Introduction
In the fall of 2006, when my husband, Barry, and I began thinking about and planning our own green wedding, we were surprised by how little information was available to assist us. I read every book and article I could find on the topic and spent hundreds of hours surfing online for green ideas, supplies, and vendors.
It was an extremely frustrating and laborious process — but we were delighted with the results! To save others from having to go through the trouble, I decided to compile my efforts into this comprehensive resource — The Green Bride Guide.
Throughout this book I have tried to include some of the answers to the why of different choices—why local, why organic, why fair trade, etc. — but first, the biggest why of all:
Why a Green Wedding?
I should mention off the bat that my husband, Barry, and I are both environmentalists — he’s an environmental historian, and I work in environmental law and policy. However, when we announced our plan to have a green wedding, my father’s first response was still, “Why would you want a green wedding — aren’t weddings supposed to be white?”
Although the confusion about green the color vs. green the concept was cleared up quickly, my father’s skepticism remained. This is the first hurdle. Although green weddings are becoming more popular, it is inevitable that some of your friends and family members will not understand what a green wedding is or why you would want to have one. So let’s begin with a few reasons why one might choose to have a sustainable event.
Sidestepping the Wedding Industry. Put the emphasis on industry because that is what it is — a $70-billion-a-year industry. Many writers have discussed the phenomenon of being thrust onto the “wedding conveyor belt,” and even well-intentioned, thoughtful couples can find themselves getting sucked in. Weddings are complicated beasts, fraught with emotions, expectations, social conventions, and etiquette, and it is all very powerful stuff.
Brides feel a lot of pressure to make everyone happy and are willing to spend whatever it takes — about $30,000 these days — to make their wedding “perfect.” Many couples go into debt (on average about $25,000 worth!) to pay for their weddings, so it is not surprising that ConsumerAffairs.com reported that 80 percent of couples cite money as the leading source of wedding stress. With a financial burden added to an emotionally demanding situation, it’s no wonder the mythical “Bridezilla” lives on.
Part of having a green wedding is conserving resources — including money. This is not to say that a green wedding has to cost less than a comparable wedding — some cost more, and some cost less—but part of having a green wedding is thinking about who you are, what your values are, and what kind of wedding you would want if the industry were not constantly telling you what you should want. When planning a green wedding, you have to be prepared to take a step back and make choices based on a different set of values.
Supporting Green Business. The wedding industry has spent a lot of time and money selling a certain “look” so that you will buy its products. These products include expensive single-use bleached white dresses, disposable aisle runners, chemically treated imported flowers, toxic makeup and skin-care products, mined gem-based jewelry, individual packets of rice, little plastic picture frames with your names and the date engraved on them, and all manner of disposable flourishes and trinkets. With almost 2.5 million weddings a year in this country alone, the impact on the environment from our weddings is substantial.
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