“Here comes the bride, all dressed in — green.”
Or at least that’s what they may be singing in London. It seems as though trying to reduce impacts on the environment is becoming noticeable in many aspects of life, and apparently British wedding nuptials are no exception. So what does that mean? It means British couples “revolutionize” their weddings by having crazy new elements such as wedding dresses that have been recycled, guests commuting to the ceremony by bicycle, flowers grown at home rather than bought from a florist, and catering the reception with locally grown food rather than processed and shipped food.
A typical wedding dress. Gals, would you be willing to wear one that you knew was made from recycled materials?
Image Credit: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/cd/White-wedding-dress.jpg/220px-White-wedding-dress.jpg
British celebrity Liz Hurley’s wedding came under scrutiny when she claimed to have a green wedding, but as it turned out, her wedding produced about 200 tonnes of carbon emissions, which is higher than an average couple produces in 10 years.
Even wedding gifts are becoming more environmentally friendly. Guests have the ability to donate money to charities on behalf of newly weds.
So why have weddings jumped on the “stop global warming” bandwagon? According to Nicola Baird, for the Friends of the Earth organization, “A lot of people seem to feel that when they are making a big commitment to each other they would like to do some good as well.”
A woman named Sarah Webber, who is a Briton living in Australia, is attempting to make her wedding “green” by holding the actual ceremony in Australia but having a reception in Britain so that her family members won’t have to fly that great distance (the plane commute emits so much CO2!). She also intends to cater it with locally produced food so that shipping food from far away won’t add to CO2 emissions.
Recycled wedding dresses can be found on the Internet at charity shops or vintage shops if one prefers to be more stylish =].
Katie Fewings started www.ethicalweddings.com last year, and this site allows brides who are interested in having “green” weddings exchange information on obtaining tricky items such as recylced invitations or confetti.
An added bonus to the planning of green weddings is that they seem to be much more personalized than regular ol’ weddings. The brides feel as if they are really making a contribution to the welfare of humanity as a whole. And they really are. Weddings can still be fancy yet at the same time environmentally friendly. So keep all this in mind in about 10 years when you’re all planning your own weddings =].
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April 20, 2007 at 11:11 pm
Heck I would wear a dress that was literally green to my wedding if it meant saving the planet. It’s good to know that people are “going green” in all aspects of their lives, not just the daily ones.
I never thought I would say this, but thank goodness for all those annoying reporters. They were able to expose the claim made by Liz Hurley as false. Don’t talk the talk if you can’t walk the walk or something like that as my friend used to say.