Tuesday, August 31, 2010

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

Monday, August 30, 2010

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...

Sunday, August 29, 2010

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