June - the Month of Weddings

As the days turn longer and air warms, many busy brides to be have finished the planning stages of their weddings and are just wrapping up the final details.  This is not the case for my brother and soon to be sister-in-law, they are just barely beginning to plan their wedding.  You can imagine that I was THILLED to hear that they would be planning a green wedding.  In fact, Melissa will be blogging about her experiences for the Green Bride Guide.  Her first blog was posted last week and I certainly plan to follow along and use her experiences for inspiration.

Let's face it weddings are inherently wasteful.  I know, it's hard to look at one of the biggest days of your life in such a way but we all know it's true.  From the invitations, overwhelming use of flowers, robust menus and take home tchotchkes weddings create an enormous amount of waste.  So what's a bride to do?  I've never been a big fan of all or nothing conservation messages. I have a really bad tendency of throwing my hands up in the air when things become overwhelming and I'm sure others do to.  So instead of fretting over every little detail of her upcoming green wedding, I believe a bride should - well, just do what she can!  If you're plans for your wedding are all set, congratulations!  If they aren't, here are a few tips for getting started on your wedding:

1.  Kick things off with digital wedding invitations.  If you're the type who really likes to hold those beautifully designed paper invitations in your have, choose recycled or natural fibers paper.
2.  Do they still throw rice at weddings?  If you must throw something, bird seed is a better option.  Bubbles are okay but be sure to save those bottles.  Cut off the wand and use the container to store small items (of course, my mind automatically goes to beads!)
3.  What's a wedding without gifts?  You could go the royal route and ask that your guests make a donation to a charity in your name.  But if you're not quite living like royalty, make sure your list includes household goods that are made locally to reduce the impact that shipping your gifts over long distances will create. 

Be sure to check back often, you can be sure that there will be more wedding blogs to follow.  And in the meantime, hop over to the Green Bride Guide for more tips.  And if you've tried your hand at a green wedding, post below and tell us what worked, what didn't and what you wished you had tried.