Planning a Green-ish Wedding

I meant to sit down and write a quick update, here, about the wedding planning Ben and I have been doing lately, and some of the environmental considerations involved in this… but, trying to address the whole notion of a green wedding at once feels suddenly overwhelming. Especially since our wedding planning seems to exist more in the green-ish category.

To keep from freaking out about it all over again, I’m going to leave the thorough explanations of why a green wedding is important to other bloggers and journalists, like Green Blizzard, the San Francisco Examiner, the Green Bride Guide, etc. (this is just a tiny sampling).

Suffice it to say: weddings tend to cause several tons of CO2 emissions.  Several times as many emissions as two people are normally responsible for over the course of a year. Cross-country travel, rampant consumerism, hotel stays, hothouse flowers from whole continents away, conflict jewelry, clothes that will only ever be worn once, a host of disposable decorations, catered food and drink (rarely local, rarely organic), invitations (and all their save the date, wedding program, thank you note, RSVP cousins) and… oh, it goes on and on.

But before I proceed with wrestling with these issues, I want to note two things:

1) I don’t want anyone to feel guilty about what he or she has done or plans to do for their wedding.  We live in a WIC culture (WIC = Wedding Industrial Complex, I just learned this most useful term!) that pushes one full speed ahead towards the above items, and some of them are A) especially hard to avoid and B) meaningful to boot (yes, my Aunt Betty is going to fly to my wedding all the way from California, and I’m deeply grateful for this).

2.) I’m not planning the perfectly green wedding myself. Far from it. But I’m hoping to incorporate greener options where possible.

Ok, admissions made, may I now wax a bit sentimental about this?

I’m about to head to the post office to mail our save the date cards!  Sigh. I do love stationary. It’s one of my environmental achilles heals.  The martyr part of myself was considering swallowing this love of stationary and opting for email invitations, but Ben vetoed that.  And really, I’m grateful he did.

That said, we’ve found a green-ish option for the invites.  We’ve gotten our save the dates (and will soon be getting invitations) from VO Handmade, who I discovered on the crafting sight Etsy.  Her standard cards are 30% recycled, but after inquiring, I found she also had a 100% recycled option, for no additional cost. She also suggested 100% recycled Kraft envelopes, that suit both the “natural” vibe we’re going for, while, you know, actually being more nature-friendly. We’re creating a wedding website with directions, hotel information, etc., to avoid having the host of extra inserts that sometimes announce these things.

I’ve also been thinking about decorations, lately, and ways to be more environmentally and economically mindful about the *stuff* of our wedding. We’ve chosen to use seasonal flowers (we’re getting married in July, which means HYDRANGEAS!) grown in my old hometown. I’m in the process of firming things up with some folks from the farmers market.  I’ve also spent some time on eBay, purchasing vintage mason jars for centerpiece bouquets. I’ve had a couple of these old jars for years — here’s one sporting my recently received birthday flowers:

I was able to find enough jars to match online. Re-used + inexpensive = awesome.  Also, these jars just so happened to say “patented July 14, 1908” … and we’re getting married on July 14!

Green Bride Guide talks about the social and economic benefits of going green, in addition to the obvious environmental ones, and I’ve definitely felt this along the way.

Socially, it means supporting venders who make ethical/environmental choices, and encouraging more venders to incorporate these options.  Weddings put a lot of money into the community (note: supposedly the “average” wedding cost $26K (um, seriously?), which is WAY more than we’re spending, but even our more-modest-arrangements constitute a major expenditure). I’m trying to be mindful about the community our wedding is investing in.

Economically, going green can help reduce that average wedding cost. Sometimes. If you’re savvy. Other times it can end up more expensive, but we’re trying not to go there.

Anyhow, I’ve enjoyed being in touch with the woman who is designing our invitations, and I’m happy to support her art and her lovely small business. I’m also happy to encourage the recycled side of what she offers.  Likewise, scoring those jars on eBay was fun (and cheap), and working with local flower growers forms another meaningful connection, for me, with the town where I grew up.  It’s also way cheaper.  And my mom’s extensive experience with flowers, and some friends who are aesthetically astute and generous with their time, have me feeling pretty good about doing the flowers ourselves (also: we’re going with really simply arrangements).

A few other ways we’re trying to work environmentally/socially/economically responsible options into our wedding:

1. We’re renting a couple of our small town’s local buses to get people to/from the wedding chapel (there just isn’t any parking right at our chapel by the lake). Using these (small) buses is less expensive than going with chartered buses, and it supports the local transportation system.

2. Instead of cake, we’re having pies made by a *fabulous* local orchard, featuring their own seasonal fruits.

3. For favors, Ben’s mom and I are making jam. She makes tons of delicious jam every summer, and I’m excited to learn from the master.  (We’ll use local, seasonal berries.)

4. Beer and wine: I come from something of a beer mecca, and we’ll be having locally brewed beer at the wedding (Ben’s on top of this point). The local wine isn’t quite as notable, but it’s perfectly respectable, and I’m hoping we’ll use that as well.

5.  We aren’t going with matching bridal party outfits. We really do hope our friends standing up with us will be wearing clothes that they either A) already own, or B) would at least want to wear again (maybe I’m fooling myself — I know every bride claims this will happen with the bridesmaid dresses she orders… but I’m hoping that not requiring actual “bridesmaid dresses” will make this more likely).

6. We’re holding our reception in a reclaimed furniture factory near where I grew up. After watching this factory stand empty for years, I hope this new venture (it’s been converted into lofts, restaurants, businesses and an event space) will thrive, and I’m excited to hold our bash here.

That’s all I can think of for now, but I’ll try to update as further plans get under way.  Needless to say, I’m very excited about it all, and I welcome any words of wisdom you might have