Most people go for white on their wedding day, but now you can go green too! This week’s contest will give one lucky winner a copy of {Kate L. Harrison}’s brand new book, {The Green Bride Guide: How to Create an Earth-Friendly Wedding on Any Budget}. The Green Bride Guide covers eco-friendly engagements, gowns, registries, and even gives you insight on planning an eco-fabulous honeymoon! This book is a great resource for couples aiming to create a stylish and special event that doesn’t leave a lasting impression on the earth, and it even includes a great list of vendors to help you create your dream wedding! We love that Kate provides low, medium and high-end choices for each aspect of your wedding, proving that you don’t have to break the bank to have a gorgeous green event!
Win: One lucky winner will receive a copy of The Green Bride Guide
To Enter: Leave a comment on this post letting us know the ways in which you’ve incorporated eco-friendly habits into your home, wedding or lifestyle. Winner will be chosen at random.
Contest ends Tuesday, March 17th (yes, that’s St. Patty’s day!) at midnight. Have fun going green!
i ride my bike to work everyday (unless it’s raining in which case i take the bus)
I have been recycling more trying to bring my own bags to the store and reducing my electricity.
Instead of having an out of town florist for our country wedding, we are getting our flowers from a local organic flower farm and arranging them ourselves.
I am not using any rentals (at least that’s the goal-we might have to get a few pieces of silverware). Also, we’re planting trees in lieu of favors!
I’ve been using canvas bags for groceries and nylon bags for produce.
Fabulous – what a COOL giveaway! I love that you pointed out that this includes low, mid, and high-end options. In a world where being eco-friendly can also be a budget buster, it’s nice to know that some have thought out all the options!As far as my green habits go, my dearest other half usually wants to wring my neck over the great lengths I’ll go to to keeping recyclables out of the trash and thus, out of the landfill! From cute buckets by every trashcan in our townhouse to collecting every beverage can that our friends empty at tailgates, that has to be the biggest contribution I’ve made to personally being a little more eco-conscious.
I incorporate a eco-friendly lifestyle by carpooling as much as I can, recycling, and purchasing organic groceries when I can.
Our whole wedding will be green, accidentally, but what a wonderful accident. We’re having a vintage country feel, so we have been salvaging old and forgotten about items instead of buying new things off the shelf. I’ve always though we should try to reuse before we recycle.
As an grad student in environmental policy, I am trying to make my Mississippi wedding as green as possible. We are getting organic flowers and food from Vicksburg and family friends (local, of course), we are supporting a public garden by holding our reception there, printing our invites on 100% recycled paper, and I am wearing my mother’s gown. Finally, in honor of our guests, we will be donating to an environmental nonprofit as their "favor".
My lifestyle: separate trash cans for paper, plastic, and general trash, recyclable green Whole Foods bags for groceries, walk or ride the bus to run errands (mostly walk). My wedding: flowers are from a local florist, the flowers will be donated to the church to enjoy for their services, all of bridal party’s clothes are rentals. Thanks!
Placing full water bottles in the toilet tank to reduce water used during flushing; composting organic kitchen waste, as well as used bunny bedding; canvas/re-usable totes at the grocery store; using the occasional plastic shopping bag as garbage bags around the house and puppy poopy bags on long walks; actively requesting "no bag, please" when buying a handful of items at a time; using vinegar for household cleaning.
Going green is something I try to incorporate in many different ways in my life. For me personally, I recycle, I use the reusable bags when I go shopping, I use the energy efficient light blubs around my house, try to unplug all electronics when they are not in use to name a few things. As far as my business goes, I am a wedding coordinator and focus on promoting Green weddings as one of my specialties. My business cards are printed on recycled paper; I have invitation books with recycled paper invitations and soy inks to name a few things. Weddings leave a huge carbon foot print and there are many things that we can do to try and offset the impact. The book you are giving away is one that is actually on my list of ones to get! I know it would be a great resource for my business.
well, we live off the grid so we’ve got photovoltaic panels, rainwater collection set up, and a gray water organic purification system using plants for filtration. I compost, take public transit to work, and reuse durable goods like bags whenever possible. for our wedding, we’re doing a lot of electronic correspondence (it took a while for me to get over it but I’m ok now), and for the invites that we are printing, we’re using soy ink on recycled paper. Our caterer uses only local, organic ingredients and for decor we’re using fruits and veggies and leaves, instead of shipping flowers. Soy candles are also part of our green effort. Oh, and we’re also getting a large bus to transport our guests to the site so that they don’t all bring their cars at once.What a fantastic giveaway, I would love to see some of the ideas Kate has!
i also use my own bags at the grocery store, carpool, ride my bike to work when possible, use recycled paper and recycle paper, and buy local!
I work in habitat restoration and plant trees on a daily basis!
I made my own bags to bring grocery shopping and I recycle. I even bring items my city doesn’t recycle to a center.
I work at local chain store that I will keep it nameless they carry a few products of eco-friendly and organic. Somehow those items always end up in clearance rack. Of course I take advantage and purchase most of them and give them out as gifts to my friends and family. I try incorporate everyone that being green is not just products that look like cardboard but it can be stylish too. I think being GREEN is sexy.
