Real Green Brides II – Amanda and Daniel

Green brides are sprouting up all over!  This week we are thrilled to share the story of Daniel and Amanda and the steps they took to green their nuptials.

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The Green Wedding of Amanda Flaim & Daniel Ahlquist

 

Wedding Location: A gorge in Ithaca: Ithaca is gorges after all.
Robert Treman State Park, specifically.

Date: June 17, 2008

In a locally produced, fairly-traded, certifiably organic, recyclable nutshell, our wedding reflected a very united attempt to be as environmentally sustainable as possible. Luckily, this priority merges quite well with our commitments to social justice, supporting local communities and economies, and my affection for all things vintage and home-made. If we couldn’t make it ourselves, to every extent possible, we hired local artists and vendors to do it for us.

We will not lie and say this was a super easy undertaking. Even in eco-magical Ithaca, New York where local foods and alternatives abound, planning an event like your wedding is never easy. Moreover, the bridal industry is a well-oiled machine, geared to make your wedding day vision a reality with a few visits to the nearest bridal shop or brides-are-us website. In your exhaustion, you will be tempted. But we swear it’s worth it to RESIST! In the end, our wedding was entirely ours. As an added bonus, we saved a lot of money-we were $1000 under budget and we honestly don’t feel like we missed out on anything! We could have done a lot of things better, but here’re a few ideas and lessons learned!

Invitations:

Designed by Amanda with the help of a local artist we hired who formatted and printed them on recycled paper.

Rings:

Made from recycled gold, and made by a local artist!

Canvas bags:

Given to all of the guests to use at the Ithaca farmer’s market.

Dress:

I initially wanted to turn my favorite French nightgown into a wedding dress. After my mother protested, I resigned myself to something new.  I designed it, bought the fabric at a local fabric store (fabric not made locally, however!), and hired a family friend to make it. It was amazing and no one else has it.  I also wore the veil that nearly every woman in my family as worn in her family since the 1950s. In many ways traditional = sustainable.

Cake:

Our friends made the wedding cake from as many local ingredients as possible. It was DELICIOUS and really beautiful. It was so special to see what tremendous effort and love was put into making our cake. I can’t think of a better first meal to eat as a couple. Also, I made the wedding topper out of scraps from my wedding dress. 

Flowers:

Our flowers were spectacular. They were organically grown and best of all, they traveled a total of 5 miles to the wedding site. Our favorite florist at the Ithaca farmer’s market made the bouquets and flowers for the bridal party, and provided us with four buckets of flowers. Our friends came early and placed the flowers in baskets and tin cans collected over the year from various flea markets and yard sales. At the end of the wedding, we gave the flowers to all of our local guests and the band to spread the love.

 

Chuppah:

The Chuppah is the four-posted canopy used in a Jewish wedding that represents the house that the couple will build together. A local artist who makes simple and exquisite structures from fallen wood constructed our Chuppah, which was absolutely perfect. We decorated it with Daniel’s grandfather’s prayer shawl. We couldn’t believe how beautiful it was. We rented it so that other people can use it and enjoy it!

Decorations:

We rented things that could be washed and reused, and bought vintage table cloths to decorate the tables at the wedding. For gifts, we gave them away at the end of the wedding. They were spectacular and so original!

Music:

We hired a local bluegrass band that plays regularly at the local farmer’s market (our favorite hangout). They powered the speakers with a solar panel. It was totally rockin.

Food:

We hired all local vendors, who used as many organic, locally-produced, in season products as possible. We wanted to serve the food family-style, but we opted for the buffet because less food is wasted this way. While we would have preferred to use washable dishes, after lots of debating, we ended up using compostable plates, cups and cutlery. The caterer made sure everything was composted. Because the Finger Lakes produce a lot of local white wines, we used all local wine.

Activities:

For the weekend, many guests stayed in local bed and breakfasts. We took them to the farmer’s market for lunch and perusing, the local museum (rehearsal dinner), and hiking at the state park (wedding venue).

Registry:

We registered with the Nature Conservancy and some friends also gave us fabulous gifts from Heifer, one of our favorite NGOs. We registered at local shops and even registered for our dinnerware from a local potter (who lives entirely off the grid). Because so many of our guests live far away, we asked that they call in their gifts to local shops so we’d have less shipping and packaging.

Commitment…

What does a wedding—time tested confirmation of the commitment between two people—have to do with climate change and the global energy market? The reality of the global energy market is that energy is at the center of every major issue in the world today—clean water, nutrition, provision of health care, elimination of poverty, economic well being and the list goes on. Everything that contributes to a better world happens through energy.

A commitment to making the world a better place, is like the commitment of the bond of marriage. It’s love, it’s faith, it’s trust, and it’s commitment between two individuals to a better world. It’s also their hope of a better world for their children and their children’s children. Making the world a better place is the responsibility of an individual and the case of the bond of marriage. It’s 1+1=3.

Addressing today’s and tomorrow’s challenges in the world of energy and climate change, starts with the individual. This is the first time in history that every single individual can make a difference. One by one, individuals are making the changes to more efficiently use energy, to produce energy and green technologies, and to change the mindsets of those that one touches. These are the answers to tomorrow’s problems. 1 by 1, then 2 by 2, and then 2 together makes 3 and touching those around them we’ll realize a better world.

The wedding itself is a starting point. Those who come and those who participate are doing what they can for that wedding to minimize their carbon footprint. They are beginning to change their own mindset about the role we each have as a global citizen in this global world. It becomes a commitment to themselves as individuals, as couples, as part of community at the service and to the couple being married. It becomes an escalating pyramid for a new world.