ecobites.com

Making your life greener - one bite at a time.

Create a eco-friendly, organic, green and natural wedding , green graduation or celebratiion, which will  express your commitment to social responsibility and the natural world. Along the way, you have given the corporate wedding world a nudge in the right direction, and become a role model for your friends and family. A Eco-conscious celebration  is one which takes into account the environmental impact of the event and lowers this through careful planning.

With each green step down the wedding aisle, graduation or special celebration, you create a ripple of hope in the global continuum that flows from your hometown organic bakery all the way to a shade-coffee grower in Brazil. Years from now, when your children look at your pictures, they’ll learn an important life lesson: as the Great Law of the Iroquois Federation eloquently states,

“In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact on the next of seven generations”

Of course, it would be easy enough to eliminate the impact on our environment by eliminating parties, but that would prevent us from sharing our happiness with the people we love best. And that's certainly not the point.

No, it's to celebrate, joyfully, without being unnecessarily wasteful. There are, we have discovered, many ways to do that.

Make it The Theme! Imagine a beautiful, homemade, recycled paper banner that reads:
 
WELCOME TO MY GREEN GRADUATION!!
 
By officially “greening” your celebration, you can add a layer of excitement and participation that will be fun for all involved. Green is the new black after all, so why not make the big day as cool and cutting edge as possible? Graduating is about starting anew and starting anew is what green is all about! So combine the two and have the best eco-grad party ever!

Here are some green tips that apply not just for a wedding or graduation but to any kind of celebration. 

Avoid / Reduce

Anywhere you can prevent using resources, simply because it is not necessary, is going to generate the most environmental savings. Reducing the guest numbers would be the ideal place to start.

Food

Find a caterer or restaurant that will prepare your food with local, seasonal ingredients. Ideally, the food should be organic as well.

Serve free-range, grass-fed meat, or one plant-based entrée, made special by the addition of an extravagant ingredient.

Or serve organic finger food with cloth napkins.

 Lastly, arrange to have all the leftovers delivered to a food bank after the event. (You get double stars for that good deed).

 Self cater with the help of friends or get guests to supply an organic dish each in lieu of gifts.

* Reduce waste from food including leftovers
* Avoid disposable items
* Avoid energy intensive packaging of beverages, which in turn reduces waste
* Find local services and products

Beverages  Serve organic beer, wine, fruit juice and organic, fair-trade coffee and tea.

Flowers  Follow the same rule as for food: local and organic if possible, or grow your own. You can also hire live decorative plants or palms for a tropical theme. Avoid cut flowers for decorations and go with potted plants, that can be used in your home or as gifts, especially for guests who didn't attend.

Invitations For informal events, try electronic invitations. There are a number of great services out there, such as www.evite.com. When sending printed invitations, use post-consumer recycled or tree-free paper. And skip the tissue paper and internal envelopes that serve no purpose.

Rings  If the event is a wedding and you're in the market for wedding rings, shop for previously owned rings or a new one made from recycled gold, or hand-crafted wooden rings.

Or, appeal to family tradition and use a relative's wedding or engagement ring that you can have resized and restyled, if needed. If there isn't a vintage ring available from your family, there are plenty of vintage jewellery stores where you can find  beautiful rings and give them another life.

Take jewellery classes and craft your own wedding bands, you could use chalcedony gemstone, a native American symbol of community joining together.

Favors Kids, of course, always expect something, and who wants to disappoint them? But try not to give them throwaways. Stick to something they'll really love, like a gift certificate from something that is their love (i-pod etc) or movie and museum passes. When it comes to favors for adults, well, we don't see the need, though planting trees in their names is an awfully nice idea.

Gifts If you're a person who already has everything, say "no gifts" on the wedding invitation,  as folks like to choose their own gifts, rather than give a name of your favorite cause for donations.

Request that each guest, as a gift, makes a lifestyle change or does something to help the environment - make a suggestion list - donate to charity of choice / say no to plastic bags and replace with cloth / plant a tree in honor of the couple or celebration to help promote new tree growth. Small changes such as freeing the home of toxic chemicals or feeding kitchen scraps to a worm farm instead of landfill. There are many small changes to make, and bit by bit we will create a better and healthier place to live. That is enough for a celebration!

Recycled Gifts

There are many eco-friendly things that you can give your Grad that are meaningful, useful and will be greatly appreciated. The best part is that while you want them to be nice, they don’t always have to be new. Some recycled gift ideas include:
 
Pots and pans
Towels/blankets/sheets
Jewelry
Clothing/Shoes
Keepsakes/Mementos
Books/Movies
Music/Musical Instrument
Sports Equipment
Antiques/Furniture
Luggage

New eco-gifts might include:
 
Organic cotton bedding/towels/clothing
Reusable water bottle
Gift Certificate to a health food store (Whole Foods)
Soy Candles
Carbon Offsets for that flight to Europe!
A Hybrid Car!

Location and Travel Have the event in your hometown where most of  the guests live, rather than picking an exotic location that everyone has to travel. To compensate for whatever travel does occur, buy carbon offsets.

Decor

Dine by paraffin- free candlelight makes the meal magical.Or have a daytime celebration and cut energy costs. 

Candles, fresh flowers, ribbon, greenery, organic fruit and vegetables, heartfelt written messages, decorations made with love, are the perfect ingredients for your green celebration!

