Green Celebrations

Eco Friendly Wedding Dresses

A year ago eco friendly wedding dresses were almost impossible to find. It was a real challenge to locate any online eco wedding gown designers who use sustainable fabrics such as organic cotton, peace silk, hemp, or bamboo. However, an Internet search now turns up thousands of results.

It’s every girl’s dream — to walk down the aisle on her wedding day in the most luxurious gown ever designed. The entire experience entails not only the wedding day but trying on designer dresses from high-end bridal couture shops. Even if she cannot afford a $10,000 hand-beaded Italian silk gown, she tries it on anyway and loves every minute of spinning on the pedestal in front of the three-way mirror.

It might be her dream dress, but she knows it will give her nightmares, because she knows how she will feel not wearing an eco friendly dress on her wedding day.

By using as many eco friendly options as possible, she had worked to make sure every detail of both the ceremony and reception reflected her commitment to preserving the environment. It wasn’t the money as much as the potential damage a new pearl-studded dress could do to the environment.

The bride-to-be began scouring the local thrift stores as well as the online auctions and bargain column in her local newspaper. Of course, the dress would not be listed under the eco friendly wedding dresses category.

Nonetheless, by virtue of being a previously worn item, the gown qualifies as eco friendly. The dress need not be a brand new item made from a sustainable fabric like peace silk or bamboo. Vintage clothing is by its very secondhand quality considered eco friendly clothing.

Therefore, if you want to walk down the aisle in your mother’s or grandmother’s or any favorite aunt’s or female relative’s wedding dress, you would be wearing an eco friendly dress. Think of the special memories you will make because you wore an heirloom or borrowed gown.

Plus, you will not be harming the environment, since the production processes that many clothing manufacturers employ are not environmentally safe. When dying fabrics, they often use chemicals, which produce waste and contribute to air or water pollution.

It is seldom that a mother or grandmother has preserved her wedding dress for use by the next generation. Therefore, if you do not have an heirloom dress available to you, beautiful eco friendly wedding dresses can be found at consignment shops.

The dress you find may be perfect in every way except it does not have the glitz and glamour you had always imagined. However, sacrificing this detail out of your respect for the earth demonstrates to others that you are committed to protecting the environment.

If your dress was passed down from another generation, be sure to let your guests know it is an eco friendly wedding dress. Maybe tastefully print the information in the program.

Whether a vintage wedding gown handed down from grandmother to granddaughter or a second generation dress passed from mother to daughter, eco friendly wedding dresses are a wonderful way to save money and the environment while making special wedding day memories.

Green Wrapping Paper

Wrapping paper is pricey. You can make your own, save money and get a chance to be creative.

Decorating paper bags is fun and simple.

1. Paper Bag Decor

Plain grocery bags are fun to decorate. You can use apples or potatos and stamp them.

To make stamps, you’ll need:
- an apple or potato
- a permanent marker
- sharp knife
- paint

Cut the apple or potato in half. Draw a design on it. Keep this simple. Then with a share knife cut around the design removing the extra potato or apple, so that only the design is left.

Take the “stamp” and dip the design in paint and stamp away on the brown paper. You can add glitter and more to spice up the wrapping paper.

2. Newspaper and catalogs

Wrapping a gift in the colorful Sunday comics is old-fashioned and economical. You can also contact your local newspaper and ask if they will give you the end of the paper rolls. These are blank ends of the newspaper rolls that are thrown away after each printing. You can decorate this as you would the paper bags.

Use the pages of catalogs. You can tape together pages from a fishing magazine and give that to a fishing enthusiast for example.

3. Old maps

Gather your old maps and use these to wrap packages. These are fun and especially great for the traveler.

4. Recycle bows

Be sure to use bows from one year to the next. They last a long time. Also think about other things you can decorate packages with like seashells, twigs, dried flowers and more.

Making your own gift wrap says you care and is a great way to go green.

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Yesterday I talked about how this year's inauguration will be eco friendly for the first time ever. You must have known that a post about hosting your very own eco friendly party was going to follow, didn't you?

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