Green Options

Paige Donner’s Greening Hollywood column can be found on The Huffington Post. She writes on all things green that intersect with Style, Fashion and Entertainment. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paige-donner

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.

So you want to be a green bride but your local bridal shops don’t have any bamboo, hemp, organic cotton or peace silk gowns? Check out these eco-couture bridal designers for fabulous green wedding gowns. Several designers have online stores while others have links to bridal shops that carry their dresses.

You may think that eco-conscious designers are way out of your price range but that’s not true. Several eco-friendly designers offer simple and sustainable wedding gowns for very reasonable prices. These beautifully green bridal gowns won’t bust your budget or break the bank. And the best thing…you’ll look gorgeous while being green.

Would you like to win a free copy of the book, The Everything Green Wedding Book: Plan an Elegant, Affordable, Earth-Friendly Wedding ? Then keep reading to learn how you can grab your own copy of the book that can help you plan the wedding of your dreams while being green.

Ethical diamonds and sapphires are spectacular and let me tell you Brilliant Earth is a beautiful blessing for the green girl wearing white. They offer certified conflict free diamonds and sapphires crafted with love, fair labor practices, and eco-friendly ethics. 5% of all their profits donated go to help local African communities harmed by the diamond industry.

I first stumbled across Tara Lynn’s amazing eco-designs during some green wedding research. Her philosophy on green weddings is that “you can be a green bride and still dress to impress.” Her designs are unique, stylish, and most of all eco-friendly.

What I really love though is the every day designs in her Earth Bitch collection like jackets and t-shirts.

Unbridaled is the new thing in bridal expos. The focus is on going green and shopping local for all your wedding needs.

On January 10, 2009 the second Unbridaled event will take place at the Crane Arts Building in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 10 am to 4 pm.

Oblation Papers and Press is a unique old-world style letterpress print shop, urban paper mill and fine paper boutique. I found them while researching my green wedding book. They create custom wedding invitations on recycled cotton fiber paper. They also create many other types of beautiful papers, cards, and note cards. I just discovered they have a beautiful selection of holiday cards, stylish, elegant and perfect for a green holiday season’s greeting.

It’s about time someone offered a service that allows you to create your own photo greeting cards that are printed on eco-friendly paper. My Good Greetings does just that.

For the first time, beautiful custom photo greeting cards, announcements and invitations, with matching envelopes and address labels, are completely earth-conscious – from printing to packaging – every step of the way.