Tips for Planning a Green,
Eco-friendly, Earth-friendly Wedding
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Whether, as a bridal couple, you choose to do a totally green wedding, or you want, in some measure, to do your part, many of these green tips can be easily incorporated into your special day.

Invitations:
The eco-friendly bride will stay away from metallic or plastic-coated invitations, which are hard to recycle. The use of a postcard as an alternative to multi-enveloped notes invitations will save some trees.

Attire:
Bridal attendants will thank the bride for allowing them to wear loose naturally-fitting clothing rather than traditional bridal attendant gear and there won't be a large selection of dresses hanging in closets that will never to be worn again. The bride will do herself a favor by wearing natural fabrics like cotton, those made from hemp, bamboo, silk and linen, which aren't hard on the earth's resources, such as polyester, which is petroleum-based. Just because your purchase is inherently eco-friendly, if the hemp-made suit you wear to your wedding will never be worn again, a traditional purchase, or rental may be the better choice.

Reception Venue:
Think about picking a site like a museum, or historic site for your reception. Many not-for-profit venues make very needed income from hosting weddings. Want an outdoor event? How about a botanical garden, arboretum, or the grounds of an historic home?

Party & Wedding Favors:
Check out The National Arbor Day Foundation's web site at http://www.arborday.org/shopping/gifttrees/gifttrees.cfm for a wonderful, earth-friendly tree wedding favors. Bamboo is an amazingly sustainable product. Miniature stalks of "lucky bamboo" make excellent party favors.

Flowers and Decor:
The couple may wish to grow their own flowers and use those. Decorate with reusable items. Topiaries, for example, can go from the altar into your new home, or can be used to decorate the area where your program table and guest book are located. Bamboo is of the most sustainable materials on earth. Its growth rate can be as much as two feet a day. Tall stalks of curly bamboo can be used in your centerpieces. Candles give every space magical ambiance.

Menu and Food:
Your choice of menu can reflect in a very obvious way the bridal couples commitment to and connection to the environment. Other green options for the couple cruelty-free meats and wild, rather than farmed fish, or wild Alaska salmon, which is not over-fished, be from a local micro-brewery

Ceremony:
Today's couples meld traditional and ethnic customs with rituals of their own into their wedding ceremonies. The green conscious couple may plant a tree during, or after the ceremony. That can be for them, the beginning of a family tradition of giving back to the environment by planting (or donating to have others plant) a tree in honor of each of their children and/or on every wedding anniversary. In that way they can watch their allegiance to environment grown in their own backyards.

Bridal Registry & Gifts
The bridal couple can register for eco-friendly products and, that way, will steer their guests onto an eco-friendly path. They may incorporate their environmentally friendly life style, by registering for outdoors equipment and accouterments.

Transportation:
Making an unusual entrance and traveling in an eco-friendly way, the bridal couple can arrive at the ceremony in a horse-drawn carriage, cycle rickshaw, or hybrid car. The bridal couple may provide guests with information on how and where they can rent hybrid rental cars and/or offering directions on public transportation and/or provide for car pools in hybrid vehicles.

The Bigger Not the Better:
The larger a wedding, the greater the number of guests, the more negative impact there will be on the environment. Limiting your guests list to the people you really want to have celebrate with you is a wise decision ecologically and financially.

On-line Resources:
This area's "own" HudsonValleyWeddings.com was one of the first web sites to get on the proverbial green bandwagon. In addition to articles and tips about holding a green wedding, the site had a category called "Green Weddings" in which local service and product providers can advertise. The Internet has literally hundreds of eco-friendly sites. To "find" them, go to a search engine and type in "earthy friendly wedding," "Eco-friendly Weddings," or add the particular item, such as "favors" to your search words.

Thank you for thinking globally on your very special day.

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