Green, Ethical and Eco-friendly Weddings

Check out Sandy Stonesifer’s I Do Good on Slate.com - how to turn your wedding into a charity fundraiser. There are some great ideas here, like

• have two registries (one for yourself and one for a charity)
• request donations in lieu of gifts
• send leftovers to a local shelter
• make donations in lieu of wedding favours.

Here are some of the charities listed in the article that can help you out with wedding-related fundraising:

• IDoFoundation.org
• JustGive.org
• Heifer International
• World Vision Canada 

There is a lot of power when groups of people come together, like for a wedding. Harness that power, and do some good for the world!

THIS is what weddings are about. Joy and happiness, pure and simple.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-94JhLEiN0

Thanks, Jill and Kevin, and best wishes.

From the Housing Works Bookstore Cafe site:

“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

Many, many thanks to everyone who has been supporting BluePlanetWedding.com over the last year - look for some great things to come over the next year.

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!)

My wife and I have been using microfiber cloths for cleaning around the house, and I’M IN LOVE with these cloths! Use these cloths with water only, no chemical cleaners are necessary! I cleaned the shower door yesterday (soap scum and hard water residue); the cloth cleaned so easily - water only and it came out clean and shiny! They polish chrome amazingly well, the windows are cleaner then ever, and I can see through my glasses! When they get dirty, throw them in the wash - they can be reused hundreds of time. Seriously, spend $5 or $6 buck to try them out - you’ll never go back to chemical cleaners.

I’m helping our local Green Party candidate Randy Weeks in Canada’s federal election coming up on October 14. If you live in the Calgary West riding, check out Randy’s web site (as created by yours truly), or check out the Green Party of Canada web site for more info on policies, etc. Or click here for the US Green Party web site. The Green Party, at least in Canada, is gaining a lot of traction as a viable alternative to the other three parties.

Don’t forget about the CameraRenter.com contest - enter for the chance to save 80% on a digital camera rental package. The contest closes on September 30, so get your entry in ASAP!

There’s a new eco bride blog in town. This Ontario, Canada, -based bride is blogging her wedding plans, and dealing with the ups and downs of planning an eco-friendly wedding.

Follow her eco-wedding plans here, and see what she’s doing for her wedding, which is coming up fairly soon!

Suzan St. Maur’s third wedding book, How To Get Married In Green, is an entertaining green wedding how-to book, covering how to make your wedding eco-friendly and why you should make the green choices.

I really enjoyed Suzan’s ideas on how to have an eco wedding. Her ideas are practical and a lot of fun (check out the recipes for eco drinks!), and the reasons behind going green are clear and sensible. Pick and choose the green elements you want for your wedding - vegetarian meals are not practical for every wedding, for example - Suzan won’t guilt you into making choices you don’t want to make.

Although everyone may argue different aspects of environmentalism - I disagree with using birdseed as confetti, for example, because it can introduce non-native, invasive plant species - the book has many practical examples and is well thought out. I sense the book is written for regular people wanting to make a difference; the hardcore environmentalists may not learn much new here.

The book is full of great internet search terms - you can use the suggested terms to find additional resources, businesses and ideas for your green wedding, and Suzan has a great list of wedding web sites (but not BluePlanetWedding.com - next edition, please?). Suzan lives in England, and the book has a heavy UK bias for the businesses and locations, but this shouldn’t stop you from reading the excellent advice.

Overall, this is a well written, well researched and entertaining guide on green weddings - pick up a copy to help you plan your wedding!

Order the book (Canada)
Order the book (US)
Order the book (UK)

You may notice a minor change today, and a very major change. The minor change is improved navigation of the web site (I hope - let me know if you don’t like it). Find businesses with fewer clicks.The second improvement is huge - all businesses on the site are eco-friendly - we’ve eliminated all non-green businesses! Listings are still free, but ya gotta be green to get in.

Coming up this week (or next…):

Make it frugal, but call it eco. There are a lot of parallels between being frugal and being eco. Get some tips on having a frugal wedding but you can call it an eco wedding.

Getting away. Even if honeymoon travel isn’t the best thing for the environment (don’t forget to offset the travel!), you can go eco at one of these beautiful resorts around the world.

Finally, I’d just like to give a little shout-out to a new group out of San Francisco: The One Love Campaign, a directory of businesses and resources serving same sex weddings in the SF area.

“The website www.theonelovecampaign.com will serve as a beacon of information and a resource for all different types of relationship & wedding services in a network that recognizes all marriages as One Love.”

My apologies for not blogging for a while (2 months? That’s like 30 years in blog time). I’ve been very busy with other projects and haven’t been able to find the time to write. I know it’s no excuse, but, well… 

The good news is that there are several new posts in the works, and I should be back to a semi-regular schedule next week. Look for posts about Todd Reed, a jeweler working with raw diamonds and recycled gold, information about LEED-certified hotels, and much more.

We’ve also been busy with the media. Listen here to a radio interview with Amanda Smyth of Life Tips at WebmasterRadio.fm - lots of good stuff about eco weddings. And if you’re in Edmonton, check out the July/August issue of Unlimited Magazine for a great article by Annette Boudreau on green weddings.

If you’re going to a wedding and looking for an eco-friendly gift for the happy couple, check out Emma Gilchrist’s How to give a green wedding gift article at the Calgary Herald. Great tips and advice!

We’re still working on the next iteration of the web site - stay tuned for the easier-to-use, more complete, faster, better, stronger version of BluePlanetWedding.com.

Whew - it’s nice to be back!

Some fun stuff that’s been under discussion this week (and what a busy week it’s been for eco wedding talk, what with Earth Day and all…):

See some very cute - and reusable/re-wearable - flower girl dresses at eco chic weddings

Check out these very elegant earth-friendly wedding dresses from British-based Conscious Elegance, seen on Ethical Weddings

Brenda’s Wedding Blog shows some examples of eco-friendly wedding invitations

Reuse, Reuse, Reuse! at Perfect Memories Wedding Blog (and lots of other green living advice)

Brenda’s done it again with Organic Wedding Cakes - yum!

Have a great weekend as we start the rush into wedding high season!