Getting Married the Green Way

Posted on February 5th, 2010 by Tonia 14 Comments

The greatest science in the world; in heaven and on earth; is love.” -Mother Teresa

Mike and I got engaged (yay!) in August and we’re planning our wedding for September 2010.  Yep, we’re pretty excited!  We’re knee-deep in the planning process right now & it has been a lot of fun so far.

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{Photo courtesy of the talented Sydnee Bickett -college friend of mine- who took this of us a couple months after Mike popped the question.}

Naturally we’re concerned about making the event as low-impact on the environment as possible.  We’re also concerned about other things, like: our budget, having fun, and making sure our guests have fun.

There’s one problem…our families are huge, so our guest list is close to 300 people.  It’s not easy to throw a ‘green’ + ‘budget-friendly’ + ‘off-the-hook-awesome’ party for 300 people!  I’m a little jealous of the couples who get to have small, intimate weddings…BUT I also feel amazingly blessed to know 300 amazing people!  I can’t think anything better than having all the people I love most in the world all together in one place for a whole weekend.

So…The Future Mr. & Mrs. Itty Bitty Impact have their work cut out for them.  After all, we have an image to uphold!  What would all our readers think if they found out we let the bar serve bottled water?  Or what if we served our rehearsal-dinner on paper plates! Or let our guests use paper napkins and drink from plastic cups!  AAAAAAAGH!  The horror!  This isn’t the Speidi wedding!!

{Photo courtesy of Feather Love Photography – You’d think celebrities would be able to afford glassware…}

Anyway, we’re going to do our best to pull off a ‘green’ wedding, and here are some of the measures we’re taking:

1.  We’re emailing our Save the Date announcement instead of sending paper cards

2.  We’re providing the bar with mason jars {no plastic cups will be used} and we’re giving our guests a way to mark their jar so they use the same one all night

3.  Cloth napkins, not paper

4.  Real cutlery, not plastic

4.  Ceremony + reception + accommodations at the same location= less driving around

5.  All decorations will be made by us, plus some helpful friends and family.  Most supplies {table runners, centerpieces, lighting} are being purchased at second-hand stores and reused

6.  As wedding favors, we’re going to make donations to a couple charity organizations

7.  We’re trying to find a caterer that purchases their ingredients from local farmers

Those are all the ideas so far, but we’re constantly coming up with new ways to reduce waste.  It makes the whole planning process a little more challenging, but also more rewarding.  I am happy that we’re going to be able to look back at the wedding and feel good about the way we did everything.

If you’re in the same boat as us, we’d love to hear your story!  Let us know what you’re doing {or did} to reduce waste at your wedding in the comment section.  Sharing ideas and experiences is part of what this blog is all about!

If you’re struggling to come up with ideas for ‘greening’ your wedding, take a look at the following blogs.  I have found them extremely helpful:

Green Wed – Inspiration and practical advice for ‘green brides’

Once Wed – Used wedding dresses for sale, DIY projects, inspiration

Recycled Bride – Buy used wedding dresses, decor, ceremony items, jewelry, etc.

Eco Chic Weddings – Inspiration and tips for keeping your wedding as low-impact as possible

I can’t wait to share stories and pictures of the big day with you all!  We’re really excited to get married and begin the next chapter of our lives together.

14 Comments

  1. mamamouseiam says:

    We’re excited, too! And willing to help in any way we can! (hugs)

  2. Rebecca says:

    congrats Tonia! what a beautiful, beautiful pic of you two! I’m just loving these green ideas. have you seen portovert too? some lovely ideas there too: http://portovert.com/home

  3. Tonia says:

    Thank you, Rebecca! I took a look at Portovert and it looks great! Clover & Bee is also a great blog, thank you for your great work- I check it out daily! It’s so great to have a Midwest-specific wedding blog.

  4. Hi Tonia,

    You can indeed do it. Rent and borrow whatever you can. Also, if you are working with a caterer — see if you can do a sit down dinner. Family style, or food stations actually use more food. (because the caterer has to assume each guest may want one or more of each item)

    Use treefree or 100% PCW paper — or a mix. We’ve specialized in eco papers and printing for 15 years now, and the biggest problem is making local markets for recycled content. (Currently, about 90% of the paper waste that is picked up curbside, gets shipped to Asia.)
    Our goals as a company, has been to create markets for postharvest waste papers (like sugarcane and cornstalk), hemp papers, and recycled rag papers. Paper has only been made out of trees for 125 years. We really can lower the impact of paper enormously, while preserving original sources (ie archival books to preserve our knowledge) and maybe use 100% PCW paper to um, wipe our butts!
    Some of our designs here:
    http://www.invitesite.com/weddings/Eco-wedding-invitations-page1.php
    Have fun! We’ve put on tons of low impact events and it can be beautiful, profound, generous, and sustainable.

    Best,

    Helen Driscoll

  5. Tonia says:

    Great info, Helen, thank you! I love the idea of treefree paper and will definitely take a look at your website!! WHY does paper waste get shipped to Asia instead of being used here? The fossil fuels it takes to get it to Asia…doesn’t that kind of cancel out the good you’re doing by recycling it in the first place? That’s crazy! Again, thank you for the info and insight.

  6. Courtney says:

    It wouldn’t be a Simeone wedding without a way to put our names on our cups. :) That touch makes me really happy. :) Don’t forget using local plants/flowers to decorate or as part of bouquets. We used evergreen (as you probably remember…). Cheap, local, sustainable, Christmas-y, and it smelled awesome.

    Also, I can’t wait for your big day!

  7. Samantha says:

    Green is the new trend and it’s also helping the environment which is always great! Just adding little touches to a wedding shows your guest you care. I love the ideas that are planning on doing for the wedding. If you want any ideas http://www.invitationsbydawn.com uses recycled paper options for their save the date cards! .

  8. […] is a lot of work to be done and it takes time.  Well, I came across this awesome blog post called, Getting Married the Green Way, and I thought I’d pass it along to my readers.  There are some solid tips in […]

  9. I’M SOOOOOOOO EXCITED FOR YOU! You seem like such a cool, creative chica! yay!

  10. Tonia says:

    Hi everyone, thank you so much for your kind comments.

    I wanted to quickly update you on something: we made contact with a local farmer in WI and it looks like he is going to be providing us will free-range chickens from his farm for our reception dinner! I am thrilled about this, because eating locally gown food is extremely important to us.

  11. Great to see that your wedding is going to have such a low impact! I really hope that this becomes a trend with weddings, conferences, and other big events, because there is so much wasted produced and energy used for events like this that happen every day. Great job!

  12. Greetings! I am Joanna Simeone’s sister, Mandy, and love your blog! She just introduced me to it (I’m down in Knoxville visiting my itty bitty niece for a few days).

    Anyway, I’d love to keep in touch!

    One idea for local caterers…have you checked out http://www.localharvest.org? Also, http://www.eatwild.com.

    Have a ball :)
    Light,
    Mandy

  13. Andrew Temple says:

    I just want you to know that I am very happy for you!

  14. […] June is more than lilacs and romaine, for us.  It marks three months until our wedding.  We have entered panic mode…in other words, […]

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