Book Review:
Green Weddings That Don't Cost The Earth

Carol Reed-Jones
Paper Crane Press, 1996
ISBN: 0965083306

This book and the book Organic Weddings: Balancing Ecology, Style and Tradition are the two best books about environmentally-friendly, socially-responsible weddings available today.

Green Weddings gets into nuts-and-bolts detail about everything from the invitations to the honeymoon. The book begins by listing the many good reasons for having a green wedding and then outlining some basic principles that can be applied to all aspects of wedding planning, such as favoring reused and reusable products over disposables, renting or borrowing instead of buying, reducing energy use for transportation and electricity, and selecting products from ethical companies that support good causes.

Many wedding vendors with earth-friendly products and services are listed, although some may have gone out of business since the book was published in 1996.

For intrepid do-it-yourselfers, there are wedding cake recipes and instructions for craft projects. The recipes are vegan (that is, they contain no animal products) and include some unusual cake choices, as well as detailed cake decoration instructions and frosting recipes. The craft projects include making recycled paper for invitations, creating flower bouquets and arrangements, and forcing bulbs and blooms. Unlike many wedding DIY books, the craft projects are designed to use supplies and materials with a low environmental impact which can be salvaged and reused after the wedding.

Also of interest, the book discusses options and alternatives to holding a wedding ceremony in an ecologically-sensitive wilderness area.

One of the things I like most about this book is that it not only describes ways to make a traditional wedding celebration more earth-friendly, but also presents some more unconventional and creative options for couples who don't want be limited by tradition. In this respect, Green Weddings goes a little further out on a limb than Organic Weddings. The two books complement each other nicely, though, and I recommend both of them for the aspiring green bride.

 

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