Slice of Life

This 17 inch wide cake stand costs $75.00.
etsy.com

I'm having an autumn wedding, and one of the trends I continue to see on wedding sites is a trend that fits perfectly with an autumn wedding.  That trend is, the tree slice.  I've seen several dessert tables that have tree slices of various heights as stands for cakes, pies and cookies.  It's autumnal, earthy and charming.
The question then becomes, are tree slices eco-friendly?  Well, they certainly ain't budget-friendly.  I hoped that since we're talking about what are seemingly "leftovers" of previously cut trees, that they would be sold at bulk for a reasonable price.  Say, ten slices for twenty bucks.  In actuality, a single slice can run anywhere from twenty to a hundred dollars, depending on the size and whether or not it's custom engraved.
But price aside, the question remains, is it eco-friendly?
The answer: it depends.  You can find a reliable supplier that uses recycled materials at etsy.com, if you're really interested.  But everything I love at Etsy seems to be out of my price range, so I'm out of luck.
In the end, I've decided to skip the tree slice, and use reusable plates and stands that I'll collect from family members.  After all, nothing's cheaper or better for the planet than borrowing from a friend.
~ the green/green bride

In a Perfect World

stylemepretty.com

In a perfect world, I would have access to a magical forrest.
My dress would be a romantic, vintage-inspired, lace creation.
The ceremony would take place in the middle of my magical forrest, complete with couches, benches, quilt covered haystacks and a great big tree.  I've always dreamt of being married under a great big tree.
My family and friends would eat at long, beautifully decorated communal tables.
Lights would hang from the trees like stars.
I would know lots of talented, professional photographers who would love nothing more than to document my wedding, free of charge, of course.
And their'd be a bonfire.  A great big one.  It wouldn't burn down the magical forrest, though.  Don't you worry.
Oh, and their would be a little boy playing with a fuzzy white caterpillar - and one of my photographers would get a great shot of it.
In a perfect world, my wedding would look a lot like:                                                                                                                            
The Wedding of Krystal and Paul
When you have the time, take a peek at these gorgeous pictures.  It's okay to drool, gasp and even cry a little.  I know I did.
~ the green/green bride

Calling All Hoarders

So simple.  So pretty.
stylemepretty.com

I'm collecting glass containers.  Jars, bottles, whatever.  My plan is to hoard whatever I find that might look pretty if it had a single flower, or a small bouquet of flowers in it.  So far, without buying anything out of the ordinary, I have a dozen glass containers that will one day be apart of my centerpieces.  My idea is to have very long tables, two of them to be exact, with ivory table cloths and burlap runners (it's a backyard, casual wedding), and a slew of these small glass containers filled with seasonal (mostly purple) flowers.  Dahlias are in season in October, and since dahlias are my favorite flower, I plan on incorporating as many as my budget can allow.  Pomegranates are also in season, so I'd love to have seasonal fruit, along with nuts and chocolates and candles running down the tables.  I'll save my table setting ideas for another day.

My favorite piece, so far.  An old maple syrup jar from Trader Joe's

So, since I tend to collect the same glass containers from eating the same foods, I'd like to send a call to all hoarders, recyclers and helpful enthusiasts in the Los Angeles area.  If you finish a jar or a bottle of something, and you think 'wow, this is a really cool _____, but I don't want it', then give it to me.  I'm specifically looking for interestingly shaped containers and colored containers.  Blues, greens, yellows and golds would tickle my fancy.
Thanks!
~ the green/green bride

I Saw the Sign

I took this photo using Photo Booth on my Mac, which is why the image is reversed.  Apologies.

Signs are in, and I love them.  I know that my wedding will have a couple of signs because they're inexpensive and adorable - two staples of my wedding plan.

