Sustainability

We live a life of consciousness. One of the largest things we are conscious about is our health and the environment. So when we sat down and started to plan our wedding, sustainability kept coming up. Questions such as, “How can we be earth friendly? How can we produce as little waste as possible? How can we encourage others to make these choices too? How can we do a green wedding?”

With these questions in mind, we decided to have our wedding be as environmentally friendly and as healthy as possible.

So thus, we made these choices:

Invitations & Website:

In many weddings, the paper and ink that is used on invitations, RSVP cards, directions etc is one of the largest places that environmentally harmful waste is created. Many weddings print invitations on un-recycled paper using toxic inks. We choose to go with a completely recycled invitation with vegetable ink. As you might have noticed, there was no RSVP card/envelope, no multiple pieces of paper with directions and such. We decided to save on postage and printing by creating a Website. which saves paper, postage and ink. And Devin gets to show off his skills as a website designer!

Food:

The choices we made for our wedding feasts reflect the choices that we have made in our own lives around what we eat. The feasts will be made out of as much organic food as possible. We have chosen not to server red meat, pork, lamb etc, maybe a little fish. The emphases of the menus are of a vegetarian or vegan fair. Vegan means no animal products, i.e. Milk, eggs and cheese. All food is being cooked with love and intention by our friends and loved ones, which is an essential and much appreciated gift.

Service wear: Biodegradable

With our choice to have an outdoor wedding, in the woods, away from a conventional kitchen, we came across a minor dilemma. What do we do with all the plates, glass and silver wear once we are done eating? How does one wash this kind of stuff?
Our answer – which reduces water and work - was this; biodegradable plates, silver wear and glasses. Yep you read it right! All of the service wear for our wedding is made out of corn and sugar cane. After we’re finished, all service wear will be thrown into biodegradable garbage bags and the contents of the bag, the bag itself, and the leftover food will all degrade within a 3 month time. This means very little impact on the environment.

Composting:

All non-animal food that is left over from our meals will be put into a compost pile to be used for gardening on Shirley’s Land. The leftover food will turn into dirt, become rich soil, and return to the earth.

Recycling:

Wherever you see a garbage can, you’ll also see recycling bins for plastic, glass and paper. All paper products will be burned in the bonfire.

The Land:

Shirley’s Land is 23 organic acres of prairie brush and trees. Don’t worry – the wedding takes place on a small piece of that land. She uses no toxins and no pesticides, only natural land care and ownership practices.

Power:

Our hope is to secure bio-diesel generators which will be powering all our needs for the wedding. Bio-diesel is a fuel for use in generators and ALL diesel engines that is made entirely from biological sources (like vegetable oil)! If we cannot find bio-diesel fuel, we will use quiet, efficient generators.

Tablecloths:

Instead of renting normal bleached white tablecloths, we chose to purchase our bulk fabric and create our own tablecloths. This provides us with fabric we can re-use in the future, and also cuts down on the bleaching, cleaning, and transportation that occurs with traditional rented table linens.