Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Your Environment Friendly Wedding Can Help Save Mother Earth


With all the destruction and damage done to our environment, Mother Earth calls for your help. What better way to help her than to start with your own environment friendly wedding day when you are also about to start your own family just like Mother Earth?

Let’s begin with the invites. The invitation should be made from recycled paper or handmade paper. And since we are into the modern times, try and check out invites that are sent through email. There are also plenty of places online that offer an invitation service.

Next, we have the flowers for the bride, her entourage, and the decoration. You may want to use those that are home grown or freshly picked from the gardens. Avoid those wedding flowers that are sprayed with insecticides.

For venue, choose an outdoor wedding. You can have a garden wedding, or wedding in a local park, or a beach wedding. Your environment-friendly wedding should be able to showcase the beauty of nature and why it is important to preserve it.

Moving to the wedding dress and clothing, there are many organic materials that you can choose from. The bridal gown should be made from natural fibers like silk, stain, hemp, organic cotton. Or you can go retro and recycle your mom’s or granny’s wedding gown while the groom can wear a vintage suit.

The symbol of love, the ring, should also conform to one’s being environment friendly. Instead of going for the diamond which is mined and endangers lives as well as the earth, try buying a green wedding ring from an ethical jeweler who specializes in environment friendly weddings. Ethical jewelers make sure that the gems they sell are produced responsibly.

Let’s go to one of the most awaited and important part of the festivities, the wedding reception. You may want to avail of the services of a caterer who concentrates on environment friendly weddings. You may opt to go total vegan, or semi-vegetarian. Whatever your choice is, you have to make sure that the food you serve shows your advocacy towards saving Mother Earth.

The wedding cake should also be all natural. Use natural sweeteners and organic ingredients. Although quite rare, you may want to find a baker that specializes in vegan or vegetarian wedding cakes.

Of course, you cannot let your guests go without giving favors. For your wedding party favors, you can visit organic retail stores that sell or offer novelty eco-friendly items such as handmade soaps, potpourri from dried flowers and leaves, organic scented candles, and the likes. You may also want to convince your guests to donate whatever amount they feel comfortable with to causes that will help save Mother Earth.

As a culmination of the wedding festivities, you can also conduct some environment-friendly activities to increase the consciousness of your wedding party and guests to the good cause that you are advocating.

When the wedding is over, you can gather what is left-over such as flowers and recycle them to a hospital or nursing home. To save on paper, you can send your wedding photos to your family and friends online via email or use a website that specializes in having an online wedding photo gallery.

See how easy you can help save Mother Earth through your environment friendly wedding?

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Show Your Love of Nature in Your Eco-Friendly Wedding


People are becoming more conscious of their environment these days. Even in marriage, more couples are opting for an eco-friendly wedding celebration.

In the eco-friendly wedding celebration, people are able to show their love of nature and the environment. Demonstrating their eco-friendly lifestyle, the wedding can also be a favorable time to increase the consciousness of the entourage and guests to the importance of taking good care of the ecology and of being eco-friendly.

Here is how you can let your guests see the love of nature in your eco-friendly wedding:

1 Start your eco-friendly wedding campaign in your invites. You can design your invites using a love of nature wedding theme. The paper itself should be eco-friendly. You can specify how you would incorporate the love of nature into the wedding ceremony making it unique and meaningful. You can also indicate in the invites that you prefer to receive eco-friendly gifts or donations to charities and foundations that support campaign for protecting the environment.

2 Decorations for the wedding should be minimal and reflect how you are trying to conserve nature.

3 As a wedding party favor, you can distribute seeds to your guests for them to plant and contribute to the protection of the environment, or you can donate to any ecological charity or foundation in their name.

4 Your eco-friendly wedding reception can highlight natural and untreated foods. You don’t have to go absolute vegetarian; you can offer your guest farm-friendly produce.

5 You can coordinate with your clothing designer as far as you and your entourage’s clothing is concerned. Go organic; there are plenty of organic retail stores from which you can get your clothing items.

6 You can choose an organic garden for your venue. If you’re really deep into your advocacy, why not hold your wedding ceremony in the woods?

7 There are also many organic retail stores that offer bridal registry services. You can check online and find the one the best suits your preference. You can also decide to forego of receiving gifts and instead, ask the guest to donate to foundations or charities supporting ecological conservation and protection.

