Weddingbee Blog

It’s not that easy being green…
It seems you blend in with so many other ordinary things
…
When green is all there is to be
It could make you wonder why, but why wonder why
Wonder, I am green and it’ll do fine, it’s beautiful
And I think it’s what I want to be

A friend of mine recently wrote about not being very green for her wedding. She said she doesn’t know where her diamond is from, they’re using disposable stuff for their barbecue, and they have other stuff that is not recycled and not local.

Alert the presses! We must stop this wedding!

No, but really. I hadn’t thought about any of this until I read her post, and then I was like, “Huh. What an interesting thing to think about.” I read what she wrote and thought, “Well, yeah. There’s a lot I’m not doing. There’s a lot I could be doing more on.” Here’s what we’re doing environmentally “wrong”:

• We have new dresses from David’s Bridal. I am pretty sure that these were not made locally or with organic materials. What they were made with was some cloth and design that we could afford. Sorry, world.
• Our invitations are going to be printed on the most affordable paper we can get at PaperSource, because the sizes are standard, the store is local, and we know what colors we need. Maybe they will be on recycled paper? Maybe not. We haven’t really gotten that far, but we’ll get what we’ll get, and again, I think the decision will be made by budget rather than environmental friendliness.
• Our food may or may not be local. Local or no, I can tell you one thing our food definitely is: delicious.
• My ring might be a “blood diamond”. I really don’t know anything about where it originally came from. Eep.

Okay; having said all that, there is actually a lot that we are doing right.

• We’re getting married relatively locally, and we’re supporting a small, local organization by using their space.
  

Our venue is “green”

• Our caterer is local; they will have pretty minimal travel. Additionally, our officiant, band, and many guests are also local. Yay lower travel costs!
• Our rings are both antiques: not recycled, but reused. That sounds a little grungier than I mean it. What I mean is that we found something beautiful that already existed; we did not create any market for these rings to be manufactured (I hope).
• We plan to coordinate carpooling to minimize traffic.
• We’re using real dishes, which will be washed and reused; they already exist and are owned by our caterer, so we’re not creating more of a market for new things.
• Our RSVP cards are going to be postcards - minimize the paper!

I feel like I’m putting so much into just making the wedding happen that I’m not going out of my way to make sure things are “eco friendly.” It seems like such a trend; “Be a green bride! This is the only way you can take care of the world!”

We are *surrounded* by green! (photo by Ellie Leonardsmith)

Honestly, it’s a bit of a bummer that we’re not doing more, but there’s only so much we can do while maintaining our sanity. In real life (i.e. non-wedding-related-life), we recycle, compost, and try to ride bicycles instead of driving (just tonight we went on a date, bicycling to the movies and then to a restaurant! Look at us go!). We do what we can in lots of little ways, and our wedding is not a badge of “Look How Environmental We Are!” It’s our wedding, and it’s supposed to be a special day for our relationship and the people who affect and support our relationship. Where it’s doable, we’ll pick the better-for-the-world option, but honestly we’re going to pick the better-for-our-budget and more-representative-of-us option first.

I know this isn’t the trend, and, especially as someone who tries so hard to minimize my impact and waste and take good care of - not to mention appreciate! - the environment, it’s hard to admit that I am not doing every single little thing that I possibly could do. But I think we’re doing a lot, and we’re doing it fairly intentionally. And I think that that is okay.

Where are you on this scale of things? Does doing this stuff sometimes balance out when you can’t do it? What little steps are you taking?