Why I am going Green...

It took me a while to come to the conclusion that weddings are a truly wonderful occasion. When I first set out on this adventure known as "engagement," I wasn't sold on the whole concept of "the wedding." They seemed to be these large, generic, wasteful, and worst of all EXPENSIVE parties where everyone complained that the food sucked, and they never got to see the bride...

What I started to realize a few months ago is that a wedding can be anything you want it to be: It can be small, it can be large. It can be where you live, it can be where you were born, heck it can be in Fiji...there is only one thing that every wedding absolutely must be; and that is a celebration.

It is a celebration of life. It is a celebration of your life, and your new spouses life, and the lives of everyone invited to share in your big day. So that became my new golden rule. Don't forget to celebrate.

Once I realized that I was preparing a celebration for everyone that I loved, I became much more relaxed with the idea of the whole thing: the dress wasn't just a stupid piece of fabric designed to make me look like a living cupcake,


(yes, my boobs are that big...)

It was a nod to history, and a way of showing my guests how very special this occasion is to me, and how very seriously I take this day. In fact, every little detail started to make sense...napkins, and flowers, and invitations...they were all little ways that I could surprise and delight my guests to thank them for being a part of my life at this moment. Even the little things that used to annoy me (like how hard it is to avoid green beans on a wedding menu), didn't really matter as much in the scope of the event...(although, seriously...I hate green beans.) There is only one thing that I am still struggling with: THE WASTE.

The waste, The Waste, THE WASTE!!!! All of the paper, and extra food, and travel, and shipping, and who knows what else that I can't even imagine amount to a lot of W-A-S-T-E...and I am in unfamiliar territory as to how I should deal with it.

I mean, I carry reusable bags in my purse for the unexpected grocery trip. I buy my produce at the farmers market to "keep it local." I have a "recycling center" in my kitchen for paper, aluminum, plastic and glass; but this is a 120 person EVENT for Pete's sake! Not to mention the shower(s) and batchelorette and rehearsal dinner and wedding brunch, and post wedding luau in Massachusetts.

this is me and Jimmy, my fiance, back when we were Hawaiian...

(Shouldn't everyone have a post wedding luau? I smell a new tradition: Something old, something new, something borrowed, something from Hawaii) Ok, now I am rambling, but here is the point:

I want my wedding to be FUN, I need my wedding to be CHEAP, and EASY (like I was in college)....and I am going to do everything in my power to make it GREEN!!!

Would you like to come with me on this journey? I thought that you might...