2.25.2009

3 great websites I had to share!

1. Offbeat Bride http://offbeatbride.com/


Created by author Ariel, this blog is an ongoing celebration of couples who dare to walk off the beaten aisle. Posts feature non-traditional wedding styles, DIY projects and advice! I definitely got inspired to go "off the beaten path" with more of my wedding ideas!


2. Earth Friendly Wedding http://earthfriendlywedding.blogspot.com/


The official blog of EarthlyAffair. Includes great photos of eco-friendly weddings, favors, hair styles and more! Great resource for environmentally friendly ideas! Amazing list of green websites and blogs to help with ideas!


3. The Green Bride Guide
http://earthfriendlywedding.blogspot.com/


Great stories of real green weddings, guides to planning your own green wedding and even green calculators! Figure out what your wedding's carbon footprint will be and offset it with carbon offsets from Brighter Planet!

2.14.2009

Canning Jar centerpieces


Photo courtesy of Sweet Pea Gardens.

My mother and grandmother have always done a lot of canning and our basement is full of canning jars! I think they would be beautiful to use as vases for floral centerpieces at the reception! It's definitely reusing old jars that are now just sitting and collecting dust! Plus, it adds some personal history to the scene. And I'm not the first to think of this. I've found lots of photos using canning jars, mostly at outdoor weddings. It's simple, elegant and you don't have to buy a bunch of matching vases that you may never use again.

I'm also excited to have my mother in charge of the flowers. She is an amazing gardener with quite the eye for color! This way I know the flowers will be grown organically and locally. Nothing will have to be shipped anywhere. Once we get our wedding colors picked out, I will post some photos of the types of flowers that Mom will try to grow for us. Hopefully the weather cooperates!!

2.08.2009

Sustainable, recycled invitations

We've recently started to think about our wedding invitations and how to keep them environmentally friendly. Unfortunately, our budget has gotten tighter due to the rough economy, so we're thinking about keeping some aspects very digital. We've always had the idea of paperless RSVP's via our wedding website that we plan to create. But now we also think our "Save-the-Date" announcements may be online as well.
The actual wedding invitations I will be traditionally mailing. So I've looked into various places to purchase recycled paper products. Here is one that I've found and am very interested in:

Natural Banana Paper
from http://www.ecopaper.com

"Our organic banana papers are made from combining tree free agricultural bio-products coupled with 100% post consumer content to create a beautiful paper that is laser and printer compatible. Both the agricultural by-product of the plantations and the post consumer paper create serious solid waste problems worldwide--help combat both with these tree-free papers. A percentage of each sale goes towards an orphanage in San Jose Costa Rica."

The Banana paper has a neat texture to it and it looks very natural, which I also like. We're thinking that our invitation style will be very simple in order for us to use less paper and we're hoping to print these ourselves. I may get crafty and add alittle of my own traditional art to each invitation, but we'll see how much time I have! :-)