For outdoor weddings, pretty vintage parasols make great props.

Make bows out of old material, ribbon, anything. Do you have an old formal dress or shiny shirt that would make lovely bows? (Even a petticoat, or old curtains?) Otherwise check thrift shops, garage / yard sales. You can have a different color scheme for each table if you can't find all the same colours.Trim cloth napkins with the same colour edge as the bow on each chair.

Keep a sturdy box for ribbons and bows - it is such a shame to throw such pretty garnishes away, especially when you can use them for any celebrations.

There are many ways to enhance the celebratory vibe around your celebration - with a little imagination. Tie lashings of ribbon to the backs of chairs, candles or plants. Imagine a big shiny bow on the back of each chair - simply stunning!

Why not ask friends to grow and bring flowers? You’ll end up with the most fabulous flower (un)arrangements ever seen, and your guests will appreciate being involved.

Choosing a theme can simplify the decorating process as it gives you a focal point to concentrate on and get ideas from.

Rice Throwing   Alternatives to rice and birdseed are throwing native (local) wildflower seeds or freeze dried petals,ecofetti (biodegradable confetti), biodegradable rice, ringing handbells, or blowing homemade bubbles from recycled containers. Waving ribbon streamers can also provide a festive send-off.

After the ceremony, organic lavender makes a great toss instead of rice. Handmade bags can be filled with dried lavender flowers and tied with hemp yarn for guests to throw or keep as mementoes.

Offset Offsetting the carbon emissions from your event should be considered last, after you have done as much as possible to reduce your celebration environmental impact.

For an event, there are many elements which can be calculated to offset the carbon emissions such as:

Distance travelled by the bridal party and guests including flights and car travel
Ceremony and reception venue energy use
Distance travelled on honeymoon

You can also have your event powered by 100% renewable energy.

Clothes

For weddings, avoid a bridesmaid uniform. Let bridesmaids choose dresses that they can wear again. (You know they'll love you for it). Give your bridal gown a second life by donating to your favourite charity, or give to the Making Memories Breast Cancer Foundation. This group uses the money raised from selling donated gowns to grant wishes to people with terminal breast cancer. You can even buy your own gown from them or from a vintage shop. And there's always your mother's, if she happened to save it properly.

Photography

Choose a eco-friendly photographer that works in digital format. Digital photos are easier to share and much more environmentally friendly. No harmful chemicals, film or wasted paper. If you are set on film photography, there are less toxic developing methods, discuss this option with your photographer.

Reuse / Recycle / Repurpose Reusing and recycling items creates great energy savings and reduces waste.

For your wedding, graduation or celebration, there are many ways you can introduce this such as:

Recycled paper use for stationery
Reusable décor and centrepieces
Recycled or reusable products for guests or attendants gifts
Source second-hand products for decorations,utensils, clothing and jewellery

Set up clearly marked recycle bins so your guests can do the sorting for you. Clean up will be a snap with biodegradable cleaning supplies.

Why?

• Local, organic food and flowers? To limit global warming pollution from transporting these items, keep toxic chemicals out of the environment and support local farmers and farms.Use flowers from local and /or organic farms or why not grow your own?. Sunflowers or bulbs are very easy to grow and are such a beautiful flower for bouquets (tie a ribbon or silk sash) and great for decorating. 

• A plant-based entrée? To protect land, water and animals from the abuses of industrialized animal farming. Serve organic finger foods with cloth napkins? Finger foods are always great for parties and reduce the need for plates or dishes.

• Organic, fair-trade coffee and chocolate? To protect rainforest and songbird habitat.

• Old or recycled gold? To avoid the devastation to land, water, health and local communities from gold mining.choose silver instead of gold. Gold mining releases poisonous cyanide and mercury into the environment Silver mining has a much lower impact. And there are plenty of  gemstones besides diamonds to choose from which are equally beautiful, try your birthstone, for example. Avoid "conflict diamonds" - gems illicitly sold from African war zones that fund violence.

• Tree-free or recycled paper? To save trees, of course!

• Feed the Birds? Throwing birdseed is a good alternative to throwing rice ONLY if you are having a city wedding, or will be tossing birdseed in a landscaped yard. Most birdseed mixes contain non-native plants and throwing these seeds in a natural location such as a nature preserve or state park, can cause damage to the ecosystem.Consider having your guests throw organic millet - to feed the birds 

• No unnecessary gifts or clothes? To protect resources from overconsumption. Guests can make simple changes that will save money, water, energy and the planet (what a great gift).

• Favors? Instead of favors, let your guests know in the program that you have donated honorariums for each guest to your favourite environmental organization. Teach your guests something. Send them away with resources to make changes in their own lives. 

• Paraffin-free candles? Paraffin candles are made from petroleum residues so neither do your health or the environment any good. Soy, beeswax or natural vegetable-based candles are better because they biodegrade, are smoke-free, and so more eco-friendly.

• Minimize travel? To limit global warming pollution.

• Buy carbon offsets? To make up for the global warming pollution you can't avoid.

 Admittedly, it takes extra effort to plan a eco-conscious 'Green' party - - or to do anything the unconventional way. But when the day comes, you'll enjoy it more because you'll know it's been done the right way for you and the environment.