Green Options

As part one of Eco-Guide: How I Turned my Wedding Green illustrated, it is entirely possible to green your wedding while still keeping the green in your pocketbook.  Two mantras are tantamount — Think Household Items, not Wedding Items, and Invest Time, not Money .

In last week’s guide, I brought these two principles to life with examples from my wedding last fall, sharing how I repurposed classy but practical household objects into sophisticated wedding accents. I also discussed minimizing the dreaded DIY look through maintaining subtlety and consistency.

This week, we’ll take a look at more ways to green your wedding and introduce the last three principles: Re-Think the Must-Haves; Borrow, Don’t Buy; and Incorporate Heirlooms.

Greening your wedding doesn’t automatically mean emptying all the green from your pocketbook.

There are countless innovative ways you can have an eco-conscious wedding celebration — ways that go far beyond a hand-crafted wedding dress or an organic meal.

In this eco-guide, learn how we minimized consumerism and pulled off a fabulously green wedding by incorporating family heirlooms, repurposing everyday objects, growing our own organic flowers, questioning the must-haves…and much, much more.

Many of our readers come to our website looking for ways to start their families down the green path to eco-friendliness.  Help is on the way for these families in a complete guide for families.  Eco-Friendly Families, written by Helen Coronato, is designed to “guide your family to greener living with activities that will engage and inspire…from toddlers to teens.”  This new guide will be released on August 5, 2008.

Eco-Friendly Families is filled with many simple tips, such as watering your houseplants with rainwater and hosting a neighborhood toy swap, as well as explains the bigger issues and how our actions affect them.  By targeting families, this guide helps families raise the next generation with green values.  Saving the planet is a family affair!