The Green Aisle: What to Wear

Lets start with the bridal party: The guys are easy, renting is about as green as you can go (if you want your party to wear formal wear), provided that no one has to go very far to pick up their tux.

My flower girl is obsessed with princesses, so her dress will double as a dress up outfit once the wedding is over. 

For the  other girls things  were a bit trickier.  Ideally we would have loved to go with organic fabrics, but after doing some research these dresses were way out of my friends' budgets. If you have the money to blow and want a more traditional cocktail look, Alfred Angelo had a very cute line of organic silk & cotton dresses Simply Alfred Angelo.

There's nothing worse than spending a ton of money on a brides maid dress and then see it taking up space in your closet because there is no way you'd ever wear it again.  We had considered sundresses but decided we wanted a more formal look. Renting a dress is a very green option, but for the money, my girls wanted something of their own.

So we opted for the next best option, we found dresses that my friends would wear again and they cost less than $100. We picked out several styles the girls liked, that flattered everyone and gave them two color choices. This way everyone got something they liked, was flattering and they would definitely wear again.



As far as my dress goes, it was tricky. I wanted something in an eco friendly fabric that was still comfortable & stylish.  There are some wonderful designers out there such as Olivia Luca, who offer a lot of earth friendlier fabrics but they were out of my budget and weren't style wise what I was looking for. A lot of the organic dresses I saw made of cotton were a little too casual for what I was looking for. After all, I still wanted to look like Ginger Rogers when I dance on my big day.  I decided on a compromise.  I ended up getting an elegant gown, but I can very easily shorten it to turn it into a formal dress to wear again and again. It also was within a very reasonable price point.  ( I can't see blowing several thousand dollars on a dress when i could use that money to buy solar panels or soemthing more responsible).  I absolutely love my dress, I feel like a Greek goddess in it, so that is a realistic expectation. (Pictures will follow on the big day wrap up post).

With all the information about the nastiness of the diamond trade I really was concerned about my engagement ring. There are some wonderful jewelry artisans on etsy. I also love the rings & jewelry on the Brilliant Earth website, which uses cruelty free diamonds and uses recycled gold and platinum. I will say these tend to be on the expensive side.  My fiance actually surprised me with my engagement ring. He  found one that was previously owned from a local jeweler and its totally unique. I never told him what I liked and he found the perfect ring. He's awesome ... what can I say?!

For all of our other accessories, I am a huge fan of Etsy. There are a ton of amazing artisans who make all kinds of jewelry, handbags, shoe clips, even veils.  You can include eco-friendly in your item searchand you'd be amazed at the thousands of products available. Our shoes will be ones that we'll get use out of as well. I bought myself a new pair of ballroom dance shoes (which I needed anyway). They are super cute and very comfortable. I'm decorating them with some shoe clips that were made from sustainable materials that will tie into our purple and green orchid theme.

I also found some great dresses to wear for the bridal shower, the bachelorette night, and rehearsal dinner made from organic fabrics such as cotton & bamboo. Here are a few companies that do that well: EcoSkin, Mountains of the Moon, Greenloop and I especially love the wrap from AngelRox which is made of bamboo, so its super soft and can be manipulated in several ways.

So, as you can see its not as hard to dress responsibly as you'd think. Yes there is a huge market in organic fabric dresses and and specialty shoes that you will pay a bit more for. If that's not an option, there are still  plenty of alternatives out there that are still responsible choices. Who says you can't have it all?!

Up next on the Green Aisle: Favors & Bridal Party Gifts

The Green Aisle: The invitations & Save the dates

One of  my biggest gripes with wedding planning is all the paper that gets produced and in most cases wasted. There are a lot of options out there, which are beautiful but cost a small fortune. I was determined to have an attractive invitation, without a million enclosures telling people where to stay, etc.

My solution was a three part one. First, I created a wedding website where my guests could go to find more details about the wedding, accommodations, our registry and even things to do in the area.  The best part about this is that it cost me nothing! There are a ton of website designing tools that are free to brides. Mine was produced off of the wedding planning site www.theknot.com. I was offered free sites by tons of other vendors I dealt with too. When you register with David's bridal website they gave me one too, as well as a number of other companies. I just stuck with one to try to make life as easy as possible and less confusing not only for my guests but for me as well.

Next, was the save the dates. I really preferred doing an evite reminder, which would've been the greener solution, but so many people delete those or lose them. I also have a number of older guests coming to the wedding that aren't so computer savvy.  After a lot of research, I discovered having something physical that guests can look at to remind them is  a better solution. Many couples use magnets. They're great, but I didn't want to have to use an envelope that people would throw away in order to send them out, not to mention the extra cost of postage & the magnets themselves aren't that cheap.

I settled on a postcard. I ended up designing it myself on a website called zazzle.com.  I was able to use my own photos and they offered recycled paper as an option for the postcaards. I have to say the print quality on these turned out awesome! My guests have been commenting on how great it looked and they love all the pictures of us they now have on their fridges and desk bulletin boards.

For the invitations, I had a ton of choices. There are so many recycled paper invites, seeded papers and really great handmade items out there. I really wanted to use the theme of orchids and our wedding colors.  I was faced with the decision that I could get the color and theme I wanted but not use eco-friendly materials. Or I could have a green invite but the designs I found had nothing to do with what I wanted. I should also mention that the cost of wither of these options is extremely high. The average wedding invitation runs about $3.50 each and up.

I decided to try my hand at invitation design and use zazzle again.  The result was beautiful, exactly what I wanted and it only cost me a 3rd of the price of a traditional wedding invite.  As far as enclosures, we only have one, the RSVP. It is on a postcard, also made from recycled paper. We printed our wedding website info on the back of the invite, as well as a small map. We also had a note to our guests about reducing their impact by carpooling if possible to eastern shore area.

Yes, doing my invitations myself was much more time consuming and a lot of hard work, but the results are beautiful. I was able to use recycled paper and it cost me a fraction of the cost of a regular invitation. I'd say that is a win win!

The Green Aisle: Part 1, The Gameplan

Greetings Readers! Sorry I've been away for a while.... I've gotten engaged and am busy planning a wedding. After the last few weeks I decided to start blogging about the experience, since I am having an eco-friendly affair, in trying to stick with my own guidelines for a holistic lifestyle, wedding not being an exception to the rule.

Planning this event, in less than a year, has proven to be a little more involved than I expected, but will totally be worth it.  Here are the guidelines I am using to plan my special day.  You're welcome to decide at the end of this series exactly how successful I was at my mission. I welcome your feedback:

1. The wedding and reception are to be held outside
2. Keep it local!- this includes vendors, services and food products to help support the local economy and to help reduce our carbon footprint
3. Use sustainable  energy as much as possible, this includes using vendors who use green power sources as well
4. Make sure disposable items are kept to a minimum and ensure the majority of trash generated is recycled or compostable.
5. All paper goods associated with the event, including stationary are to be made from recyclable materials.
6. The majority of plants used in the wedding are to be live ones. There will be no florist foam used during this event. 
7. In addition to being local, all food should be organic if possible and harvested in a sustainable manner.
8. Keep power usage to a minimum.
9. Educate our guests on ways to go green- leading by example.

Well, there you have it. I 'll begin posting my thoughts & progress later this week and will continue to do so as the planning moves forward.  I hope you're enjoying all the beautiful summer weather & produce that mother nature is offering up to us.