More on green weddings

I’m working on an article for Down to Earth right now about the Spokane couple that’s collecting and recycling cans to pay for their wedding . I had a great conversation yesterday with the bride, Andrea, about their progress on the cans and the actual wedding planning.

Not only is their method of paying for the wedding green, but the actual wedding will have several green elements to it, too. The disposable dinnerware is made from the waste from sugar cane and corn. The rehearsal dinner, wedding, reception and morning-after breakfast will all be held at one location, and there’s camping available there so guests won’t have to drive back and forth from hotels. It’s a potluck-style reception (brilliant!) and Andrea and Peter are encouraging guests to bring food that was locally grown or raised—not to mention the whole (locally raised) pig that Andrea’s dad is going to roast. Peter is sewing his own outfit and Andrea is having hers made by her friend’s mother-in-law.

Boy, I wish I had been this forward thinking when I got married eight years ago. They’re going to look back on their wedding day and remember how so many people contributed to it—friends, family and people from around the world who recycled their cans.

We’ve talked about green weddings here before , but I wanted to pass along a couple other new tips.

1. My Wedding Workbook is an online tool for couples to use when planning the big day. Guest lists, vendor information, meal planning, budgeting—it’s all organized on the site.

“It’s a green alternative to the messy paper workbook, and because it’s all online and backed up regularly, there’s never any need for brides to worry about losing their information,” Rosanna Hardin, of My Wedding Workbook, wrote me in an e-mail.

2. DIY wedding details are all the rage these days, and a Web site called Ruffled is hosting a contest this month for the best DIY wedding tutorial . The prize? $500. That should pay for the cake, at least (right? I’m out of touch). Submit your how-to for a handmade wedding decoration or tool (think cake toppers, garlands, bouquets, guest books, etc.) by March 25.

3. While you’re on Ruffled, don’t miss the gorgeous (make that GORGEOUS) vintage-country style wedding they featured last fall. The quilts on the hay bales … the mismatched vintage dinnerware … the bride and groom imitating American Gothic. I can’t get enough of it. Someone please re-create this on the Palouse so I can live vicariously through you. Thanks.

Photo by Carl Zoch , courtesy of Ruffled .