“Housing Works presents an evening all about Green Weddings with some of New York City’s leaders in the field, to discuss the ins and outs of planning an eco-friendly wedding. With Mireya Navarro, author of Green Wedding: Planning Your Eco-Friendly Celebration, green wedding planner Danielle Venokur, green dress designer (and Project Runway winner) Leanne Marshall, and sustainable chef Mary Cleaver (The Green Table and Cleaver Company).”

Monday, April 13, 2009 at 7:00 PM
Housing Works Bookstore Cafe
126 Crosby Street, New York, NY 10012
212-334-3324

“Skin Deep pairs ingredients in more than 41,000 products against 50 definitive toxicity and regulatory databases, making it the largest integrated data resource of its kind. Why did a small nonprofit take on such a big project? Because the FDA doesn’t require companies to test their own products for safety.”

It blows my mind what goes into makeup (not being a makeup user myself) - check out the FDA’s Cosmetics site for some eye-opening information. Even if you’re not that much into the green and organic, this database is great for those with skin sensitivities.

Check out BluePlanetWedding.com’s business listings for salons, hair stylists and makeup artists using environmentally friendly and low or non-toxic products.

The rings (if they haven’t already been bought), the dress and the location are usually the first details to be discussed. Here are some BluePlanetWedding.com resources to get you started:

Jewelry:

The Most Important Question to Ask About Your Engagement Ring

Gorgeous eco-friendly wedding bands for the groom

Recycled gold: reusing and repurposing old jewelry

Wedding Dresses:

Organic silk wedding gowns: making green and ethical choices

6 Eco-friendly Wedding Dress Designers You *Really* Need to See

5 Places to Find Gorgeous Preowned Wedding Dresses Online

Don’t forget to keep an eye on the Business Directory to find vendors and businesses who provide services and products to couples. New businesses are being added daily, and if you are looking for a business in your area and can’t find anyone, let us know and we’ll see if we can find a vendor for you.

Check out:

Wedding planners specializing in green weddings

Caterers specializing in local fare, organic food and vegetarian and vegan meals

Florists using locally-grown, fair trade and pesticide-free organic flowers

Finally, see how this Houston couple put on their green wedding, and all the tricks and tips they discovered to make a beautiful, low impact wedding! Be sure to read all 5 parts!

Tara & Mike’s Eco-friendly Wedding, Part 1

This recent New York Times article discusses the financial advantages of preowned wedding dresses:

Even previously owned high-end couture gowns from designers like Vera Wang, Monique Lhuillier, and Amsale sell for 25 to 50 percent or more off the original retail price, giving brides a realistic alternative to finding “something affordable without sacrificing quality,” said Nina Willdorf, the author of “Wedding Chic: The Savvy Bride’s Guide to Getting More While Spending Less” (Perigee Trade). “Smart shopping to find value for less is really chic right now,” Ms. Willdorf said. “It’s not like buying a used sweater that’s been worn for years. A wedding dress has been worn once and only for a matter of hours.”

The eco rewards are just as good - the lower consumption of materials and resources is great for the environment.

5 places to find your preowned wedding dress online:

1. PreOwnedWeddingDresses.com
2. BravoBride.com
3. EncoreBridal.com
4. SellYourWeddingDress.com
5. WoreItOnce.com

Don’t forget about eBay or your local secondhand or thrift shops. There are some excellent bargains to be had out there.

Curious? Check out this $6000 Vera Wang dress, asking $2000 (SellYourWeddingDress.com)

Looking for designers using eco-friendly materials? Read “6 Eco-friendly Wedding Dress Designers You *Really* Need to See“.

The diamond engagement ring is the first and most prominent symbol of an upcoming marriage. The bride-to-be (and her friends) cannot take her eyes off the ring, especially for the first few weeks after the engagement. But before you buy a diamond, there is one question you absolutely must ask your jeweller:

Check out Michael Lackman’s excellent article about silk production: Raw and Organic Silk: Facts behind the Fibers at LotusOrganics.com.

Gwendolyn Gleason

Rene Geneva

Chrissy Wai-Ching

Morgan Boszilkov

Deborah Lindquist

Olivia Luca

Some wedding dresses in some of the collections may not be made organic or eco-friendly fabrics, so ask before you buy to make sure you are getting what you want.

Everyone here at BluePlanetWedding.com wishes all our faithful readers a happy and safe holiday, and a hearty congratulations to everyone getting engaged tomorrow (Christmas is the #2 time to get engaged after Valentine’s day).

Keep it green!

Dave Walker and the gang at BluePlanetWedding.com

(and yes, my New Year’s resolution is to blog a bit more faithfully!)

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

What would you say to couples thinking of having a green wedding?

If there are any couples considering implementing a few eco-friendly initiatives into their wedding or thinking about having an eco-wedding, I would congratulate them on their decision and provide positive support as well.  Sometimes it takes guts to change or do something a little different.

I would suggest to the bride and grooms to follow their heart and not listen to negative comments by those who are scared of change.  A lot of people do not realize how much weddings (and other large events) negatively impact our environment and if 100 brides implemented 1 eco-friendly initiative into their big day, it would make a large impact.

I think the top 2 must haves for an eco-wedding are an eco-wedding coordinator and the internet.

If anyone is considering having an eco-wedding, the most important suggestion I have is hiring an eco-event planner.  Wedding coordinators are great but they are there to serve you.  On the contrary, an eco-event planner is there to serve you, but they are also there to protect and serve the environment.  On Green Lily Events‘ website, they sum it up very well when they say: “We believe that making responsible choices in the early stages of event planning can minimize waste and create a lighter footprint. Our mission is to create unique, eco-chic events that balance style with sustainability.”  My wedding would not have been the same with the help of Green Lily Events.  Especially in a place like Texas, doing something eco-friendly requires help whereas in California, it is a law that recycling must take place at large events.

