Googlemaps does walking directions

Well, this is just nifty. Google directions will now offer WALKING directions. So you can put it on your weddingmap, and offer driving alternatives. (Not available in all areas yet, of course). No bike routes yet, and oddly, no subways. You can use hopstop.com in NY, LI, NJ, Boston, Chicago, SF, and Wash DC for subway and bus routes, however.

Locavore water?

Sparkling water, that is:
Il Fornello, an Italian restaurant down the block from my house, seems to have discovered "locavore water":

"..they are going even further down the green path with their local water. Instead of only serving San Pelligrino spring water that is bottled in Italy and shipped across the ocean to Toronto (How can this make sense?? transporting spring water around the planet?? total insanity), they are now bottling local spring water (and carbonating it) just outside of the city and serving it in their own green (literally) glass bottles. These bottles are reused by the company four times before they are recycled".

Locavore Wedding Catering

It's a trend! [If you've been out of the locavore loop - this means food produced and marketed within 100 miles of your abode.] See The 100 Miles Diet.
Some weddings are now 'locavorian', and some caterers advertise they can do this, especially in Canada. See the website Les Louises.

But you have to do some research, of course, and there are all sorts of websites and services IN PRODUCTION for local resources for organic food, but right now, it's completely dependent upon YOUR LOCALITY. Your organic food store will know the nearest suppliers of local food, of course. Try typing "Locavore" and your city in Google, and you'll find locavore clubs and contacts.

as in:
Locavore's Guide to New York City
Locavore.ca, Canadian blog.

Here is a "local food wheel" for San Francisco, California. With debts to the Farmer's Alamanac of course.

Light Posting - Iowa Floods

I am visiting family in Cedar Rapids, in the floods. Please excuse lite posting.

Organic Wedding Flowers

Treehugger has a short article on the flower industry, the pesticides, the monoculture - and the exploitation of flower industry workers.

The alternatives are obvious: find organic, local, family-run, planting trees as alternatives, using herbs and fruits, buying in-season in farmer's markets, etc. I remember cutting my own lilacs and pussy willows for my children's spring wedding, and buying in-season long sheafs of local glads and lilies for their September wedding. But of course urban folk can't always do this.

The big player in this field is OrganicBouquet, which is available at Whole Foods, and online. From their site:
"In 2004 Organic Bouquet furthered its vision for a better and more sustainable future by broadening our product selection to include flowers grown under additional certification standards. These include farming and harvesting methods such as biodynamic, Veriflora, and wildcrafted. Each of these practices aims to improve the quality of farm working conditions, minimize damage to ecosystems, conserve biodiversity, and enhance environmental quality for future generations. Please look for the certification that denotes the farming method utilized on each product that is featured on our website". Note - they don't have much info on labor, however.

There are other sources of course - many in California, obviously, such as:
diamondorganics.com lists family growers, or California Organic Growers. You can find 'eco-florists', such as Eco Flora in Toronto, which is organic and Fair Trade, or Amoda in Vancouver. Look for the FLP (Flower Label Program) or the FFFP (Fair Flowers Fair Plants)logo or the MPS certification.

Here is another post on Edible Flowers - one solution, eat your bouquet!

PLEASE NOTE: Do NOT use those 'flower seed' invitations - many are invasive wild flowers, and should not be planted in other zones.

Carbon Neutral Calculators - Weddings

Here is the original list.

You can use the one for your country, and use paypal, generally. Send me any comments about your experience using these. When I'm in Canada I use Planetfair:

Planetair is managed by the Unisféra International Center, a non-profit Montreal research and consulting centre whose mission is to contribute to the advancement of sustainable development in Canada and around the world. Unisféra generates and disseminates knowledge on a broad range of sustainable development issues and offers research, consulting and training services to public and private organizations. Unisféra’s team is comprised of jurists, economists, scientists and engineers, as well as experts in management, communications, public policy, and international relations. It supports these activities by:

1) developing and funding a GHG emissions offset project portfolio, establishing an economic mechanism to achieve environmental and social objectives.
2) by certifying activities, events, and organizations as carbon neutral.

