Greetins All!

[sweet_bread]

Hello and congrats to all of you. I just got engaged on Monday, but we have already secured a venue and caterers (they came together.) I am in the early planning stages. We are vegan and socially conscious, so we would like our wedding to reflect that. We are having our ceremony outdoors and our reception is at a hall called The Environmental

Comments

[lizzie]

Congratulations on your engagement! You might want to check out our "eco-friendly" tag, as it may have some ideas that might interest you!

[litlaur]

Warm metallics like copper and gold look rustic yet elegant at the same time, IMHO. Blue would be a nice pop of color if you want some contrast, but if you stay in the same color family, I think red would look fantastic.

Tree-free or recycled papers for the invitations. I got mine from http://invitesite.com, but there are a lot of good sources online.

[blueberryeyes17]

The first thing that came to mind was cloth grocery bags for the guests. Are those too expensive? I've never bought them in bulk before! I love the idea of seedlings as well.

[nightsinger]

Oooh, I like that idea. Checking google for "custom cloth grocery bag" comes up with a ton of results, too!

[lalanav]

I saw an episode of some wedding show where a couple was trying to have a green wedding, and they did two things that stood out to me: (1) when they registered, they registered for all green things. The linens were all organic and green (grown in eco-friendly ways, no pesticides, etc etc), the kitchenware was all green (Martha Stewart apparently has a green line), etc., and (2) in lieu of traditional gifts, they made a donation to an organization that literally buys up tracts of forest and puts it in trust so that it never gets bulldozed or developed, etc., thereby saving the planet one acre at a time.

[affectionjunkie]

was this rich bride/poor bride on the We Channel? The East Asian couple?

[lalanav]

YES! I couldn't remember the name of the show!

[affectionjunkie]

yeah. I was watchig it, but got so pissed at the show for trying to show all the un eco-friendly things she did. It seemed like they wanted her to fail so they could feel better about themselves. Also, that wedding planner was pushy as all heck.

[lalanav]

Oh, and a third thing that stood out to me! Everything they used for their wedding was local - so they minimized their carbon footprint by ensuring that all their food was grown or produced locally so no trucks/gasoline were necessary to transport it (they had to negotiate with the vendor on this), they used local-grown flowers, they used organic wine instead of the venue-provided wine, etc., so that everything was green and minimized the effect on the environment. They also encouraged guest car-pooling, and held the reception and ceremony in one location so as to minimize the necessary amount of driving.

[narcissus]

This! I went to a wedding where the couple was genuinely eco-conscious, and their wedding evolved as a natural part of them. The best thing they did was stay local: everything was so much more personal and unique that way. They gave out potted flowers as centerpieces, served local food that was typical of their region and raised locally, used actual wildflowers from the B&B they got married at. The morning before the ceremony all the young people got together and went climbed trees and went fruit picking and then they displayed and served the fruit. I helped the bride make her vegan cake. It was a blast.

(They also forgot to hire waitstaff so I spent half their reception washing dishes, which was less fun. lol.)