Also, I did spend a lot more time researching eco alternatives on the internet, and that is definitely a necessity if someone is planning an eco-event.

What green or eco-friendly things are you going to establish in your household?

We already recycle everything we possibly can in our home.  Our new favorite TV channel is the Planet Green channel.  I watch the shows on making homes green a lot and we love to learn about the environment and what we are doing and what more we can do to help minimize the negative impact our consumption is having on the earth.  Before the channel even started, I had decided to make my current home green.  We purchased a condo in March of 2008 and we have plans to green our home as much as we can with the limited budget that we have.  Recently, we purchased a digital thermostat and a blanket for our water heater.  Also, over the next 2 years we plan on replacing the paint with a low or no toxic paint, install new appliances and purchase as many energy star appliances as possible and install recycled glass countertops in the kitchen and bathroom.  In addition, we are gradually replacing our cleaning products with eco-friendly products and we try to purchase organic and local products whenever it is financially possible.

The eco-wedding has already made an impact of some of my family members and my brother and my father have begun recycling in their homes too.  My father even sent me a picture recently of his first time recycling!

Overall this experience has been life changing for me and my husband.  Not only do we feel good about having an eco-wedding, we are planning on making all our future events eco-friendly.

How did your guests react? Did they notice and appreciate the green element?

Overall, the reaction was positive although we did receive some jokes and odd looks along the way.  A lot of people, particularly Houstonians, are not environmentally conscious, so an eco-wedding is new and strange.  I can understand their hesitation and curiosity because that is how people typically react to change, but I think the majority of our guests liked the idea and felt honored to be included.

Except for the eco-favors, there was nothing really obvious that made people notice that it was an eco-wedding, especially because the most important eco initiative, the recycling, happened in the kitchen/service area.  The eco elements were all around though, from the cakes to the linens to the eco-fetti. We did get a lot of compliments on the eco-favors, the floral centerpieces and the organic cakes at the wedding.  Also, moving part of the décor from the ceremony room to the reception really made a big impact. A couple of people have already told me that they planted their lavender seeds and pot, and there are sprouts growing!  I am so happy to hear that some of our guests really enjoyed their favor.

Before the day of the wedding, we received several comments on the invitations. A lot of people were very curious about the invitations because they looked natural but still elegant. When we told people they were made from tree-free materials and post consumer recycled paper, they were amazed at how beautiful the invitations looked.

Many people asked us throughout our engagement (7 months) what an eco wedding was or how you made a wedding green.  I always told them that a green wedding was same as a traditional wedding but rather than throwing paper, plastic, aluminum and glass in the trash, you recycle it instead.  Also, having the ceremony and reception at the same venue was another example I gave.  It’s simple and something that most people would not even think of as eco-friendly, but it is.

Tomorrow: Conclusion

Was your eco-wedding more expensive than if you had done a standard wedding?

I can see where an eco-wedding would be more expensive than a regular wedding, but we did not really see an increase by adding our eco-initiatives. If it did cost us more, it was so minimal that we didn’t even notice.

I do admit that many organic or eco-friendly products available in America and throughout the world can cost more a lot of times, but that is not always that case and sometimes it just takes an extra few minutes to do some research and find a cheaper alternative.

What we did notice was how much more expensive everything has become even over the course of 7 months. I read recently that there has been a 15% increase in the cost of goods and services in the bridal industry, and next year that trend is supposed to continue.

I believe the reason our eco-wedding did not cost more is mostly due to the fact that we made wise decisions by deciding not to purchase flowers from ecobouquet.com and we did not choose an organic or free range meat. I wanted free range chicken, but it was going to cost an extra $10 a person so we decided to go with our original choice. No one even noticed that our chicken was not free range, so I think it was a good decision. However, in a perfect world, my wedding would have been eco-perfect with an entirely eco friendly menu, but that is not possible with most budgets. Also, I wanted organic flowers but the cost was too much for our budget so we chose a local florist that purchased a lot of local flowers instead.

One thing we did purchase that we did not have to was eco-fetti for our exit. Ecoparti.com offers eco-fetti which is colored, dissolvable paper. It was not expensive at all ($19.95 per bag of eco-fetti) and rose petals probably would have cost as much, but bubbles definitely would have been cheaper.

When we went shopping for our invitations, we got a quote from a well known local invitation company and they wanted to charge us $1500 for one of their nicer designs and it wasn’t even eco-friendly. We did get a quote for one of their eco-friendly invitations, but it was around the same price. Our budget was only $1000 and the only reason it was even that high, was because my mom was trying to please me because I wanted eco-friendly invitations. Luckily, my wedding coordinator was very resourceful and persistent and she found Invitesite. They make eco-friendly invitations at affordable prices by having their customers assemble the invitations. Our total for the invitations was $900 and although it did take quite a bit of time to assemble the invitations, it was well worth the savings.

Also, I originally wanted a wedding cake and grooms cake from the best baker in town, Nadine Moon of Who Made the Cakes, but I was open to the idea of an organic cake. We went to see Nadine and she created some fabulous designs for us. Her quote ended up being $1500 which was out of my mom’s price range. Jessica Zapatero saved the day again and introduced us to Monica Martinez of Precious Cakes by Monica. Not only were her cakes absolutely fabulous, but they were more affordable. The quote from Monica for the same cakes with the same designs but organic was $1100! So, we ended up with delicious organic cakes and we saved $400.

Tomorrow: How did your guests react? Did they notice and appreciate the green element?