I few weeks ago I found a sign at Ross for $2.99 that said 'Little girl, Big attitude'.  For the record, I don't support signs, shirts, bumper stickers, toys, music, movies or television shows that encourage little girls to be brats.  But I wanted the sign, because I imagined it to be useful for my wedding.  I knew that if I ever got around to it, I could paint the sign white, and then paint something on top of it with my best calligraphy skills.  Something like, "The Bride" or "The Groom" or "Mint Lemonade".  Then I thought: chalkboard paint!  I love chalkboard paint.  For about five bucks you can transform a table, a backsplash or a door into something with form and function.  So, I reached into my closet of tricks, pulled out my chalkboard paint (which I'm pretty sure expired a year ago) and painted over my sassy sign.  I'm all out of actual chalk, so I can't show you just yet what a finished product would look like.  But not bad for about $3.25 worth of materials and two minutes of my time, huh?
~ the green/green bride

Trends

I've noticed a few trends in the wedding world.  Some I absolutely love because they evoke all of the wonderful feelings one should get at a wedding.  Feelings of warmth, and homeyness and casual elegance.  Others I just think are silly because they are trendy-trends.  The kind of trends, that I believe, people will one day soon look back on and wish they hadn't participated in - because everyone and their mama did the same thing.  Here are a few of the green/green trends I adore:

You know how much I loves me a recycled glass container.  Don't get me started on mason jars! www.stylemepretty.com

Christmas lights.  Everybody's got 'em, and everybody loves 'em. www.stylemepretty.com

The Dessert Bar.  Because know one ever complains about too many sweets.  And if they do, I'll give them a knuckle sandwich.  www.stylemepretty.com

Handmade ceremony signs.  Rustic and charming.
www.paisleyumbrella.com

And you know what?  The more that I think about it, there's only one trend I don't like.  Probably because I just don't get why it's so over used:

Moustache-On-A-Stick.  It's funny, I get it.  But in my humble opinion, it's only cool if you're the only couple on the block to rock it.   So wedding planners, please, retire the moustache already!

Be different.  Stay classy.

~ the green/green bride.

Free Fun

Ever since my June engagement I've been collecting ideas from the internet.  As a teen, I began anticipating the day that I could begin hoarding bridal magazines and ripping out pages of inspiration to put in a gigantic binder to show to my friends.  But that was, like, so 1990's.  It's 2010, and everything a magazine provides can be found on the internet.  And although I appreciate the handheld accessibility of a magazine, they aren't very good for the planet.  So go ahead ladies, ditch the subscription and collect as many free images as you want via the net.  Hey, six bucks is six bucks.  And six bucks three times a month for a year is enough dough to upgrade your wedding favors from little glass jars of M&M's to little glass jars of personalized M&M's.
Here are a few of my favorite images of inspiration for my autumn-of-next-year backyard wedding:

I'm a big fan of chalkboard signs.  I don't know why.  Pic from Style Me Pretty.

Carmel apples the size of my head do not appeal to me.  But mini caramel apples are brilliant.  Pic from Martha Stewart Weddings.

Mason jars and whichever flowers are fresh and in season at the Downtown LA Flower Mart will be a staple at my bash. Style Me Pretty

I'm hoping I can create something like this for my bridesmaids.  Style Me Pretty.

I don't know what to do with this, exactly, but I really like the sign... and the cake!  Style Me Pretty.

Happy hunting!

~ the green/green bride

Four Weddings

TLC's Four Weddings

There's a new show on TLC called Four Weddings, where, you guessed it, four weddings take place.  Each of the four brides attend the other three weddings and rate the venue, the food and the dress in order to decide which bride had the very best of the bunch.  The winning bride (and groom) get a dream honeymoon to a tropical locale.
I've watched a few of these shows for inspiration, and I have to say, I'm uninspired.  When you see four weddings back-to-back you realize just how similar most weddings are.  Come on, ladies, shake it up!  The funny thing is, it's the brides who think outside of the box that get penalized on the show.  I watched an episode recently where one bride chose to see her groom before the ceremony and the other three brides were so disturbed by this that I thought they might to tie her to a stack of kindle and light a match.  I understand that tradition is important to a lot of people.  But I love the idea of making your wedding as uniquely you as possible.  Keep the traditions that mean the most to you and your groom and throw everything else out the window.  If not for you and your groom, then for your guests.  Surprise them.  Keep them guessing.  Make them remember.
I've narrowed my traditional wedding must haves down to a very passionate few:

