Green Wedding Resources

I was reading The Everything Green Wedding Book by Wenona Napolitano which has a huge section of resources and websites at the end, so I decided to share with you! This book not only has great resources, but wonderful tips and advice for your green wedding. I suggest picking it up at your local library or book store. By the way, more resources are available in the book, I just added some faves.

Green Wedding Planning:
www.portovert.com
www.greeneleganceweddings.com
www.everythinggreenweddings.blogspot.com
www.ecochicweddings.com
www.greenweddings.net
www.greatgreenwedding.com

Green Wedding Attire:
www.rawganique.com
www.threadheadcreations.com
www.earthspeaks.com
www.getconscious.com

Vintage Gowns and Accessories:
www.vintagevixen.com
www.vintageous.com
www.vintagewedding.com
www.poshgirlvintage.com
www.cherishedbride.com

Used and Charity Gowns:
www.blueskybridal.com
www.makingmemories.org
www.usedweddingdresses.com

Eco-Friendly Jewelry:
www.brilliantearth.com
www.greenkarat.com
www.seraglia.com
www.smartglassjewelry.com
www.globalhandcrafters.com
www.repurposed4u.com

Natural Health and Beauty Websites:
www.safecosmetics.org
www.origins.com
www.mothernature.com

Eco-Invitations:
www.custompaper.com
www.greefieldpaper.com
www.earthlyaffair.com
www.invitesite.com
www.plantamemory.com
www.ecoparti.com

Flower Power Essentials:
www.afloral.com
www.organicbouquet.com

Green Wedding Decor and Accessories:
www.earthwarebiodegradables.com
www.weddingrice.com
www.greenspacecandles.com
www.kokogm.com

Green Favors:
www.greenworldproject.net
www.favorswithseeds.com
www.treeinabox.com
www.giftsthatmatter.com
www.idofoundation.org

Green Registries:
www.idofoundation.org
www.greenfeet.com
www.3rliving.com
www.re-modern.com
www.greennest.com
www.alternativegiftregistry.org

Green Transportation:
www.eco-limo.com
www.elitegreencar.com
www.limogreen.net
www.greencarlimo.com

Green Travel:
www.greenspanetwork.com
www.sierraclub.org/outings/
www.greenhotels.com
www.greenglobe.org
www.ecotourism.org

Vistaprint Rocks...STDs are back!

So, I used http://vistaprint.com/ to print our Save-The-Dates and I could not be more happy with the results! Total cost for 100 standard-size postcards with my uploaded design including shipping = $9.38! All I did was sign up for vistaprint's email list and they sent me offers for tons of freebies, all you pay for is shipping adn the use of an uploaded design ($2.49). I would highly recommend them to anyone who needs anything printed! Also, I chose the slowest method of shipping which says it can take up to 21 days, but I got my order in about a week! Anyhoo...here was the uploaded design I made with Microsoft Publisher:

And here's a picture of what vistaprint sent me:

Love 'em!

Invite Mock ups

I was pretty proud of my invite mockups, so In thought I'd dedicate a post to them. I might change a couple of things. One being the size of the RSVP: I'd make it smaller, so it can fit in slots cut in the bottom of the pocketfold, rather than sit with the map inside the pocketfold. But here's how they look:

Signature Cocktail

If you haven't heard of this idea yet, a signature cocktail is a special drink served at your reception with a cool name. This cocktail is offered to guests perhaps in lieu of mixed drinks in addition to wine and beer or as just another fun option for your guests to choose. Most couples try to match the drink color to their wedding colors. Ours is blue and delicious! Also called a Blue Lagoon, for our purposes it will have a lovey-dovey name. We haven't decided on that yet, but are leaning toward's "Love Potion"! Here's the ingredients:

-1.5 oz. vodka
-1.5 oz. blue curacao
-7up/sprite
-ice

Simple and yummy! What will your signature drink be?

Writing Your Own Vows - Part 2: Non-Traditional Vows

Here are some ideas to get you started. I pulled these from The Everything Wedding Vows Book , by Janet Anastasio and Michelle Bevilacqua, a book that I have found to be exceedingly helpful in the vow-writing process.

"Today, (name), I join my life to yours, not merely as your (wife/husband), but as your friend, your lover, and your confidant. Let me be the shoulder you lean on, the rock on which you rest, the companion of your life. With you I will walk my path from this day forward."

