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7 tips: How to plan a green wedding
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Yesterday, I wrote about how to be a green wedding guest, so today and over the next couple of weeks, we’ll talk about how to plan a green wedding in San Francisco. $42 K is the average price tag for a San Francisco wedding. With so many details involved in the planning—from the wedding rings to the wedding invitations to the wedding dress and the wedding location and reception, even the honeymoon and the bachelor(s)/ bachelorette(s) parties—just a few changes here and there will not only make your wedding impact the environment a little less heavily but mitigate the impact on your checkbook as well.Here are a few ideas to get you started:
Green Wedding Tip #1: Green Engagement Rings
The average San Francisco bride will wear a rock on her finger valued at more than $6000. For that kind of investment, you should make it a priority to ward off bad mojo by choosing diamonds that aren’t sold to support war, political conflicts, and genocide. Choose instead to use a family heirloom wedding ring, buy an antique wedding ring, a diamond certified to be “conflict-free,” or diamonds mined in peaceful regions like the ones you’ll find at Brilliant Earth in Union Square.
Green Wedding Tip #2: Green Bachelor Party
You can make some green choices even on the most scandalous and indulgent of celebratory freedom runs by staying local or traveling by train if you choose a destination location, drinking organic spirits, or choosing a more calming venture like spa trip complete with organic treatments or an outdoor event like hiking, camping or surfing.
Green Wedding Tip #3: Green Wedding Invitations
The obvious green choice for green wedding invitations is recycled paper, but you can really get into this: choose invitations made with handmade papers or tree-free papers and printed with chlorine-free, vegetable-based inks or soy-based inks. Avoid plastic and metallic coated papers and envelopes or opt for a postcard instead. Definitely avoid the multi-layered invitations with reply cards and envelopes and request that your guests RSVP online. Use an online wedding blog to keep people updated, get RSVP and dinner order information if you’re offering a choice and to supply directions and accommodation information.
Green Wedding Tip #4: Green Wedding Dress
Choosing a green wedding dress is a great way to cut a huge chunk out of your overall wedding bill, and you can do it without sacrificing style. Choose sustainable fabrics like hemp, bamboo, silk or cotton and have your dress made by a dressmaker, borrow your gown from a family member or friend, or buy a vintage dress and have it tailored to suit your shape and style. If you have to dye your shoes, use vegetable dye and let your bridesmaids pick out their own dresses (give them a color) so that they will get some use out of it after your wedding day. Afterwards, you can donate your wedding dress to a charity or pass it on to a friend or family member.
Green Wedding Tip #5: Green Wedding Location
Choosing a green wedding location starts with finding something that is easy for your guests to get to. You can further minimize travel by having your wedding and reception in the same location: Golden Gate Park or The Palace of Fine Arts, for example, will allow you to do both. Holding both outdoors will cut down on cost, air conditioning/ heating, and decorations. When it’s time for you to go, use a horse-drawn carriage or a unique form of transportation that’s environmentally friendly.
Green Wedding Tip #6: Green Wedding Decorations
Choosing green wedding decorations starts with a minimalist approach and continues when you choose organic and locally grown flowers, soy-based or beeswax candles rather than paraffin-based candles, or other items found in nature. Whatever you choose, make your wedding decorations serve double duty at both the wedding and the reception if you opt for two locations, and donate the flowers to a hospital at the end of the day if your guests don’t want to take them home.
Green Wedding Tip #7: Green Wedding Photographs
Your wedding photos will last a lifetime no matter how they’re shot, so ask your wedding photographer to use digital proofs to limit the use of chemicals and paper. For your guests, avoid putting disposable cameras on the tables but do share your wedding photos with them by posting them on your website or wedding blog or to a photo-sharing site like Flickr or Snapfish group room.
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