8 Add some special and unique wedding touch to the event. At the end of the ceremony, why not lead your guests to a tree-planting activity? This way, you can also encourage them to become ecological friendly and engage in activities that will help protect and conserve nature.


In everything that you use in your wedding ceremony and reception, you have to make a conscious effort to protect and conserve nature and the environment. There are several thousand ways to do this and to show your love for the ecology to your guests. Who knows, you might be the catalyst for your guests in awakening their sleeping consciousness of Mother Earth.

Your eco-friendly wedding can be the start of a concerted effort and a strong advocacy campaign to protect the world everybody lives in. Get everyone involved, and save Mother Earth. Go green, Go natural, be eco-friendly.

Monday, October 13, 2008

Make a Difference with an Eco Friendly Wedding


Ever wondered how it is to end up “happily ever after” these days? Well, in today’s modern day settings and fast paced lifestyles, getting to be “happily ever after” is quite simple as long as you have the cash to fuel it through. Weddings are one of the most expensive events a person or even a couple can give themselves. In the U.S. alone, over $2.3 billion is spent for weddings every year and those weddings have about an average of $20,000 for basic expenses. Truly, the wedding industry has proven itself to be one of the fastest growing industries even in third world countries! With all the services wedding institutions and expos offer, nothing is more practical and more realistic than having an eco friendly wedding.

Weddings are usually characterized as a devoted and lasting unification, and that union need not slash the limits of your bank account! Having an eco friendly wedding not only minimizes the total cost of your special day but also addresses pressing issues on the environment and promotes responsibility and conservation. Various services offer so many items that only make a short impression, but purchasing these items will make a lasting effect on your money. Eco friendly weddings are more sensible in many ways. As a couple, you will start to discuss the wedding date and where you would want the wedding to actually take place. According to studies, 80 percent of the couples in the U.S. prefer to hold their wedding ceremonies in their local churches or synagogues. With this, a couple is required to pay at least $200 for church fees. They usually take about 30 to 45 minutes before they transfer to the hotel or resort of their choice, making them pay about $7,600 for function room rentals and food. Instead of having to go over these figures, you can opt to have your wedding ceremony and your reception at one place. If you and your family strictly remain on having the ceremony at the church, you can have your reception at the church’s garden or at an eco friendly park near the area. In that way, you can lessen the time and effort consumed by traveling and also lessens the fuel consumption from private transports belonging to your guests. Or to have your guest enjoy the city, contact your city’s tour guide and arrange for a quick tour on the way to the park or place you chose to have your reception at.

For the wedding invites you will be giving out before the date, try to put a little personal touch and create or craft your own invites. Several craft stores in the country offer a wide variety of organic and environmentally friendly fibers and parchments that are wonderful for invitations, tags and even place cards. You can either have them hand written or stamped making you save on printing costs. Your invites will not only look special but will be unique as well. For an effectively planned eco friendly wedding, there are dozens and dozens of online sources where you can purchase organic items like organic flowers, small organic plants that are great for your guest to take home, organic jam, cookies for additional souvenirs and even organic cloth for your wedding dresses and suits.

Remember that an eco friendly wedding does more than just care for the environment; it makes you and your partner give a promise of lasting love and responsibility to each other and also the place where you plan to spend the rest of your life in, the Earth. So have a wonderful, eco friendly wedding today and make a difference.

A Green Wedding Celebration to Remember for the Rest of Your Life


You care about your wedding ceremony, right? You also care about the world you live in, correct? Since both are important for you, why not care for both of them on the most awaited day of your life - your wedding? You can have a green wedding celebration to remember for the rest of your life. You may even convince your guests to join your advocacy in the "go green" process. Here is how you do it:

Limit your invites to those whom you truly wish to be there to see your wedding. Consider that each and every person you invite would mean a bigger venue, more travel, more food, and much waste when the wedding ceremony is over.

Locate your wedding ceremony to a venue that is convenient and accessible to most of your guests. You can hold your green wedding in a place that supports your advocacy of being environmental-friendly. You can choose a garden wedding, or you can come to the venue in a horse-driven carriage instead of the traditional bridal car.

Your articles of clothing including the bridal gown and the groom’s suit should reflect your advocacy.

You can source the food, drinks, and other things needed in the wedding ceremony locally. Your wedding invites can be made from recycled or handmade papers. In your invites, you can also provide your guests a list of ecology-friendly options such as where to stay, etc.