"(Name), with free and unconstrained soul, I give you all I am and all I am to become. Take this ring and with it my promise of faith, patience, and love, for the rest of my life."

Two flames, one light. (Name), I offer you this ring as a sign of life, and myself as your (husband/wife). Let us walk together always, and let us always walk toward the light."

"A ceremony is for a day; a marriage is for a lifetime. Today, i join my life with yours for as long as I shall live on this earth, forsaking all others. (Name), I freely offer myself to you as your (husband/wife)."

"To marry the person you have set your heart upon is a joy unparalleled in human life. (Name), take this ring as a sign of my faith and my commitment to our love, and share this joy with me today."

"Where there has been cold, you have brought warmth; where my life was dark, you have brought light. (Name), I pledge before this assembled company to be your (husband/wife) from this day forward. Let us make of our two lives, one life, and let us always honor and respect each other."

"Love has given us wings, and our journey begins today. (Name), where ever the wind may carry me, I will stay by your side as your (husband/wife). Take this ring as a sign of my love."

"Love is to be cherished when we find it in life, and I cherish it in you. (Name), let us build a life together. I give myself to you as your (husband/wife), and I pledge here to cherish for all of my days the love we celebrate today."

Readings for Ceremony: Part 1 - Apache Marriage Blessing

I really like this one. The officiant can say it either right before or right after the pronouncement of marriage, or you can have a special guest come up and read it.

Apache Marriage Blessing
Now you will feel no rain,
for each of you will be the shelter for each other.
Now you will feel no cold,
for each of you will be the warmth for the other.
Now you are two persons,
but there is only one life before.
Go now to your dwelling place
to enter into the days of your life together.
And may your days be good
and long upon the earth.
Treat yourselves and each other with respect,
and remind yourselves often of what brought you together.
Give the highest priority to the tenderness,
gentleness, and kindness that your connection deserves.
When frustration, difficulty, and fear assail your relationship-
as they threaten all relationships at one time or another-
remember to focus on what is right between you,
not only the part which seems wrong.
In this way, you can ride out the storms
when clouds hide the face of the sun in your lives-
remembering that even if you lose sight of it for a moment,
the sun is still there.
And if each of you takes responsibility for the quality of your life together,
it will be marked by abundance and delight.

Something Borrowed

I got my something borrowed! My best friend, Shelley is letting me borrow her bridal shoes, which fit me perfectly and look new! They are just what I had envisioned, too!

Now, I am thinking my something blue will be my french nail tips, something new - my jewelry, and something old - my dress. The dress isn't very old, but I got it second-hand, so it isn't new! What will you use for your "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue"?

Personalized Water Bottle Labels

I found an awesome template on the web. Then I modified it for our wedding. It's a Microsoft PowerPoint document, so if you have PowerPoint, I can email it to you if you are interested. Just leave me your email address in the comments section or email me at kalschmi at yahoo dot com. Once you open the file, you can change our names, date, colors, etc. It should also be noted that I had to play around with the greenish color quite a bit to get it to print the pretty tiffany blue-green color I wanted. What you see on the computer is not necessarily what comes out of the printer, so do a test print, before you print the actual labels. By the way, labels can be found at http://onlinelabels.com & http://labelsbythesheet.com .

Photo Sharing Sites and Wedding Photos

I've seen this done at other weddings and am implementing it at ours in addition to our professional photographer. In our ceremony programs, I am including a poem that explains to guests that we'd like them to share their digital pictures of the wedding with us on our site. Their are a few major sharing sites: http://shutterfly.com/ , http://photobucket.com/ , and http://snapfish.com/ . I like all three, but seem to have the most fun on shutterfly, so that is the site we'll be using. Here's the poem:

We’re so glad you’re here
To share our special day,
We hope these wonderful memories
Never go away,
To help us to remember
How special this day was,
There’s something you can do
That really would help us,
Eat, drink, be merry
And enjoy yourself tonight,
But, please take some digital photos
and upload them to our site.

The program insert then gives instructions for uploading photos and our username and password. Not only is this free, but brides and grooms can save beau coup bucks buying albums, photobooks, prints, and canvases from photosharing sites versus their photographer. We are also buying a CD of our pro pics to do just that. I also suggest signing up for email lists on the photo-sharing sites, primarily shutterfly as they often send me coupons for free shipping and other offers.

Emergency, Call 911!