Going green has changed my life style for the better. I used all my totes when I do my groceries, shopping, and my errands. I started by having my parents get adapted with the tote bag and little by little I got my entire family and friends to use tote bags. At work I incorporated not to print too many papers and if needed to use both sides of sheets. I also took a bin to work where everyone could throw their cans or bottles so I can recycle them. When purchasing items I always read labels to see ingredients and to see if the item can hurt our environment. And last my fiance has accepted for us to have a GREEN wedding and our favors we are giving away tote bags with dove design and the words LOVE.
We have tried very hard to make out wedding and life eco-friendly. Although we certainly could to more. We are cutting down on our extra purchases, trying to reuse or repurpose as much as we can. We are having very few fresh flowers, real plates and flatware, and my ring is even recycled – an antique.
One way we’re going green at our wedding is by having a comprehensive Web site. We posted maps, accomodation information and links to area attractions on our Web site, so we will not have to print hotel or direction cards with our invitations, saving paper.
At trees4scotland we have planted trees for weddings – usually as wedding favours. We create a commemorative certificate that all the ladies get with a thanks from the bride and groom and the date etc – goes down really well – plus it makes the wedding carbon neutral!Cheaper than most other wedding favours as well! – http://www.trees4scotland.com
I’m using vintage and non-disposable products wherever possible, and instead of giving out customized water bottles, we’re offering jars of lemonade and iced tea so that guests can be refreshed without creating more landfill waste!
At home, I recycle everything that I can! We have labeled bins for everything. I also love using reusable bags! I teach Kindergarten and have taught my students to recycle things that we use in our classroom. They love looking for things to put into our recycle bin! I’m newly engaged, but hope to plan an eco-friendly wedding as well. :)
I recycle everything that I can! That is why we decided to do a GREEN wedding. We are having our invites be made by eco-friendly site. As our favors we are giving away flower seeds and tote bags.
I’ve switched to reusable shopping bags, I recycle what I can & use Method cleaning products throughout my house.
I incorporate an eco-friendly lifestyle in every aspect of my life. I take short showers, use Brita filtered pitcher and fill up water on a re-usable water-bottle instead of buying bottled water. At work, I avoid printing unecessarily and, when I have to, I re-use paper: Instead of shredding old sheets, I flip the pages over and print on the blank side of each sheet. Once done, I recycle it! For our wedding, my fiance and I have decided to have a "green wedding". We will not decorate much, instead, we will let the beauty of nature shine through. For our centerpieces, we will fill up vases with real limes; this way my guests can take them home and use them to make lemonade or margaritas!!
I always have a tote bag or two in my purse, I recycle everything I possibly can, I bring all of my compostables to the farmer’s market every Sat morning – where I do as much local shopping as possible… and I’m trying to figure out great eco-friendly ways to host my wedding!
I try to save on electricity by bundling up in layers instead of turning on the fireplace =D. Plus, we recycle everything that can be recycled. You’d be surprised how much room that leaves in the trash bin!
We recycle and bring reusable bags to the grocery store. I also have a plastic cloth bag that folds up into a little pack that I keep in my purse for purchases when we’re out shopping.
I recycle whatever I can, and we’re making our wedding green by using groups of potted succulents as centerpieces, then giving them out as favors (score one for reusing!), plus buying carbon offsets for the the travel of our guests. Our honeymoon is going to be at an eco-resort in Costa Rica– it’s so fun planning!
We are having a destination wedding and In lieu of favors we are planting trees in honor of the guests to offset the carbon footprint of everyone’s travel. Also, we are using reusable grocery bags for the welcome bags – that way guests will be able to think of us everytime they grocery shop and save a plastic bag!
I am currently a college student, and in order to incorporate more "green" into my daily lifestyle, I ride my bike on campus, recycle, use reusable grocery bags, cook with fresh foods, cut out paper and Styrofoam dishes completely, eat organic foods, and carpool.
Here are some of the ways we hope to achieve a "green" wedding1. engagement ring is an antique2. hope to use as much locally produced food as possible3. will have limited fresh flowers at website (or i might try to grow my own, but that’s crazy . . .right?)4. I plan to have a "green’ favor, I am thinking wildflower seeds that are native to the area where the guest is from (about 90% of guests are from the same area)5. hopefully the site will let me compost leftover food Thanks!
My fiance and I are both doing our part to help out in the "go green movement" in our daily lives! We both ride bikes around our small town whenever we can and we were instantly inspired by the new SW cover. Currently, in my kitchen there stands a tandem bicycle waiting to be painted pastel green that we are going to ride off on after our July wedding!
It is really important to us that our wedding reflects our values, so…we’ve tried really hard to think of ways to be "green". Here are a few examples, recycled platinum rings, canadian diamond from a eco-friendly jeweler and we will be using a 100% organic caterer for our wedding!
Our escort cards/favors are little seedlings, with a tag made out of plantable paper that includes wildflower seeds.
We’re trying to be as environmentally friendly as possible, so we’re having a morning/afternoon wedding outdoors so we can take advantage of the site’s natural beauty. Our decor is minimal; we’re staying away from cut flowers and using recycled paper products like tissue pomanders. Afterwards we’ll hang them up in our house! Our caterer also uses only organic and local ingredients.