For your green wedding reception, you can discuss with your caterer about serving organic or vegetarian foods. It may not be as succulent as the one with meat or more intensive effort, but it’s healthier. Also, try squeezing the most from minimal resources.

Personalize your green wedding. Although it is encouraged to go less for more, you can add some personal touches to make the wedding more memorable. For instance, involve your guests in the wedding. Tradition dictates that all the preparation is accomplished by the wedding couple and their families. This time, you can engage your guests to participate. Ask them to bring some flowers and combine them for a unique flower arrangement. In the reception, allot a corner where guests can post or scribble a note or two for you.

You can also suggest the kind of wedding gifts you want to receive from your guests. As more and more are joining the green campaign and advocacy, there are numerous retail stores that are offering green wedding gifts as well as registry services. Check them out.

Make the effort to reduce or minimize the ecological effects of your wedding. Although no matter how much effort you put in for this cause, there will still be impact, what is important is that you take responsibility and for every impact, you have to counterbalance with a green project. This is also a good start to encourage guests to go green and join your advocacy.


Don’t forget to tell your guests about the meaning of every effort that you do in your green wedding. Increasing their level of awareness will surely make them ponder about how they will also be able to take care of the environment. This is what will make your green wedding truly memorable.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

An Eco-Friendly Wedding is More than just Going Green


It is important that we try to protect our environment by means of showing welfare to nature and all its contents; how will you be able to do this? Well, you can start with yourself, you can try to find some small things that would make you contribute something for the welfare of the environment. One thing that you can do is to consider welfare for animals – be a vegetarian.

Vegetarian is known to be described as a diet which will just let a person eat or consume those which is not extracted from animals. In ethics, it is a fact that inflicting pain with animals is not right and is unjust. They have their own rights to live and be part of the world; thus, every creature has its right to be protected and live as long as it/she/he can. It’s wrong for man to slaughter animals just to make them the most expensive bag or coat and to make those tasty meals. This is just one of the reasons why there are vegetarians nowadays. Have you ever attended a vegan wedding or vegetarian wedding? If not, then it would be good for you to know that by having this vegetarian wedding you can show that you care for your environment because this is also known as an eco-friendly wedding.

An eco-friendly wedding is a type of wedding wherein all of the things that will be used and all of the meals that will be served were free from animal harm. This means that everything will be made of materials that were not extracted from animals; from the wedding gowns, shoes, green gift bags, meals and even cakes were not made extracted from meat, fish and poultry.

The advantage of having an eco-friendly wedding from the term itself promotes a good idea that is against slaughtering or inflicting pain to animals just for man’s benefit. There are two religions which are living proof of vegetarianism – Hinduism and Jainism. Both of these religions imposed the idea of being a vegetarian among its people. They want their people to be informed about the violence that eating meat, fish and poultry can give harm to animals. They are against animal harm because they also believe about the animals right to live. These two religions were also after the fact that eating vegetables were good for the mind and body as well as the spiritual growth and development. Eating meat for them would mean hindrance for spiritual and mental development and so they obliged their people to be vegans – with these religions, they promote an eco-friendly wedding.

With the idea that having an eco-friendly wedding would be valuable, since you’re about to share the idea of an environmental friendly wedding, there will be a chance for you to share the great feeling of being a vegetarian with all of your guests. You can let them taste the great recipe that you have for your vegetarian wedding menu and maybe they will also be interested in becoming a vegetarian; and thus, an environment lover.

Make Your Wedding a Green Wedding!


Today, there is already an industry that epitomizes the ideals of weddings. Walk around your city, flip through those yellow pages or if you're feeling quite mesmerized from how the proposal went and you wouldn’t want to leave the comforts of your home, you can always search about on thousands of websites that would cater to your ideal wedding event. Wedding coordinators and event organizers are already popular professions these days. An average of around 2.4 million men and women exchange “I dos” in the U.S. alone, thus making the wedding industry accumulate big, probably millions in revenues. With this in mind, the industry opens up its doors to more choices, and when we get more choices, the more confusing this may be for that simple, but loving union between man and woman. In this world of unending choices, why not get straight to the right choices for that special day. Choose Green, and have a green wedding!

More and more people are already aware of the effects of Global Warming and people actually feel it in their everyday lives. Campaigns on saving the world and the environment are continually being put out and echoed to people. Since a couple is more likely to spend money on their wedding, (other than their car and their home) than anything else, why not spend wisely for your wedding and help the environment at the same time. There is already a growing and thriving sector of green weddings, why not make yours one of these. It limits all the unnecessary hassle of too many choices and makes us responsible too. Having a green wedding is not all that complicated.