Carbon Neutral DJ

(well, I found one. In DC)
MyDeeJay.com. See if you can find another one.

Wedding Cakes, Vegetarian and Vegan

Everybody's making vegan cakes these days, especially the bakeries that used to make Kosher cakes and allergy-free cakes. You can probably find a source in most cities, and you'll soon know if they really run a Vegan/Vegetarian kitchen. You need to ask if they same equipment is used for both Vegetarian and Vegan prep and cooking (that's why a Kosher kitchen is useful).

We wrote a post about hidden non-vegan items in menus, and of course they apply to deserts:

* The cake: does the icing contain animal products, such as egg whites? While this will be OK for veggies, any vegans among your guests will not be able to eat it.
* Honey: this is avoided by most vegans.
* Gluten-free (optional)
* No eggs
* No gelatin (for the fondant, use agar-agar)
* No dairy - no butter or milk
* No cheese (again, no dairy, so a cheesecake alternative is out, unless you make it with tofu)
* Often no sugar - but this varies by practice.

Here is another discussion of substitutions by a vegan chef
The most common Vegan cake is carrot/zucchini cake or a variation of the wartime chocolate cake made with cocoa and oil. If you eliminate eggs, you have no binders or leavening, really, so says the PostPunk Baker, though bananas, flaxseed, tofu and yoghurt sometimes work.

And course the ingredients should be organic AND Fair Trade and the business should have good labor ethics.

Because the number of merchants would be huge, here is a list of recipes, instead. Take these to your local kosher, health food, organic baker, and see if they can replicate them. Or do what we did, simply bake it yourself. You can buy the nested pans from any baker supply. Vegan cakes are usually heavy, and need a lot of support for the layers, so my husband made wooden dowls, but you can be creative.

Here are some recipes:

Vegan Wedding Carrot Cake
Vegan Lemon Genoise
Black Forest with flour
Raspberry Lemon Wedding Cake Flour, sugar, maple syrup
Vegan Chocolate Devastation with Tofu and Maple syrup
German Chocolate Cake with Apricots, oat/soy milk

Green wedding locations: National Parks

Here is a link to the original post about GREEN WEDDING LOCATIONS, including a discussion of whether to use parks and wildlife areas.

The big national parks now charge a fee for weddings, and for wedding photography. There is no national list of which parks charge. You have to check with the individual parks, and see what their fee rate is and their regulations, but in general the fees are modest, and the regulations seem reasonable, mostly about $50.

[NOTE: Make sure you're on the real park website, which should be a nps.gov address. Some commercial websites copy the NPS sites, which is how I came upon "Honeymoon Cabins in the Park", and found these little mountain abodes in the Great Smokies: "Love Shack", "Me Tarzan You Jane" they also offered "Burnin'Love", featuring a fireman theme and a red and black outdoor jacuzzi... what's not to like? (grin) ]

Here are some of the parks which offer/charge wedding permits:

Acadia
Brice Canyon
Carlsbad Caverns(not over 20 people)
Channel Islands(too delicate?)
Delaware Water Gap(may book historic chapels)
Devil's Tower(Close Encounters!)
Grand Teton (may book chapels)
Great Falls (Potomac)
Great Sand Dunes
Hawaii Volcanos (unbelievable!)
Mount Rainier
Natural Bridges
Great Smoky Mountains
Pictured Rocks
Yellowstone
Yosemite

Some National Historic Sites also allow weddings - from Harpers Ferry, to Hyde Park, to Carl Sandburg's home. These permits are more expensive, but still much lower than commercial sites. They usually only include access to the garden or outdoor sites, but the fees are in the $300 range, which is less than the Brooklyn Botanical Garden.

Canadian Provincial Parks:
British Columbia: "You do not require a Park Use Permit to hold a wedding ceremony within a provincial park HOWEVER you do need permission from our Regional Office. Please contact our Victoria office at 1-866-433-7272 ext. 3 so that we can direct you to the appropriate Regional Office for the specific park you are interested in"

Park locations in Ontario Ontario parks need to be contacted individually. Some have event spaces or lodges for rental use, some will let you use the park space.
Also consider private gardens and conservatories, like the Arboretum at the University Of Guelph.

