… for not blogging; I’ve had some fairly major dental surgery to fix and old problem (field hockey stick in the face) and I’ve been a little out of sorts.

There’s been some really fun stuff going on in the wedding blog world this week, so here are some fun links:

A Conversation with the Nuptial-Industrial Complex - a bride’s chat with Big Wedding Business

Kirsten’s community potluck wedding - at Offbeat Bride. Wow, that looked like a fun wedding.

Some really nifty walrus ivory eco wedding rings at Great Green Wedding

Green wedding gift lists galore! - Eco-friendly wedding gift vendors at Ethical Weddings

Celebrate the local artists and the handmade, unique wedding stuff at Etsy

Have a great weekend, especially those of you getting married!

Nothing can symbolize the beauty of nature better than a flower. Commercial flower production is a pretty ugly business. Do you know where your flowers came from and how they were grown?

Flowers are grown all over the world, and while there are many local growers, there are huge numbers of flowers coming in from Columbia, Tanzania, Kenya, Costa Rica, Ecuador, China and many other countries. According to the US Department of Agriculture, 70% of flowers sold in the US are imported.

Pesticides, fungicides and toxic chemicals

Commercial flowers are swimming in pesticides and fungicides, many of which are banned in North America for being carcinogens. The labour conditions of the flower workers are often poor with workers handling pesticide-wet plants with poor safety equipment. 2/3 of these workers report a wide range of medical problems due to their exposure to toxic chemicals.

Transportation

Planes, trains, ships and trucks; the fewer miles a flower has to travel, the smaller the toll on the environment. And a cleaner environment means nicer natural flowers…

Local and organic flowers

There are several options when it comes to choosing flowers. Many programs like Fair Flowers Fair Plants, Veriflora and Sierra Eco cover the certification of organic and fair trade flowers, and while there is still a transportation toll, many big flower producing countries provide organic options.

Local flowers are a good option too (again, look for organic flowers - the pesticides and fertilizers can contaminate local groundwater), but hard to find in the winter months in more northern regions.

Get creative - twisted branches, flowers from your own garden, or even no flowers at all? One of the themes ofour fall wedding was my wife’s prairie heritage, celebrated with mini sheaves of wheat from her cousin’s farm. We sill have a couple around our home.

Some florists to try:

Amoda Flowers - Vancouver
Hatcher Florist - Toronto
OrganicBouquet.com - Online

Sugar coated almonds are an ancient wedding symbol, dating back to the Ancient Greeks. In the 15th century, Italians offered 5 sweetened almonds to newly engaged couples - the 5 almonds represent the five wishes for the couple: happiness, longevity, wealth, children and health. Wedding favors do not need to be elaborate and expensive - celebrate your wedding with a centuries-old symbol.

While sugar coated almonds are traditional, I must speak up for the chocolate lovers: if you like chocolate covered almonds, go for it. No rules against that, plus there are lots of good resources for organic chocolate-covered almonds.

The classic presentation is 5 almonds wrapped in tulle, but use your imagination here - tulle isn’t very recyclable or biodegradable. A small recycled-and-recyclable paper box or bag comes to mind.

Simple, inexpensive and classic - who could ask for more?

Check out your local natural food store, or these online resources:

Santos Natural Food Store - Australia
The Mapled Nut Company - Vermont
Sunspire.com - California

Since the dawn of man, gold has been a very important commodity in financial, spiritual and cultural transactions. Gold, however, is difficult to extract from the earth, and modern mining techniques use deadly toxins like mercury, arsenic and cyanide to separate the gold from the surrounding rock. The amazing part? Gold mining is completely unnecessary, especially for jewelry.

(Platinum and diamond ring from BrilliantEarth.com; BrilliantEarth.com’s renewed gold statement)

2000 tonnes of gold mined annually goes into jewelery, according to greenKarat.com. Yet there is enough gold that’s already been mined to serve the jewelry industry for the next 50 years, much of that gold is unused jewelry sitting in bank vaults.

Buying old gold and repurposing it is a very responsible move. Jewelers can melt down the gold and craft it into a unique custom designs, often for less than store-bought mass produced pieces.

Check out estate auctions, eBay and even pawn shops and the family collection for unused pieces of jewelry that can be reused. It reduces our reliance on slave labor, environmental toxins and strip mining.

You’ve been engaged for two weeks and already the guest list is spiraling out of control.

“We went to Cousin Steve’s wedding in Dallas four years ago, we have to put him on the list.” “Yes, but if we do that, we have to add Uncle Mike’s whole family or we’ll never hear the end of it at the next family reunion.”

Had a similar conversation? I know my wife(-to-be) and I did. She has over 40 cousins, and it’s a tight family. Yikes - recipe for a huge wedding (we ended up with 100 - seemed like a lot more, though).

Keeping the ceremony and reception small has many, many benefits.

Many of those benefits are environmental - less consumption, less waste, less impact and so on. Other benefits are cost control measures, but there is one huge benefit to a small gathering that most people don’t consider.

Your wedding day will (not may, but will) be a very busy day of schedules, planning, meeting & greeting, organization and controlled chaos. There will be so much action it’ll be hard to visit with guests and even remember much of the day. Keeping things small gives you the opportunity to actually be a part of your day instead of being swept along in a tide of events and a blur of faces.  You’ll remember the day more, and have more fun.

