Planning: 18 Eco-Friendly Ideas

By Tracy L. Guth
You're members of Greenpeace and the Nature Conservancy, and you do your best to recycle? Your wedding can certainly reflect your feelings about the environment and your love of the planet. Here are some ways to keep the celebration green and serene:

# Use recycled paper for your invitations. Send single-sheet invites and reply postcards, or one-piece postcard invites that ask guests to call you to R.S.V.P. (so you don't have to use additional paper and stamps for an outer envelope and response card). Or, better yet, save a few trees by setting up an 800 number.

# If you love the great outdoors, there are tons of great places to wed: think botanical gardens, beaches, and parks. Animal lovers might marry at a nature preserve or bird sanctuary, or if you're not morally opposed, a zoo or aquarium.

# If you love specific animals -- dogs, perhaps -- include them in the ceremony procession.

# Wear a natural fiber, like cotton, on your wedding day -- if you're having a dress made, make sure no synthetic fibers are used and that it's not dyed using chemicals. Grooms might choose to wear a natural-linen suit. Also make sure your wedding-day cosmetics are made by cruelty-free companies. Kiehl's, The Body Shop, Aveda, Clinique, and Bobbi Brown are brands deemed a-okay.

# Make sure the dry cleaner who cleans your dress after the wedding uses the newest, less environmentally harmful forms of dry-cleaning solvents.

# For ceremony music, play nature tapes -- whale or dolphin sounds, wind, water, wolves howling, and birds singing.

# Have guests blow bubbles or toss environment-friendly birdseed, rose petals, or bird-friendly rice instead of real rice, which can kill birds.

# Let it be known that you'd like guests to donate to your favorite causes instead of buying you wedding gifts. You or the organization can send guests cards acknowledging their contributions.

# Grow your own wedding flowers, and display them alive in pots -- not cut and dead. Potted asters, impatiens, mums, dahlias, daisies, tulips, hyacinths, and miniature roses are all replantable -- use them to decorate the ceremony site or as centerpieces. Invite guests to take them home: they can transplant the blooms to backyard or window box.

# Use shells, pretty rocks, and naturally made candles to create gorgeous table centerpieces.

# Give guests tree saplings, bulbs, seeds, small potted plants or herbs, or pretty recycled notepaper as wedding favors.

# For bridesmaid and groomsman gifts, check out the Real Goods catalog, (800) 347-0070, full of organic offerings such as jewelry, candles, toys, and books.

# Don't use plastic utensils and cups or paper plates and napkins for the reception meal -- use silverware, china, and linen.

# Plan a vegetarian menu, or one free of controversial foods like milk-fed veal, dolphin-unfriendly tuna, and caviar.

# Don't let leftover reception food go to waste: Take it to a local soup kitchen or shelter to help feed the less fortunate.

# Support local vineyards and breweries by getting your wine and beer from them.

# Get to and from your wedding on environment-friendly, non-fuel burning bikes! If your guests must travel farther than walking distance from ceremony to reception site, arrange for carpools to save energy.

# Take an eco-honeymoon to the rain forest you've been working to save -- Costa Rica, maybe -- or spend the time doing a good deed together, like building houses with Habitat for Humanity.