Eco wedding paper suppliers - recycled, tree-free, post-consumer

Here is the original post (on World Water Day) about using recycled, post-consumer, or tree-free handmade papers. Many offer the imbedded flowerseed paper for invitations. Most of these companies also buy carbon offsets, or run off the grid, on wind, etc.

Here is a list of ethical paper suppliers:

* CustomPaper Handmade paper, seed paper, ribbon, flowers. WA [Note: This company includes: Oftheearth, Earthinvitations, Flowerseedpaper, HannahSilkRibbon, and others.]
*Greenfieldpaper Flowerseeds, San Diego. Tree-free paper.
{Update: DO NOT USE flower-seed invitations. Many use invasive species and should not be replanted).
*Twistedlimb Bloomington, IN. Recycled, invitations, handmade
*EcoPaper, Tree-free writing paper from Costa Rica post-industrial waste (Mango, banana, lemon, etc.) No invitations
SealandSend Envelope-free. Recycled invitations.
Paporganics Tree-free recycled hemp paper. Nice patterns. Wholesalers with store location list.
PaperMojo Bright and pretty, see the gift wrap of tree-free natural fibres. Could be used to decorate, it's so lovely. No info on FairTrade, or sustainable production, tho.
Paper Choice (BC, CAnada)

Ethical gift registries - Green companies

This post lists green companies for gift registries, including recycled, sustainable, fair trade companies. See the other list on ethical gifts to charities in lieu of a wedding present.

3rliving, Green registry
Sendusoff Ask for an eco-friendly honeymoon
TenThousandVillages Fair Trade
Coopamerica Green Pages
Vivaterra by the Lazy Environmentalist
Greenfeet Eco
GlobalExchange Fair Trade
EcoExpress Fair Trade, eco & spa gifts

Alternative gift registries - ethical organizations

This list includes sites to register ethical donations in honor of your wedding (letting your guests give a gift to a charity or NGO in your name). See the post on Green gift registries for ecological and sustainable gifts.

* Read the discussion on alternative gift registries here, including resources on how to verify a charity's financial record.
* Read our personal list of individual charities and NGOs we support.

Alternative Gift Registries and Charity Donations:

NewDream.org
IDOFoundation
Alternative gifts international
UniversalGiving
Changingthepresent a one-stop green registry where you can select a number of ngos and charities
Seva.org a 30 year old community assistance NGO.

Other ideas:
Plant a tree in a national forest
The Carbon Neutral Company
Greentags - green wedding offset calculator

Conflict-free wedding rings

Here is the original discussion about dirty gold and conflict diamonds on Ethicalceremonies.com

Here are suppliers and links, including recycled jewelry:

BrilliantEarth
greenkarat.com
CelticJewelry Fair Trade, eco, sustainable
LeberJeweler Chicago, eco, conflict-free
TouchWoodRings Handcrafted wooden rings, British Columbia.
WiserJewelry Recycled gold and lab-generated stones. WA
List of retailers signing "Nodirtygold" campaign.

Recycle a wedding gown - buy and sell

Here are places to find a recycled gown, and where to recycle your own (I've now separated out the specialized vintage retail sites). Don't forget EBay, the Salvation Army, Goodwill, ValueVillage and your local thrift-shop-for-charity. We have also listed a Quebec company, Ouijelevoeux, that combines multiple gowns to sew new ones.

If you're in the UK (or visiting), you can shop the great OxfamBridal shops.

Bridesagainstbreastcancer
bridgalgown.org NY, NY (samples/overstocks)
Recycleagown List your gown online, registration fee (New Brunswick, CA) [seems to be defunct at present]
Ouijelevoeux Buys your gown and recrafts it (Quebec)
VintageIndie A shop on Etsy

Vintage Wedding Gown Retail Sources

It became obvious that I'd need to separate the specialist Vintage Gown suppliers from the general clothing recyclers and the specialist designers who recreate (and rework) vintage dresses.

