Green Wedding Tips

Top 10 Tips For Including Nature In Your Ceremony

1. Hold your ceremony outside, and acknowledge the beauty of the setting.
2. Use poems or readings from celebrated nature writers such Mary Oliver, Gary Snyder, or Wendell Berry
3. As the guests enter, have attendants ritually wash their hands in bowls filled with water and flower petals as they welcome your guests to the ceremony.  Make sure there are attendants to dry peoples' hands as well!  It sets a lovely, ceremonial tone, and allows you to have more friends actively participate in the ceremony.
4. Invoke the four elements of earth, air, fire, and water by either mentioning them directly, such as by saying: We honor the four element or include the four elements on your altar by using flowers, candles, water, and incense.
5. In the ceremony, mention the cycles of nature as a way of acknowledging the many cycles your relationship will go through during your years together. 
6. As you make your vows to each other, and to your relationship, also vow to honor and care for nature, and to use the growth and learning which comes from your marriage to help you be better stewards or healers of the planet.
7. Offer flowers or plants (locally grown) to your family and friends as a way of honoring their support for your relationship.
8. Depending on where you hold your ceremony, you might be able to plant a tree to honor your marriage or to honor friends or family who can't be there with you.
9. Include in your vows a specific promise to reduce your carbon footprint (sure, it's not romantic, but it's really, really important).
10.  Remember and acknowledge how large the universe truly is, and how fortunate you are to have found each other   in the vast infinity of space and time.

Top Ten (Ok, 14) Tips To Green Up Your Wedding

1. Hold the wedding outside and/or during the day for natural lighting.
2. Use locally grown flowers or potted plants for decorations and bouquets.
3. Have the ceremony and the reception in the same place so people don't have to do a lot of extra driving.
4. Use beeswax candles (conventional candles are made with petroleum products).
5. Use recycled or antique rings since gold and diamond mining are very environmentally and socially destructive.
6. Wear vintage/rented/hemp clothes.
7. Use a local clothing designer.
8. Have the bridesmaids pick their own dresses in the color palate of your choice.  Women of different body types will look better than if they're wearing the same dress, and they're more likely to wear the dress again.
9. Serve seasonal, organic, and locally grown food and wine at the reception.
10. Compost all left-over food or donate to a food bank.
11. Use hand-made paper invitations, seating cards, and place mats.  You can even add wild flower or herb seeds to the paper pulp mixture.  Then guests can plant them and they'll sprout into flowers or herbs.
12. Use the internet. Paper is nice for invitations and personal thank you cards after the wedding, but Save The Date, RSVP, and shower invitations can all be done electronically, saving paper.
13. Use fun salvaged items for thank-you cards such as old postcards, gift cards, and scraps of wrapping paper from the shower and wedding
14. Do a non-traditional wedding registry of money, time, skills, or information.  For example:
    1. Donations to your favorite eco-charity
    2. A copy of a favorite family recipe. 
    3. Cooking
    4. Childcare
    5. Music lessons
    6. Gardening
    7. Massage
    8. Add funds towards a honeymoon or new home purchase