Tips for Environmentally Sound Wedding Flowers
February 9, 2009 by Mandy Schmitt
Filed under Featured, Wedding Planning
If you think that greening the flowers for your wedding is an easy task, you may be in for a surprise. After our experience (Part I, Part II) we assembled this list to help you on your journey to find both style and sustainability in your wedding flowers.
- Choose a florist that has experience in or can guarantee environmentally sound wedding flower. Emily Anderson, Eco chic Wedding author, recommends floral designer Livia Cetti, owner of The Green Vase.
- Choose flowers that are cultivated in a sustainable method. Think organic vegetables and fair trade coffee. Fair Flowers Fair Plants (FFP) is a new initiative to stimulate the production and sales of flowers and plants cultivated in a sustainable manner. FFP offers a search feature so that you can find FFP certified growers and retailers in your area.
- Choose flowers that are fair trade certified. Fair Trade Certified Flowers label “on your bouquet means that flower workers, most of whom are women, can put food on their tables, send their children to school, invest in community development, and use sustainable farming methods” according to TransFair USA. Click here for of list of certified vendors.
- Use local flowers. You may have to sacrifice local for regionally and domestically grown. Avoiding flowers are flown in from another part of the US or another continent will help you lower your carbon footprint.
- Choose flowers that are native and in season in your area. You will have a better chance that you’ll be able to find them from a local or regional grower. Most states have native plant societies that can be great sources of information. Here are a few Georgia Native Plant Society, California Native Plant Society, Native Plant Society of New Jersey, Native Plant Society of Texas, Native Plant Society of Washington
- Use flowers and greenery from your back yard. Some florists will also allow you to supply your own flowers for them to use in your arrangements. For example, hydrangeas are popular wedding flowers that bloom readily in the late spring and early summer.
- Avoid the use of invasive species. Invasive species are devastating our local streams and rivers. Most of these invasives have been introduced for landscaping and aesthetic purposes. By avoiding using them in your wedding you are avoiding being part of the problem. Visit the National Invasive Species Information Center for more information.
- Use potted plants for table arrangements. These can be great gifts for special people in the wedding. Be sure to go for native plants and avoid invasive species.
- Use edible arrangements and fruit. My Eco Chic Weddings offers a fun and attractive faux rose table centerpiece made of cupcakes! Do It Yourself Weddings and Earthly Affairs.com show you how to elegantly use fruit as centerpieces. Edible Arrangements also offer a delicious alternative to the traditional.
- Use the same flowers at your rehearsal dinner and reception. Reduce, reuse, recycle. J
- Structure your floral decorations so that guest can take them home after the wedding events.
- Compost the floral arrangements that are not used after the wedding events.
Recommended articles and links:
How to have Eco Friendly Wedding Flowers, EHow.com
Listing of sustainable florists in the UK
One final note – Happy Birthday to our flower girl, Abby Mahoney! That’s her in the picture, practicing with a local hydrangea bouquet…
Real Green Brides II – Amanda and Daniel
February 2, 2009 by Sean Mahoney
Filed under Featured, Guest Contributors
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.
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.
Disposal Drama
December 4, 2008 by Ask the Expert
Filed under Ask the Expert
Q: Dear GoGreenInStyle,
Is using my garbage disposal good for the environment?
Signed,
Lynn
A: Dear Lynn,
A garbage disposal is the not the environment’s friend. Stuff we run through our garbage disposal or flush down the toilet goes straight to the waste water treatment facility. At the treatment facility, the water is separated from the waste. The waste is separated off and incinerated to ensure that it is not harmful, toxic, and [insert any other word meaning dangerous to human health]. Incineration uses a lot of energy and it spews lots of yukky stuff into the air. After incineration, the waste is sent to the landfill (to live forever).
Consider composting so you can avoid the landfill all together. I also suggest reading the following article to learn more about this topic:
Garbage disposal guilt – disposal vs. the trash can for perishable wastes
Vegetarian Times, Jan, 1996 by Jeanne Rattenbury
Mandy