...Or just remember to pack your wedding day emergency kit. Mine consists of:

Ibuprofen
Tums
chalk (to cover smears/smudges on dress)
tweezers
deodorant
touch-up makeup
hairspray
comb
tissues
mints
floss
Visine
super glue
lighter
static cling spray
lint roller
water bottle
extra earring backs
hem tape
scotch tape
moist towelettes
needle & thread
manicure scissors
Tide-to-go
hair pins/clips
corsage pins
Band-aids
granola bars
safety pins
cell phone
cash
hand mirror
nail file
feminine products

What's in your kit?

Trash To Treasure Party

What, you ask, is a trash to treasure party? Well, I've invited some ladies over to my house and we are going to go through all our "stuff" and get out clothes that don't fit, accessories, shoes, etc. that we don't want anymore and basically shop for free. Any highly-wanted items, ie: designer purses or clothing, will be the prize of a few games we play. As for game ideas, I'm still searching, but the purse game usually goes over well. You call out a letter and the first person to find an item in their purse that begins with that letter wins. Also, I had a blast hand-crafting the invitations, so I included a pic of some of my favorites:

Writing Your Own Vows: Part 1; Thoughts On Love

I've recently been thinking about Bill and I writing our own vows. I think it makes the ceremony that much more special and personalizes it for us. So I have been reading The Everything Wedding Vows Book by Janet Anastasio and Michelle Bevilacqua which has been extremely helpful in the vow-writing process. I've decided to include some highlights from the book in a three part blog, the first part focusing on thoughts on love: good quotes from smart people on love and marriage. Feel free to use these quotes in your own vows, ceremony, on programs, or however you wish! I have *ed my faves!

"It is a good thing to be rich and strong, but it is a better thing to be loved."
-Euripides

"Those who love deeply never grow old. They may die of old age, but they die young."
-Benjamin Franklin

"In loving, you lean on someone to hold them up."
-Rod McKuen

"True love doesn't have a happy ending, true love doesn't have an ending."
-Unknown

"To love is to receive a glimpse of heaven."
-Karen Sunde

"Love is life. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love."
-Leo Tolstoy

*"Where there is love there is life."
-Mahatma Ghandi

"Love is being stupid together."
-Paul Valery

"What I feel for you seems less of earth and more of a cloudless heaven."
-Victor Hugo

*"In dreams and in love there are no impossibilities."
-Janos Arany

"We are all born for love. It is the principle of existence and its only end."
-Benjamin Disraeli

"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye."
-Antoine de Saint Exupery

"Love...has the greatest power, and is the source of all our happiness and harmony, and makes us friends with the gods who are above us, and with one another."
-Plato

"One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: that word is love."
-Sophocles

"If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded."
-Maya Angelou

"True love doesn't consist of holding hands, it consists of holding hearts."
-O.A. Battista

"Sometimes the heart sees what is invisible to the eye."
-H. Jackson Brown Jr.

"Love...includes fellowship in suffering, in joy, and in effort."
-Albert Schweitzer

"The moment you have in your heart this extraordinary thing called love and feel the depth, the delight, the ecstasy of it, you will discover that for you the world is transformed."
-J. Krishnamurti

"Do all things with love."
-Og Mandino

"Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within."
-James Baldwin

"True love is the joy of life."
-John Clarke

"The love we give away is the only love we keep."
-Elbert Hubbard

"When people care for you and cry for you, they can straighten out your soul."
-Langston Hughes

*"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, they must be felt with the heart."
-Helen Keller

*"By the accident of fortune a man may rule the world for a time, but by virtue of love he may rule the world forever."
-Lao Tzu

"Love is most nearly itself when here and now cease to matter."
-T.S. Eliot

"Do you want me to tell you something really subversive? Love is everything it's cracked up to be.That's why people are so cynical about it...It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for. And the trouble is, If you don't risk anything, you risk even more."
-Erica Jong

Attention Damask Brides

Free Damask files are here! Hooray! I've come across a lot of brides who are using damask on their paper products, so I thought I'd post my own damask files for anyone who wants to use them! Just right-click on the picture and save the file in your pics to use on all kinds of paper products! I've used these files on my save-the-dates, invite and placecard mock-ups and more!

A Little Inspiration

I've seen these inspiration boards all over the web, so I decided to create one myself. The inspiration for our wedding colors and theme is tiffany blue and black and white damask. You can create an inspiration board by compiling pictures and inserting them on to a blank Word or Publisher document. What does your inspiration board look like?