Green Weddings: Avoiding the Oxymoron
By Sarah S. Brophy
As green weddings become more popular in the Chesapeake Bay region,
they’re also becoming easier to plan. Local consultants and vendors are
savvier about environmentally sustainable practices and can help you to
achieve whatever degree of “green-ness” you desire, from choosing
organic flowers for your wedding to planning a full-on green fest.
Traditional Choices
Some ‘necessities’ in traditional weddings conflict with green choices:
A hundred perfectly-matched exotic flowers
Single-use shoes dyed to match single-use dresses
Out of-season produce and exotic foods
That band from three states over
Single-use decorations and favors
Green choices
Shift your thinking to a greener style:
Organic or wild flower selections
Shoes and dresses that can be worn at other glitzy affairs
Local foods and wines
Local choices for guests, tents, and supplies
Thoughtful, creative, and useful/reusable favors and decorations
It is Easy Being Green. Here’s How.
‘Green wedding’ doesn’t have to be an oxymoron. Though a wedding’s once-in-a-lifetime nature defies the reduce-reuse-recycle mantra of environmental sustainability, you can still incorporate ‘green’ practices within this very personalized day.
 Images courtesy of: Of the Earth
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Invitations and RSVPs
Let’s start at the beginning—the invites! For print options, inquire about recycled paper and vegetable or soy-based ink options. You may also consider using online sites that offer e-invitations design, delivery, and RSVPs. (Just remember that, most likely, your older guests embrace tradition—you may want to send that crowd a beautiful recycled paper invite).
Photographs
Most photographers have gone digital and store images online at password-protected sites. Guests can preview and make selections online. Ask your photographer about green printing, packaging, and mailing.
What are carbon offsets?
With carbon calculators (free, on the Web), you can calculate the amount of carbon emissions you generate (through travel, electricty, and natural gas use) and purchase carbon offsets to offset all or some of those emissions. While you should do your part to reduce the emissions you can control, buying carbon offsets allows you to use clean technologies (renewable energy, carbon sequestration, energy efficiency improvements) to
help drive reductions in carbon emissions elsewhere.
Wedding presents
For presents, the green opportunities are endless:
- Register for green products.
- Request carbon offsets (for the wedding, guests travel, or your future).
- Suggest gifts to charitable organizations, or gifts with charitable gifts attached, such as bogolight.com and laptopgiving.org.
- Request wrappings in newspaper or other reused/reusable papers.
 “Thank you for joining us at our climate-friendly wedding. We have funded clean energy production through TerraPass to balance greenhouse gas emissions from guest transportation, lodging, and energy use.”
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Travel
- Choose a central location.
- Use your wedding website to encourage carpooling.
- Offer remote attendance through computer video for those choosing not to travel.
- Suggest rentals of hybrid highly-fuel efficient vehicles.
- Purchase carbon offsets for the band or caterer if you must bring them in from far away, and for out-of-town guests who don’t buy their own.
- Direct your guests to Terrapass.com and CarbonFund.org for calculating their carbon production and making a purchase. (Enterprise car rental and Amtrak offer clients offsets at the rental desk, and most air carriers offer them at ticket purchase.)
A 100-person wedding, rehearsal dinner included, with 50 people traveling an average of 1000 miles by plane; and 50 people traveling an average of 300 miles by car; all staying two nights in an upscale hotel; will cost you 53.21 tons of CO2 or $532.11 according to the ‘Wedding Calculator’ at
TerraPass.com.
end box
Edgewater couple Rebecca Christopher and Kevin Hilgers celebrated their special day (in a green way) at the Chesapeake Bay Environmental Center in Annapolis.
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Venue
A green venue offers ways to limit your environmental impact through reduced waste, energy use, consumption of goods and services; and fewer harmful practices, such as chemical use. Ask for: recycling, composting, and green and/or reduced energy options.
Wedding attire
- Choose natural and organic fibers and dyes.
- Select dress styles that bride and bridesmaids can wear again.
- Consider rare and beautiful vintage gowns for you and your bridesmaids.
Catering
Discuss with your caterer the challenges that recycling, local-sourcing, and green practices sometimes present. Work with them to create a plan for a successful event, and explain your choices to your guests. This will educate them and boost the caterer’s reputation.
Ask caterers for:
- Local, organic, and seasonal foods.
- Local and organic wine and beer.
- China or ceramic plateware and cotton or organic linens.
- Provide recycling opportunities, and/or pay the caterer’s costs for separation and hauling.
- Arrange for composting and for extra help to separate prep and dinner waste.
 Photo by Egomedia Photography
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Flowers and other decorations
Choose local and organic, when possible. There are high quality organic flower farms in the area that offer a wide array of seasonal, fresh flowers. In the off-season there are many international growers with certified organic farms and sustainable enterprises.
Choose:
- Local flowers and greenery: lavender, grasses, Black-Eyed Susans, lilies, or purely native plants will be handsome wherever they appear.
- Natural and local sprigs in the napkins, bouquets, and table decorations.
- Potted flowers or herbs at the dining tables to double as favors for guests.
- Ties (for bouquets, napkins, and decorations) made of natural grasses or biodegradable materials.
- To send your flowers (post-wedding) to nearby hospitals, senior centers, and living institutions.
Your wedding is a marvelous way to help your guests learn about green. Use your wedding website to explain that yours is an ‘eco-wedding’ and point out the green aspects. A calligraphy card at each table, on recycled paper, explaining the local food and flowers, the choice of less-is-more, will help guests understand, teach them something new, and certainly be a conversation starter for dinner!
End box
Becoming and being ‘green’ is a journey. You may make some non-green decisions along the way, but that doesn’t mean you’ve given up. If a not-so-green choice is making you crazy, buy the appropriate carbon offset and move on. Take heart in the good example you’re setting with your other green choices. Designing your green wedding will require some compromise and trade-offs, but you’ll make some wonderful discoveries along the way.
Your Green Wedding
A selection of useful websites for green wedding planning in the Annapolis and Eastern Shore areas:
Annapolis Greendrinks has a growing online resource at
www.annapolisgreen.com.
Boat charters:
www.nauticaldestinations.com. Nautical Destinations features green cruising by request on the Bay. The company arranges private charters with businesses using green practices for boat and event management. Remember to ask about the green details, and specify those you require.
Designs for web and print:
www.stellarpresentations.com,
carladaviddesign.blogspot.com
Electronic invites & RSVPs:
wedshare.com,
weddingwindow.com,
ewedding.com.
Electric transportation in Annapolis and Ocean City:
http://www.e-cruzers.com/signup
Flowers and gifts:
www.wildthingonline.com.
Restaurants: The Rockfish in Annapolis
www.rockfishmd.com/green or Easton’s Out of the Fire
www.outofthefire.com, for guests eating on their own before or after). Easton’s Scossa and Restaurant Local at the Tidewater Inn have chefs who source locally, especially by arrangement.
Spa for pre-wedding prep organic products and a green building:
www.varunasalon.com
Venues:
www.innatmitchellhouse.com;
www.cbmm.org;
www.adkinsarboretum.org;
www.annapoloismaritimemuseum.org
Wedding coordinator with green skills:
www.yourweddingcoordinator.com/
Wedding tips:
www.greenlodgingnews.com/Content
The Merrill Center at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation is a favorite of the staff at Wildthing (flowers and gifts for weddings) of Annapolis.
The Inn at Mitchell House in Chestertown and The Marriott Inn & Conference Center at the University of Maryland University College are the only Maryland members of the Green Hotels Association.
The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, the Annapolis Maritime Museum, and The Adkins Arboretum are beginning to encourage and practice sustainable event management, including weddings.
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