REDUCE, reuse, recycle (and my fourth ‘R’ - repair, but that’s a topic for another day). Weddings can get excessive (no, really?), and even if the choices are eco-friendly, the question of consumption still arises. There’s one key question you need to ask yourself: do I really need that? Remember, NEED is different from WANT.

Ariel at the excellent Offbeat Bride blog:

“…I definitely get concerned when I see wedding trend articles that lay yet another financial concern on engaged couples, yet another way in which brides can whip themselves into a frenzy. “I must have tea candles on every table — and they must be SOY CANDLES!â€� How about just skipping the candles? As my friend Esther pointed out, it’s a little frustrating that the article seems to ignore the “reduce, reuse, recycleâ€� aspect of environmentalism, focusing on green products couples can buy instead of suggesting that couples take the truly radical step of just buying less. “

Buy less, consume less - reduce. A radical idea…

Another reason to consider reducing the wedding “stuff” - there’s no doubt that making eco-friendly choices is more expensive than sticking with mainstream, mass produced stuff. By cutting stuff, you free up the budget for organic meals, flowers, etc.

This list is highly individual, and every bride will make different choices as to need or want, but here are some things to think about. Do you need:

• floral centerpieces for the tables?
• candles?
• individual place cards?
• a newspaper announcement?
• a ring pillow?
• toasting goblets?
• a ‘going-away’ outfit?

Run through your checklist. What are the things you can cut out?

By now, most people know not to throw rice at weddings - it’s difficult to clean up (most venues won’t allow it), and, according to urban legend, birds will eat it and explode (this is false).

As an alternative, many people are now throwing bird seed. Supposedly friendlier towards birds, bird seed poses a different threat to the environment - the introduction of non-native and invasive plant species, AKA weeds.

Perhaps the most common animal-related products that cause new plant introductions are bird seeds. Commercial bird seed marketed towards pet owners contains many non-native species. As bird owners know, large amounts of seed are thrown away intact simply because the bird will not eat it. Naturalists in Britain tracked “bird seed aliens” for the past several decades. They found several dozen species that either grew unaided in garbage dumps, or would germinate under laboratory conditions. Many bird seed aliens easily germinate if exposed to water, even while still in the bird cage. Some of the better-known bird seed aliens include Panicum miliaceum (proso millet), Setaria italica (foxtail millet), and Helianthus annuus (sunflower), all common seed contaminants themselves. One common bird seed component that has recently come under increased scrutiny is Cannabis sativa (hemp); although the seed is supposed to be sterilized before it is included in mixtures to be sold in America, this species is still a noxious weed in many states.

Methods of Introduction of Non-Native Plants into New Habitats: A Review
by Jennifer Forman, University of Massachusetts, Boston

The idea of throwing things at newly married couples is a tradition that goes back thousands of years. Grains, fruit, seeds, nuts and so on symbolize a fruitful union and growth (an old Irish tradition has the couple being pelted with pots and pans - sounds like a honeymoon in the emergency ward… :)  ).

Today, we have many adaptations of this tradition, and we can celebrate in other eco-friendly ways. Blow bubbles from a solution made from biodegradable soap - always a nice option and it’s fun to blow bubbles!

John Reeve at Digital Web Magazine published an excellent article yesterday: How to Build a Green Business. The article covers many things you can do to build an eco-friendly business, and clearly defines some buzzwords like “sustainability”.

5 take-away points from the article

1. Recycle everything you can, including old electronic equipment and inkjet cartridges.
2. Reduce your consumption of everything, including power (turn things off when not in use) and paper (don’t print emails).
3. Use green products: everything from post-consumer waste recycled paper to green cleaning products.
4. Alternative commuting, including taking the bus, biking, working from home, carpooling and driving energy-efficient vehicles.
5. Revamp your product line by eliminating the inefficient and harmful.

Check out the article for more great ideas on running an environmentally-friendly and ethical business. Share your ideas in the comments on how you you run an ethical and environmentally-friendly wedding business.

It’s Valentine’s Day - the most popular day to get engaged*.

Congratulations to all new brides and grooms! Enjoy your fair-trade chocolate and organic roses today, and remember to have fun planning your wedding.

Source: popular assumption.

“Many will embrace willful waste as a sign of confidence or luxury.”

Seth Godin (my favourite marketing guru) riffs on waste. He talks about a hotel room that was fully lit (with incandescent bulbs - gasp!), overly warm and so on. He talks about a watch that seemed to be more extras than watch. The theme of his post was excessiveness.

Many (dare I say most?) brides want a luxurious wedding, and weddings are often a venue for displays of wealth and excessiveness. It’s still possible to have a wedding that’s chic and glamorous but easy on the environment.

Most of the choices come from not sacrificing the glamour, but knowing where the different elements come from. You can have the big diamond, but choose an ethically sourced diamond. Have a fabulous dress, but choose organic fabrics. Have a sumptuous meal, but go organic and local. Make ethical choices for your once-in-a-lifetime blowout.

Check out the 95 Ideas To Make Your Wedding More Environmentally-Friendly.

Where do you see waste in your day-to-day life?