Not surprisingly, many engaged couples are choosing to go green for their big day, opting for a simple wedding while incorporating eco-friendly choices.
The eco-friendly wedding gown: Pure silk with vintage embroidery, Swarovski crystals and seed beads, in a modified mermaid silhouette. Circle Park Bridal, $749.
“Going green is no longer a trend, but a normal influence in the way weddings are taking place,” says Jim Love, publisher of Premier Bride DFW, who also offers a Web site with green tips (www.pbdallas.com). “As more brides and grooms have become eco-sensitive when planning their wedding and honeymoon, so have the vendors: You just need to ask them.”
Ashley Paz at Vera Green Productions, a local company specializing in creating weddings that are eco-friendly, says: “The biggest green wedding trend that I have seen this season is not just an eco-friendly one, but an economical one. In their decor, couples seem to be incorporating more reused elements such as vintage vases and candle holders.” She adds that vintage items can be used to decorate new homes.
Here are some options for local brides who want to go green.
The gown
Eco-friendly material such as hemp is becoming popular, or how about a vintage or used gown? After the wedding you can donate it to a charitable organization.
Circle Park Bridal in Addison sells dresses that are 100 percent silk for less than $1,000. Brides can order hemp dresses as well. 15402 Addison Road, Suite B; 972-503-9200; www.circleparkbridal.com.
Invitations
Use recycled paper or consider handmade or plantable paper, processed chlorine-free and printed with vegetable or soy-based inks. There is also tree-free paper made out of hemp, banana stalks, bamboo, kenaf or organic cotton. Ask your printer to use paper with a high percentage of post-consumer recycled content.
You might also consider hiring a calligrapher to address the envelopes, which eliminates printing waste.
Love advises against sending invitations via e-mail under the guise of green: “It’s tacky, but you can use e-mail to send out a save-the-date reminder.”
The Paper Lion in McKinney and Wedding Essentials in Dallas offer eco-friendly invitations and work hard to go paperless for proofs and design.
The Paper Lion, 2310 Virginia Parkway; 972-540-5966; www.thepaperlion.com.
Wedding Essentials, www.weddingessentials online.com
The reception
Use locally grown and organic food for the reception and dinner. Supporting local growers cuts down on costs and travel distances. Place cards made of seeded paper also can be taken home by guests and planted.
Favors
How about giving saplings to the guests that they can take home and plant? Or, consider organic chocolates, attractive bags of organic herbs or a small charitable donation in each guest’s name.
When thinking of gifts for your attendants, go organic: a gift basket of organic beauty products, organic coffees or teas, recycled stationery or even a bottle of organic wine.
Bridal registry
Love says that one thing many couples are doing these days is asking guests to make donations to eco-friendly organizations instead of giving gifts, especially if it is a second marriage.
If you are registering for major appliances, choose Energy Star.
Some sites that specialize in green gifts:
• www.3rliving.com
• www.branchhome.com
• www.vivaterra.com
• www.gaiam.com
Flowers
Choose fair trade or locally grown flowers, and consider having the flowers and other decorations moved from the ceremony to the reception. At the end of the day, donate the flowers to a hospital.
Earth Blooms in Dallas uses recycled packaging and sources locally raised flowers when possible. They’re at 2802 Greenville Ave.; 214-823-6222.
Green wedding consultant
Marianne Richardson of Elegant Weddings by Marianne, a green company in McKinney, says she seeks out vendors who don’t use plastic and who go paperless.
She also asks that they recycle, and buy locally.
“More brides are realizing they can have a beautiful wedding, not spend a ton of money, and give back to the environment,” she says.
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