White weddings can be green and your wedding dress doesn’t have to be a once-worn extravagance, destined to hang in the back of the closet hopefully, just in case your daughter might want to wear it one day!

The greenest path to a white wedding is to choose a pre-owned wedding dress. This could be a once-worn dress, a vintage dress, or even the one your mother has saved for you all these years!

Blue Sky Bridal has racks of wedding dresses to choose from and you can visit by appointment to select the one for you. After your wedding day you could choose to send your dress back to them to delight another bride another day. They accept wedding dresses that are less than 4 years old on consignment and also have vintage dresses and new dresses to choose from.

Elaborate floral arrangements may be traditional at weddings but today’s green brides are thinking laterally when it comes to decorating their wedding venues.

The trouble with hot house flowers is that they are costly to produce, both in terms of the environment and in money. They are also wasteful, as they are usually discarded immediately after the event. If you want to decorate with greenery and flowers in a sustainable way, consider using trees and plants in pots that can be planted out after the event.

Young trees bearing delicate fairy lights, or flowering shrubs placed strategically around the venue will look just as stunning as more traditional arrangements. Give small saplings or pots of herbs to guests as wedding favors, having first used them as table centerpieces.

When planning this you need to give plenty of thought to where you want these plants to end up. Will you be planting them in your own yard to create an instant garden? If you are going away immediately on two weeks’ honeymoon, who will take care of the plants or plant them for you? Or perhaps you want to donate the plants to a local project, like a school garden or a tree planting charity? If so, discuss your choice of plants and trees with them to make sure that they will be suitable for the location they will be planted out in.

Decorating with trees and potted plants may be no cheaper than using cut flowers, but you will have the satisfaction of having created a new garden that will live on long after your wedding day.

Magnetic Pursenality creates a range of gorgeous purses that are the ultimate in hands-free clutches. There are designs made from recycled silk saris, woven and sequined creations in all sorts of colors and designs. Each one has a magnetic strip that allows it to be easily attached to your dress, so that you are never in any danger of losing it. They would make original and fun bridesmaids gifts.

The purses come from various Fair Trade projects around the world, as far afield as India and Guatemala and benefit local organizations and charities. As each one is handmade they are all one-off pieces and yet very affordable and cute.

These designs all cost between $35 and $40 from Magnetic Pursenality and there are many more to choose from.

Baltimore Cakery is a new boutique cake shop that prides itself on its eco-friendly business model and luscious cakes. Cakes can be made for all occasions in a wonderful range of delectable flavors and use only natural and organic ingredients. Just reading through the menu is enough to start you salivating: peach and ginger, rich chocolate with absinthe, pear and fleur de sel caramel, run and coconut with mango and lots more. You’d need a tall cake to fit in all those flavors!

As a bonus, in memory of the old tradition whereby the top layer of the wedding cake was kept to be eaten on the first anniversary, every wedding cake comes with a complementary first anniversary cake, baked freshly for the occasion, of course!

Wedding cakes start from $4.00 per serving from Baltimore Cakery

Organic wines are the only possible choice for a green wedding. After all when you’ve gone to the trouble of sourcing eco-friendly products, tree-free invitations and sumptuous organic food, it would be a shame if the wines weren’t also earth-friendly.

The Organic Wine Company sources certified organic wines from all over the world. All their wines are made from certified organically grown grapes. Some are also biodynamically grown and there is also a vegan range of wines, produced with no exposure to animal derivatives at any stage of the wine-making process.

Whether you’re after a French sparkling wine, an Italian red, or a new world cabernet, there is a fine selection at affordable prices.

Organic food is essential if you are planning a really green wedding. Forget about lentils and tofu, organic wedding caterers these days provide sumptuous feasts every bit as sophisticated as you’d expect for a formal wedding and can wow your guests with both flavors and presentation.

Back to Earth organic catering in San Francisco offer a passionately eco-friendly wedding service that can be tailored to your special requirements. If you want vegan, they can oblige; organic meat and sustainable fish, no problem. They support small local farmers and growers and bring a touch of elegance to your carefully planned green wedding.

