Itty Bitty Impact

Getting Married the Green Way II

Posted on 02. Jun, 2010 by Tonia in Uncategorized

Hey readers, happy June!  Do you love early summer as much as I do?  Right now our lilac bushes are at their peak, and our yard smells like heaven.  Our little garden is pumping out salad greens at a light-speed rate, and this makes Mike very happy.  His nickname is quickly becoming “Brontosaurus” as he basically eats nothing else but leafy greens. 

But June is more than lilacs and romaine, for us.  It marks three months until our wedding.  We have entered panic mode…in other words, “oh-crap-we-still-have-an-impossible-amount-of-stuff-to-do-to-get-ready” mode.  It is for this reason that the before mentioned videos/Cheri’s List posts have not been delivered. 

I’m very sorry that the blog has been pretty lame lately.  I have a bunch of awesome ideas floating around and I can’t wait to make posts out of them, but for now I need to focus on all the last minute wedding details that are demanding my full attention and spare time.

{Our pretty wedding “logo”, made by Mike}

So in lieu of a real post, I thought I would update you on the wedding plans and all the things we’re doing to make the event as low-impact as possible.  During the planning process, so many challenges have arisen from the fact that we are avoiding disposable items like cups and flatware…and it has been a real struggle to not give in here or there/do things the easy way {read: the wasteful way}.  But we’re sticking to our guns on the following:

• Rings: Our rings are custom made by Tamara McFarland, a vegan hobby-farmer in California.  She uses 100% recycled metals and fair trade stones in her jewelry.  The stone in my ring is man-made, which means they did not impact the environment or society in a negative way.
• Glassware: We are providing mason jars for guests to drink water/beer out of instead of using the disposable plastic cups that the bar provides {they will be available in case someone breaks or loses their jar, but we will be making an announcement asking everyone to try to use their jar all night.}
• Caterer: We asked every caterer in town whether they use disposable plates/flatware or not.  Only one said that they do not use disposable.  We went with them.  {It’s a small town…city folks probably have many caterers to choose from and this is a non-issue.  But we were legitimately worried that we wouldn’t be able to find someone who used real plates!}
• Decor: Our decorations/favors are almost completely thrift-store finds, and we’re making everything else ourselves, so we’re not buying any plastic crap that will promptly enter a landfill afterwards.
• Registry: Same goes for our registry…we are carefully choosing high-quality items that will last us a long time.  My parents are still using many household items they received as gifts for their wedding.  When something is made to last, there’s no need to ever replace it.  One concern we have, however, is that our registry has a lot of fairly expensive items on it.  But we would honestly rather not receive any gifts than get a bunch of stuff that will break in a couple years and get thrown away.  On our wedding website, where guests will RSVP, we state that attending the wedding is a gift in itself, since everyone is traveling from far away, so buying us something off the registry is definitely appreciated but definitely not expected.
• More registry: I have to talk a little more about wedding registries…a little bird told me about MyRegistry.com and it has been such a great thing for us.  This website is easy to use, free to sign up with, and allows you to add items from any website {including Etsy!  Hip hip hooray!} and any real-life store your heart desires.  Mike downloaded the nifty iPhone app and we just walk around town scanning items.  It’s so easy, and you kind of feel like Harry Potter with a magical wand.
• Save the Dates: We emailed our Save the Date announcements, expect for five of them because the recipients don’t use email.
• Invites: Guests will receive a snail-mail invitation, but they will RSVP by going to our website.  This reduces the paper we use, and is more convenient for most people.  Our grandparents, and a few other guests who don’t use the internet, will RSVP over the phone.
• Honeymoon: When it comes to the honeymoon, we can’t help ourselves….we are going to go to Hawaii.  You can judge us for supporting the over-development and commercialization of one of the world’s most fragile and beautiful environments…but before you get mad at us, we are going to be renting the vacation home of a couple from MA.  We won’t be staying at a big corporate hotel chain.  We won’t be going out to eat {ok maybe once or twice}.  We will be shopping at the farmers market {I already checked, and it is within walking distance from the house} and cooking our own meals almost every day.  That’s a pretty eco-friendly way to do Hawaii, if you ask me!

Tags: eco wedding, green, green wedding, wedding planning