1. I must walk down an aisle.
2. We must speak our own vows.
3. He must get misty.  I don't need crocodile tears, but I'll take 'em.
4. We must share a (phenomenal) kiss.
5. There must be dancing.
6. Everyone must have fun. 

Anything beautiful and magical beyond that is icing on the wedding cake. Oh, there must be cake!

~ the green/green bride

eYay

J Crew Sophia Gown in Ivory

After a lot of searching (even before I got engaged) and thinking about what kind of wedding dress I wanted I decided that a simple silhouette with bold accessories would be the way to go.  I'm a jewelry and hairpiece kind of girl, and it's hard to rock a magnolia flower and a vintage inspired rhinestone necklace when you're wearing a glittery, beaded cake for a dress.  No offense to all those out there planning to wear a glittery, beaded cake for a dress at their wedding, though.

I found what I was looking for at J Crew Wedding, but I bought what I found at J Crew on eBay... actually, my fantastically generous aunt, Diane, is taking care of the dress.  Thanks, D!
So here it is, a redunkulously affordable (green) dress - already affordable because it's a J Crew wedding dress and even more affordable considering I won it on eBay for $75, and an eco-conscious dress (other green) because it's recycled.

Etsy

The plan is to create some sort of handmade (by my aunt Diane) lace bolero and pair a satin sash to go along with it.  A great hair piece (Taylor-made), maybe a triple strand faux pearl bracelet and bam!  I'm ready to walk down that aisle.
Now all I need to do is fit the dress.

Etsy

For more on how I'm working on fitting into the dress check out Viva La Healthy.
~ the green/green bride

Art as Invite

Electronic invitations are fantastic.  You can let people know they're invited to your place a dozen times in a year without spending tons of money on paper and stamps, all the while saving the Redwoods... or whatever tree makes cardstock.  But I'm torn as whether or not to have Evite create our wedding invitations.  It's certainly green, as far as both money and planet are concerned.  But I imagine that at least a dozen people in our lives, including me and my fiance, would love to have a hardcopy keepsake of the big day.  And, I feel that because our guestlist will only include around 50 people, it's not that bad to send out something tangible.  The question then becomes, what?

www.birdandbanner.com

Well, look what I found at good-ole, reliable Martha Stewart Weddings today: Handkerchief  Wedding Invitations!  An invitation beautiful enough to hang as wall art.  And maybe, just maybe, that's what it will be treated as.  Whether hung or framed or tucked away in a keepsake drawer these invites are meant to be kept and not added to a landfill - so that makes it green, if you ask me.  And if created consciously, they can also be the other kind of green... I think.
Grace and Aaron, the couple that created this particular invite, used a company called Bird and Banner to silkscreen the information onto handkerchiefs that the couple collected before their wedding, in addition to a few pieces that were already in the family.  The bride took great care to match the right handkerchief with the right guest.  And some of the gentlemen invited even wore the invitations as pocket squares in their suits the day of the wedding.  Come on, tell me that's not all kinds of awesome.

www.birdandbanner.com

My idea for making this project as affordable as possible would be to gather family handkerchiefs, if you've got 'em, and purchase the rest at thrift stores aiming for each piece to come in under a buck.  Next, get a stamp made at your neighborhood office store, or at an online crafty place like Etsy that has all of the invite info as simply phrased as possible.  Just the facts, ma'am.  The details can be expressed at your wedding website.  And instead of using another company to silkscreen, use your custom stamp and fabric ink to create the finished product.  All that said, I'm not exactly sure how successful that will be, since I haven't yet tried it.  But I'm gonna!  'Cause this is what I want my wedding invitation to be!  I'll let you know how (if) it works out.
~ the green/green bride