Everybody wants to book their special day in a romantic or serene location. Other families prefer to have their ceremonies at their local parish and have the receptions at some fancy hotel or resort. To avoid all added cost on fuel and rented cars that go by the hour, why not have your green wedding at locations that are eco friendly like your local park, a small museum with a garden or even that old church near your place that has a beautiful and private garden and fountain. In that way, your guests would have more time enjoying the event than worrying about traffic and getting lost.

For your catering services, why not support the local caterers in your area. I think that your wedding guests have already gone to so many parties and gatherings that usually serve the typical party food, why not treat them to something worthwhile and healthy, why not go organic. There are hundreds of caterers these days that look into the content of their dishes. Some caterers offer menus for vegetarian weddings, particularly having menus for vegan weddings. Other caterers have products that are home grown and organic but not necessarily only vegetables.

For your wedding dress and suits, there are already designers in the market that do use organic cloth like hemp or silk blends. There are also those irresistible vintage dresses that are sold in thrift shops that cost less and really look ravishing. For your cherished wedding ring, why not have old heirlooms or old rings resized, in that way, you can bring along with you blessings from your family. Instead of aiming for diamonds or gold, ask your local jeweler if there is organic gold available so in that simple way, your wedding did a part in reducing emissions found in mines all over the world.

Flowers will always be a part of your wedding as it adds nature and color to our day. Avoid the hassles of delivery and booking by having your own flowers grown in your backyard. Make it an endearing project for you and your partner and place them in small and attractive clay pots that have tags bearing the captions, “Grown with Love by : (you and your partners name)” This way, you could secure attractive centerpieces for your tables and at the same time souvenirs that express a loving union. You and your partner already have helped cut cost on travel for flower delivery and the use of harmful pesticides that affect the people that harvest them.

Last but not the least, your honeymoon where you spend days or weeks together. Instead of those fancy resorts or destinations that cost a fortune, why not contact a local tour agent and have your agents arrange an eco tour in a particular place or country. In that way, you can greatly contribute to that place’s community.

Getting married is not all about the glitter and glamour of the moment. It has its enchanting times but what really matters is the promise of love that one gives to each other and the responsibility to let it last. So when you and your partner plan to be a responsible and loving couple, start by putting that in the beginning of your cherished union, have a romantic green wedding!

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

Eco-Friendly Green Gift Bags


Okay, so you’re trying to cut down your carbon footprint, but you still want to give your guests little gift bags. This doesn’t go along with the whole idea of reducing consumption, but if you’re determined to go ahead with this idea, here are some tips for making this generous gesture as green as possible. First, plan the contents of your gift bag, and the bags themselves with an eye on being green, giving reusable gifts, and try to make what you give from local sources so that it doesn’t have to travel a long distance to get there. The financial and environmental costs of transporting everything must be carefully considered. You can start shrinking your carbon footprint by ordering your gift bags from Lucky Crow. This company is based in Oregon, so the bags don’t have to be shipped too far. They’re also eco-friendly because the bag and its pretty tie-ribbon are woven from organic cotton, and they’re reusable.

Well, we’ve taken care of the bags for our green gift bags, so now let’s consider the contents. Keep your gifts green, keep them modest, and wherever possible, try to buy local. Buy as many locally produced products to stock your green gift bags as you can. Personally, I think that locally produced handmade soaps are a nice idea.

And if you’re one of those people who just has to give away disposable cameras, then at least give your guests a recycled one. There are some decent ones available at The Knot website for $3.49. They’re used, totally refurbished, and encased in plain white cardstock. They’re not bad for what they are, though I think I prefer the idea of taking everyone’s digital photos and making a massive photo album of the best ones. Put your photo album online at one of those wedding websites and people can download the ones they want to their hearts’ content. Best of all, if people print the photos using their own ink-jet printers and special photo paper, they’re cutting down on the amount of nasty photo-developing chemicals that need to be used to develop the wedding photos.

Doing it the way I suggest means less waste all the way around.
For a really nice green gift, how about putting a handmade scented soy candle inside a recycled steel candleholder from Haiti. They’re unique, they’re beautiful, and they’re recycled. And they’re only $19.99 at Are Naturals. You don’t have to take these suggestions for green gift bags, but you’d be foolish not to.