So this will be a list of Vintage Gown Retail sources, and see the other lists on this site for more ideas about indie designs, recycling, etc.

This is a very localized, specific industry, as items are one-of-a-kind. There seem to be more vintage bridal stores in the UK, and only a few ship internationally, but I'll post some retailers as they are always good for ideas. The US sites (many of which seem to be in Texas) also have 'vintage' reproductions of historical styles, called "neo-victorian", "neo-edwardian", etc., so watch the real date of the dress.

FYI, this is my Irish great grandmother, Alice, on her wedding day. Remember: until the 20s (dropped waist) most vintage gowns had 22 inch waists. So here is a link to organic corsets!

Some places to check:

VintageWeddingGowns Victorian, Edwardian and 20th century (FL)
VintageVixen Online only, have some nice satin selections.
PoshGirlVintage S.California, but sell online only. Lots of 50s-60s
WoodlandFarms Very nice collection, reasonable. TX
DavenportandCo A nice site, reasonable prices, Springfield MA
StitchesinTime OH. Some nice pieces, reasonable, but seem to be squished in a closet together?
TheFrock Vintage Designer - Dior, not your grandmother. Expensive, but fun to browse. They've got Xena's corset.
BobbyDene Whoever Bobby is, he's got a nice collection of vintage satin, (though he seems to photograph the dresses by the recliner in his living room in Texas...) Have fun.
DandelionVintage NJ (online only). Small selection, accessories
Gulden and Brown A 'megastore' for Vintage gowns, in HAWAII - but they ship UPS to US. Funny tacky website - look around.
CherishedBride They spell Jane Austen with an I (like Texas) and some of their stock is quite funny- I can't actually tell where they are located, though - odd site.
Antiquedress another funny site, but they seem to get museum de-acquisitions (and celebrity clothing). Fun for a look, and some ideas
A Very Merry Seamstress A historical gown maker in NY, this company also makes historical undergarments, including boned stays. Nice company, nice family blog, too.

Organic, natural wedding dresses

Here is the original article on organic, natural dresses on ethicalceremonies.com.

The picture is a dress made of toilet paper - just for fun. (I think the paper is bleached, though -LOL).

Here is our list of wedding dress suppliers so far. These sites are meant to be for inspiration as well as for retail purposes.

Conscious Clothing Santa Fe, NM
Rawganique BC, Canada, Portland OR, & CA
OliviaLuca Portland, OR
TaraLynnStudio VT
Threadheadcreations(tennesee?)
AnnatarianCA
Wholly-Jo London, UK
Isadora Bridal, BC, Canada
Rene Geneva mostly bridal corsets, but some gowns.
Consciouselegance Another extravagant seamstress in the UK. They get lots of extra points for their thoughtfulness, including labour and packaging:
"Our eco-friendly fabrics are completely sourced from sustainable materials and are 3rd-party certified organic by Control Union World Group (formerly SKAL). We at Conscious Elegance earn a fair living wage and no child labour or sweatshops are involved in any facet of our dressmaking. Our biodegradeable packaging is purposefully chosen to have minimal impact on the environment and we ship our gowns through eco-friendly couriers."

Cheaptux.com PETA recommends them as a "non-wool" Tux supplier - but that means polyester, and you still have to pay for carbon-intensive shipping. Perhaps you should visit a good vintage shop for a vintage tux!

UPDATE: Here is a useful post on the possible 'greenwashing' of the 'sustainable bamboo' fabric industry:


Please let us know of any additions, recommendations, or discoveries.

Agreenbride blog

Welcome! Mary (and Beth) are humanist chaplains, and civil marriage officiants in New York and Canada. I started this blog on Earth Day, because our other site, ethical ceremonies, was getting too crowded, and the links were buried in the posts. We're going to refocus the ethical site on ethical concepts (sourcing, human rights, civil and ethical ceremony ideas) and move the green sourcing links to this site. It might be a bit of duplication in the beginning, but we hope that this site will evolve to be a sourcing site. We're intentionally keeping the articles short so we can add more resources.

You are welcome to visit our other wedding blogs for more ideas, and to keep writing us about your discoveries. Thanks! Mary