If you live elsewhere, look out for your local organic caterers. Some of them are tied to specific venues while others can cater for your wedding anywhere, be it a rustic picnic in an orchard of spring blossom, or a superb feast in a characterful historic building.

The traditional white ‘meringue’ wedding dress isn’t the beginning and end of wedding dress possibilities. An expensive dress that you will only wear once isn’t the greenest of choices and unless you have your heart set on a traditional white wedding, there are plenty of other options that you can consider.

In the mid-19th century, black was the ultra fashionable color for wedding dresses. Today some brides are bucking the trend and choosing the elegance of the little black dress for their wedding day. A black dress has the advantage of being very versatile for evening wear, so that your wedding dress can be worn again and again to smart functions and events, unlike a white wedding dress which cannot really be disguised as anything else.

If you’ve been lusting after a gorgeous designer dress or suit, splash out on that instead of a traditional wedding dress. You’ll be able to look stunning at your wedding and then enjoy wearing it many more times before it loses its appeal.

A white pant suit could be a glamorous but informal alternative to a wedding dress, or go for the color that suits you best. After all the wedding day belongs to the bride and she gets to decide the theme, so whatever you decide on is going to be right. Just choose a dress or outfit that makes you feel really special and that you can imagine wearing again for special occasions.

After all green and eco-friendly choices for your wedding dress aren’t only to do with natural fabrics. Re-using is just as important in a green lifestyle as recycling and socially conscious shopping choices. By choosing a non-traditional wedding dress or outfit that you will re-use, you will be doing your bit for the environment.

Wedding dresses made from natural materials are ideal for the eco-conscious bride. Finding natural materials that don’t cost the earth and look stunning is getting easier. Silk is no longer the only option for glamorous gowns. Conscious Clothing has introduced a range of wedding dresses in environmentally friendly fabrics, especially a luscious hemp/silk mix that looks even better than traditional wedding fabrics and feels wonderful to wear.

Dresses come in sizes 2-14 and are ordered online unless you live in the Santa Fe area, where you can have a personal fitting. To make it easier to assess the fit, Conscious Clothing offers a muslin mock-up service. For a fee of $100 which is refundable on ordering the actual dress, you receive two mock-ups of your chosen design in two sizes, or else two designs in the same size. They recommend finding a local seamstress to make any minor alterations that are needed to perfect the fit of your wedding dress. This is a far more affordable option than having your own bespoke wedding dress made, as dresses start from under $1000 and have the quality that only natural fabrics give to the fall of the material and feel.

Many different designs available from Conscious Clothing

Every wedding needs some flowers, but how can the eco-friendly couple find flowers that are green in the way they’re grown, as well as in their foliage? Most florists stock hot-house flowers that have been intensively grown with pesticides, often flown in from overseas, and have a heavy carbon footprint. Not only are they expensive but they also contribute to pollution and global warming. There are alternatives though, so that the bride can enjoy a bouquet of flowers that are organically grown and eco-friendly.

Organic Bouquet is an online source of flowers certified by Veri-Flora. Their roses actually smell like roses unlike many of the hot-house varieties. They use green shipping methods as well as packaging.

Of course organic flowers aren’t cheap either, so consider sourcing seasonal flowers, to supplement your organic bouquet, from small, local family-run farms, or farmers markets, which have some sort of organic or eco certification. Or if you’re lucky enough to have a garden, grow some of your own flowers for your wedding.

Organic white roses bouquet costs $49.95 from Organic Bouquet.

This is so incredibly beautiful! From and Etsy artist in Latvia, these journals are made with natural wood and brown recycled paper. The ties that wrap around the closed book are made from jute. The binding (with coptic stich) is sturdy waxed linen thread. Custom engraving with your names and wedding date are included in the price. Simply gorgeous. A perfect engagement gift or wedding gift.
$95.00 USD at Crearting’s Etsy Shop