I Planned My Mom's Real Green Wedding

I have been writing about green weddings for a couple years now but I have not put my advice into real wedding planning practice, at least not completely from start to finish, until now.


I used a lot of green ideas and DIY ways in my own wedding back in 2003 but this was before eco-friendly cups, napkins, and the like were readily available and somewhat affordable. So we did what we could with lots of DIY decorations and accessories along with many other green and greenish practices.


I've also helped many brides incorporate green and eco ways into their weddings over the years from using reusable décor to recycled materials.


Recently though I had the chance to plan a green wedding from start to finish and realized... sometimes it's not easy being green.


The biggest obstacle I encountered was time...or lack thereof.


My mother announced a couple weeks before Christmas that she was getting married- and the wedding date was set for January 15. Yikes, a little over a month to plan a wedding- with the holidays smack dab in the middle of it all. My next obstacle was discovering that due to the major economic downturn of the past few years almost all of the wedding companies I had previously worked with locally were gone. My cake lady was gone, the small bridal shops all gone, even my decorating and supply store was gone.


Keep reading here.

My Mom's Real Green Wedding

So we're two weeks away from my mom's big day and we're still lacking napkins, cups, table cloths, a cake knife set, a guest book and a ring bearer's pillow.


I made the cake topper, working on the flower girl basket and will be doing the two bouquets (three counting the toss bouquet), boutonnieres, and the unity candle arrangement.


Yikes how am I going to do this all in less than two weeks plus go shopping for food?


Oh yeah, we also don't have a bridesmaid's dress or flower girl dress. It's kinda hard to find sage or lavender dresses in the middle of winter. Stores haven't exactly pulled out the Easter pastels yet.


Thankfully all the guys have their clothing picked out. (It's aways so easy for the guys).


We're going pretty casual- no tuxes or anything just shirts, ties and dress pants. The groom is wearing a nice suit.


I'll be posting photos soon of the works in progress and the unpacking and arranging of all the eco-goods we have.


This is fun and so very stressful. Any other time than the holidays and this would have been so much easier. Now I'm running around like a crazy person (even worse than usual :-)

Real Green Weddings: Eating Utensils from Ecoware

http://www.ecowareproducts.com/

Ecoware compostable birch wood cutlery info:

*compostable

*recyclable

*100% natural

*no additives, coatings, or other ingredients

*Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified birch wood

*cheaper than renting flatware/silverware

*unique and charming

*family run company

*Top 5 Best Eco-friendly Product in 2010

*Featured in New York Times

Real Green Wedding Favors from Tree Beginnings

Check out these beautiful sunflower seed favors from Tree Beginnings.

The set comes with:

Sunflower seeds in packet (2 x 2") - hermetically sealed to preserve freshness

Personalized paper card (2 x 2 ") with sunflower graphic

Thank you message

Poem

Growing instructions

Terra Cotta Clay pot

Soil pellet,

Recycled paper brown (3 x 3") box

Your choice of raffia ribbon (oatmeal, yellow, pink, royal blue or forest green- we lucked out and got lavender to match the wedding colors)

Assembly required * video now available by email on how to assemble when order is placed.

Storage:

Seed needs to be stored in a cool (refrigerator), dry place to preserve the viability of the seed prior to assembly no more than 5 days prior to your event.

I think these cute little gift boxes will look very adorable lining the tables like a table runner straight down the middle of the long tables.

What do you think?