Flower Girl

Photo from Style Me Pretty

I struggle with flowers.  Part of me thinks they're kind of a waste.  They can cost thousands of dollars and are most likely going to be appreciated for six to eight hours before they live their last days withering at the bottom of a trash can with half-eaten cake and used napkins.  On the other hand, their beautiful.  So...
Here are my ideas for incorporating flowers into a green/green wedding:

• Give 'em away, give 'em away, give 'em away now.  Let your guests take flowers with them as mementos.  Better they end their days on your aunt's dining room table then the garbage.
• Bury them.  Find a compost and call it even.
• Go small or go home.  Use flowers as accent decorations and use edible treats as the major theme of your design.  Just imagine a glass bowl full of soft, rustic peaches as a centerpiece.
• Or, screw it, save your money and have your flowers.  For us and our $5,000 budget, flowers are going to be few and far between.  I'd rather spend big bucks on food and drink then floral arrangements, but that's just me. 

Their are lots of paper based alternatives to using flowers as decoration.  I believe they're cheaper than the real thing, but environmentally speaking, I don't think it's that great to swap something that grows from the earth with something that grows from the earth and then gets processed with chemicals and shipped half way across the country.  Plus, making tissue paper bouquets that look as good as this one from Martha Stewart seems like a pre-wedding chore that will make me cry.  And their's no crying in wedding planning.  

~ the green/green bride

Can It!

Now, it doesn't work with every can.  I wouldn't put dahlia's in a Del Monte, for example.  But using unique, well designed and/or vintage cans and containers to hold flowers is a beautiful (and practically free) way to add style and color to your reception.
I love this pic from Martha Stewart Weddings that utilizes tea containers:

The following pic was snagged from Style Me Pretty...

So live your life, drink tea, eat beautifully packaged foods and save everything.  You never know when that pretty little can of Le Sueur peas might come in handy.
~ the green/green bride

Blue Balls

I love the versatility and rustic charm of a mason jar.  Check out these blue Ball jars I found at Style Me Pretty...

Get Centered

I'm a planner.  It's the reason why, despite the wedding being 419 days away, I spend at least an hour a day researching everything from cakes to favors to cakes, again.  I like cake.  Part of my obsession is good old fashion excitement.  But most of it is fear.  Fear that I won't be able to solve the puzzle that is the green/green wedding.  Green for the environment and green for our wallets.  I know it's a solvable puzzle, though.  It's not an enigma, it's sudoku - medium.

So let's start at the beginning.  All great things start with an idea, and after hanging out at websites like Martha Stewart Weddings and Style Me Pretty, I have a ton of inspiration.  I've seen beautiful centerpieces, but few of them involved recycled materials and most of them look extremely expensive.  Since my fiance and I our committed to keeping things beautifully casual (nice and cheap) I thought I'd challenge myself to creating a centerpiece from things I already have in my house.  A few empty sauce jars, a piece of fruit, a handful of nuts, a book and a few flower clippings from my patio and BAM!  Free centerpiece!  Just imagine this centerpiece sitting on a sage green cotton runner and an ivory table cloth surrounded by tea candles and happy people who are sipping champagne and enjoying my aunt Julie's Sock It To Me Cake.  If I use this as a template for the wedding, then I have a good fourteen months to save my cool jars (and graciously accept donations of glass jars from friends and family), collect old romantic books from thrift stores at thirty-five cents a pop (it's 1985 in my head) and gather anything else cool, romantic and beautifully casual (nice and cheap) that fits the motif in my spinning little head.

I'll keep the ideas coming, and I expect the same from you.  It takes a village to raise a child, and it takes all of the women and gay men in that village to plan a wedding.  So please, don't hesitate to share your thoughts.
xo
the green/green bride