very unlikely. Some will easily incorporate smaller eco-friendly changes.
Here are recommendations complied from couples to “green” the wedding:
All invitations and released materials should be on recycled paper. You should buy invites with wildflower seeds embedded into the paper. After the marriage, the guest can tear up the invitation, plant it and enjoy wildflowers.
The wedding rings should be from recycled gold. There are jewelers who specialize in melting down gold or family heirlooms and refashioning it into wedding bands. Duck “blood diamonds” by making certain any diamond is conflict free. Diamonds from Canada are conflict free or consider substituting mossionite for a diamond. There are green jewelers who can lead you in the choice that is suitable for you as a couple.
The most green venue is to have the wedding at the court house with no guests so there are no travel emissions into the atmosphere… But most couples wish to have a party, and are selecting to have the wedding close to home so that the guests do not have to travel. Some are having it outside in nature, a beach, woodland, lake. If guests have to travel, there are web sites that track travel carbon emissions, and for a fee, neutralise the CO2. The getaway vehicle can be a hybrid or pony and carriage.
All the food should be hereabouts grown with fresh seasonal ingredients. It should be served on recyclable or biodegradable plates, cutlery or glasses. Some couples only have vegan food and the wedding cake made with free range chicken eggs, but most will opt for a more conventional fare. The food should be organic and fresh, without pesticides. Drinks should be organic, and yes, there are many organic beers and wines.
Flowers should also be organic without pesticides and locally grown. Some brides are reusing the flowers at the rehearsal dinner for the reception. Or you can use the flowers at the church for the reception. After the marriage, they are taking them to nursing houses so that they can be enjoyed. Other brides are carrying bouquets of fresh herbs and using fresh herbs in clay pots at the reception tables. Guests can take them home and use them. Others are using clay pots full of blooming bulb plants on the tables that guests can plant at home.
And what about the bride’s dress? There are standard marriage dresses made of natural fibers like hemp, silk, linen, and cotton. Or restyle an heirloom family dress or a vintage dress. If you choose a standard dress of satin or man made material, give the dress after the wedding to a charitable organization like Making Memories where the dress profits go to helping breast cancer victims.
For the groom, think about the normal way of hiring a tuxedo or wearing a wool, linen, hemp or cotton suit.
Green couples are eschewing favors in place of giving money to eco-friendly organizations such as the World Wildlife Foundation or the National Arbor Day Foundation. You can print up cards on recycled card stock that tell the guests that a tree was donated in their name in lieu of an individual wedding favor. Or you can print it on a sign board near the guest book and loan the board to other friends getting wed. Now, that is recycling!
Greening the wedding is a step forward for the planet, one tiny step at a time.
The Get-Away Car
Wedding is, of course, fun. But, is it still fun if after the wedding reception when you find your getaway car covered with stickers, notes, and strings?
According to an anonymous bride or groom, it takes more than an hour to manually remove stickers.
Sticking notes is a wedding tradition which purports to create fun. But the hassle it gives makes one think if it’s a fun tradition or not. For me, it depends upon how easy it is to remove all the sticky notes and if the car exterior coat is not peeled off. When this tradition was done to our car, the bride and I opted to ride on my father’s car to avoid humiliation. My father would have seriously beat down the one responsible for the sticking.
I like the fact that I was married that day because, for one, I got the attention of everyone whom I expected to be thoughtful. But, tradition got me annoyed. It wasn’t a thoughtful act. If it is a hired car, the newlyweds will have to pay to clean the car upon returning it but if it is their own car, they will have to clean it themselves or hire someone to do it. But, newlyweds have many more things to do and they have other things to pay than cleaning fee.
Because of what happened at my wedding day, I’ve hated this tradition. But, I know there are many people who still approve of it and still consider it as part of wedding day.
Green Ideas For a Green Wedding
If you’re looking for green reception concepts for a wedding, then you need to read this article. Organizing a wedding reception with a lower effect on the environment does not need to be more expensive or advanced than a conventional reception, in fact your visitors might not know the difference till you tell them. Once you have finished reading these common questions you’ll be ready to plan your wedding in good conscience.
Are Flowers Bad For the Environment?
The commercial flower industry often uses cruel insecticides and poisons when growing their products. These chemicals unfortunately do not stay on the plant, they also run off into the soil and eventually contaminate the groundwater. To avoid this, consider shopping for an organic florist, which will source their flowers from growers who have committed to using all natural strategies for their production.
How Can I Recycle My Wedding Leftovers?
Although many wedding decorations such as flowers are perishable, they will certainly still be gorgeous in the days after your marriage. So many flowers and centerpieces are thrown away and finish up in landfills, when they could bring contentment to others before their usefulness is gone. Consider donating your leftover flowers to nursing homes, hospitals, and other places where they may brighten somebody’s mood. The leftover food will be welcomed by a local foodbank or shelter.
What Other Green Wedding Reception Practices Should I Consider?
The linens and serviettes that folk frequently hire for their receptions are usually dry cleaned in a solution known as perchloroethylene, or “perc” for short. This chemical is a known carcinogen and is bad for the environment. Also, the fabrics themselves could be artificial and be made from products. Consider hiring a seller that uses green dry cleaning methods such as liquid CO2, and provides all natural table linens made from cotton or wool.
How Much costlier is a Green Wedding Reception?
Honestly, it doesn’t need to be much more expensive than a conventional reception at all. Plenty of the techniques described above simply take a little extra planning ahead of time, but cost absolutely nothing. Organic farming has become conventional enough at about that point that most larger metro areas will have many options for florists and caterers which will provide organic and lower impact options. At the very least, if you’re a socially conscious person it is worth exploring your options before you select normal sellers and strategies for your reception.
As you can see, reception concepts for a marriage which has less impact on the environment are actually not all that hard to come by or a load more pricey than usual. You can see that by selecting organic alternatives in your flowers and linens, insisting on less damaging dry cleaning, and giving instead of wasting the leftovers, your wedding reception can be something you are proud of. Now get busy planning! Our planet will say thank you for it.
Green Weddings: Couples Say “I Do” with Conflict-Free Wedding Jewelry
Rings pop out in mind when the topic is wedding. But, since green wedding is the fad nowadays, it is worth asking, what’s a green ring?
The eco-friendly wedding ring is no less than the recycled one. Recycled? Yes. Recycled gold has the same value with newly-mined gold. If you don’t like the design of your old gold ring, try to melt it and re-refine.
If the diamond ring is what is planned for engagement, make sure yours are conflict-free, that is, the precious stones are not illegally mined. Do opt to buy diamonds that have passed Kimberly Process, a system that imposes stringent requirements on imports to certify that diamonds are free from conflict. Check out also if the store where you will buy the ring is legal to avoid trouble.
If diamonds are too expensive for you, go for vintage jewelry. Why not use the heirloom, the jewelry that is passed down to you from your mother or father? That will save a lot of money, plus, using it will increase the sentimental value of the jewelry.
By choosing a green ring, you don’t only minimize your budget, but help nature as well. So, make a green choice. Choose a green ring!
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