I realized last night that it has been 2 entire months since I did a Green Wedding post. There are quite literally dozens of articles published each month with an ever-increasing number of websites and blogs devoted to the topic. Below I've listed 10 resources I've run across over the last 8 weeks that are the best of what I've seen out there... hopefully without being too repetitive. Please do let me know if you have run across other resources (articles, sites, blogs, etc.) that you've found useful or at least interesting. Enjoy!

• Green Wedding Guide: everything you need to plan a wonderful earth-friendly wedding.
• Have a Green Wedding by Catherine Sharick from Time Magazine
• A Touch of Green by Emily Leaman (this article originally appeared in the January '08 issue of The Washingtonian)
• All Green Wedding: A wedding registry, gift registry service for the environmentally conscious
• It's Easy Being Green: It's a Nice Day for a Green Wedding from Center for American Progress
• The Wedding Planner Goes Green: from invitations to caterers, how to make your big day eco-friendly by Evangel Fung
• Tips to Make your Wedding Green from the Nature Conservancy
• Green Articles: 8 Ways to Green Your Wedding
• A Nice Day for a Green Wedding: Take steps to make your celebration eco-friendly by Erinn R. Johnson
• Eco-friendly weddings keep sprouting up by Janet Kornblum from USA Today

And, if you're planning a wedding in the Charlottesville area be sure to check out the Charlottesville Wedding Services Directory for info. on over 400 wedding-related products and services for your Central Virginia wedding planning needs!

For Earth Day I thought I'd celebrate by providing you with a nice list of 10 great Green Wedding resources for you to consider in planning your wedding. New sites, blogs and articles are popping up practically daily on this subject and I thought that Earth Day was a good time to share some of what I have found with my Charlottesville Weddings Blog readers.

You'll find lots of great ideas.... large and small ... to make your wedding day a little bit lighter on our beautiful planet. Enjoy! and ... Happy Earth Day!

• Real Green Weddings: see what inspiring couples have done to green their big day!
• Eco Chic Weddings: beauty * body * being
  
• Married to Green: weekly ideas to greenify your wedding
• Green Weddings: Giant Love... Tiny Footprint
• Indie Wedding Guide: a guide to recycling, reusing & reducing for today's weddings
• Eco-friendly Wedding Dresses (article)
• Ethical Weddings: give everyone something to celebrate
  
• Portovert: The Gateway to Greener Weddings
• How to Green Your Wedding (article)
• Something old, something new, something borrowed, something... green? Plan your wedding with the environment in mind (article)
  

Changing the Present: Changing the World, One Gift at a Time

With April being Earth Day month, I will be posting several tips throughout the month on how you can create a greener, more eco-friendly event... here's a great one to start with:

At Changing The Present brides and grooms can create an incredible wedding registry allowing their guests to choose from over 1,000 donation gift opportunities... everything from adopting a tiger, educating a girl, providing clean water to an African community to sponsoring a chimp or clearing land mines. Just about any cause that is near and dear to your hearts can be benefited by creating your wedding registry at Changing the Present.

Give it some thought... what a wonderful way to start your new life together!

Blessings,
Claire

With Valentine's Day coming up tomorrow I thought I'd share some great articles and resources I've come across on how to make more conscious choices in your giving.

This year I received my Valentine's Day surprise a little early: On Monday an envelope arrived addressed to my husband. It said "Thank you for Adopting a Manatee"... it was a give-away and, of course, I couldn't wait 'til Thursday to open it. Sure enough my funny and thoughtful honey had adopted a Manatee for me for Valentine's Day. I guess he has finally figured out that I'm just not a flowers and chocolates kind of girl! If you want to know more about this wonderful Valentine's Day option visit the Save the Manatee website. In addition to info. and a photo of my new adoptee, "Howie", I got 2 very sweet little plush manatees to remind me of my new status as adoptive manatee mom.

So... back to the resources I have for you...

• Have a Heart: How to have a Valentine's Day with a Conscience
• Valentine's Day Gift Guide: giving greener love
• Have a Green Valentine's Day
• Red is Out, Go Green this Valentine' Day
• Love me, Love the Earth

I wish you a peaceful, loving and green day of love!

I want to share this great article posted today at www.readexpress.com. It has lots of great resources and ideas for planning a green wedding from Express, a free daily newspaper published by the Washington Post. This wonderful story tells of couples in the DC area who have addressed just about every aspect of wedding planning to find ways of making their big days more environmentally friendly without compromising quality and elegance.

This article addresses everything from invitations and dress-shopping to food, flowers and transportation. Although some of the resources are specific to the DC area the ideas and inspiration for an eco-friendly wedding are well worth the read. Enjoy!

So many choices to make! ... starting with your "Save the Date" card, then invitations and envelopes, announcements, programs and place cards. In making your paper choices here are some things to look for:
1. recycled, handmade, or plantable papers processed chlorine-free and printed with vegetable- or soy-based inks
2. tree-free paper made out of hemp, banana stalks, bamboo, kenaf, or organic cotton
3. a printer who will use paper with a high percentage of post-consumer recycled content
papers that aren't metallic or plastic-coated, characteristics that make them hard to recycle
4. opportunities to reduce paper use, like sending a postcard (instead of multi-enveloped notes) for your save-the-date, or using online invitations and a wedding blog to let people know about the bachelor/ette parties, rehearsal dinner, and gift registry

Here are a couple paper/invitation companies you might like to look at: Twisted Limb Paperworks and Green Field Paper Company. Also, be sure to ask at local stationary and party invitation shops for green options... hopefully by now they're offering some. It's always great to keep things local when you can. Thanks for taking steps to have a greener wedding!

Visit the Earth Friendly Weddings Blog for great information and resources!

Jennifer, this blog's owner, lives in Atlanta, GA She has created a truly beautiful and incredibly useful resource for couples who want to have a wedding that takes the planet's well being into account.

Jennifer's blog focuses on green resources which she defines as, "... products that are recycled, reused, handmade, natural, organic, or fairly traded". I encourage you to take some time to read this blog... you'll discover wonderful ways to have a greener event!

For most weddings carbon dioxide emissions from guest travel produce the biggest environmental impact of all of the products and services you may use. TerraPass is a way to easily and affordably balance the environmental impact of your wedding... by buying a TerraPass you will balance the emissions you can't reduce.

Once you've calculated the emissions that your wedding will likely produce by completing a quick survey here, you can buy a TerraPass. The money you spend will be used to fund clean energy and efficiency projects such as wind farms. These projects result in verified reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Using financial instruments such as carbon credits, your funds result in guaranteed reductions... read more about how this works on the TerraPass website.

When you've purchased your TerraPass you will receive a framed certificate that you can display at your wedding... informing your guests of how their travel has been carbon balanced by your thoughtful purchase.

If you're looking for a truly spectacular and classically Virginia mountain backdrop for your wedding Montfair Resort Farm has the view for you! This photo of the mountains and sky was the backdrop to Rachel and Carl's ceremony this past weekend... can you imagine anything more beautiful? It was funny to see all of their guests taking turns posing for photos of each other with this panoramic view behind them.

Montfair Farm is a rustic and environmentally-conscious alternative for your wedding venue. Located in the western part of Albemarle County... about 15 miles NW of Charlottesville... there is a rustic lodge with huge fireplace for cozy fall and winter events plus a deck overlooking a beautiful lake and cabins... all on this 129 acre property.

Rachel arrived for her wedding with her Dad in a horse drawn carriage and made a getaway in it after the ceremony with her groom, Carl. When I left to head out to another wedding the lodge was being beautifully decorated for dinner and there was a reggae band setting up on the deck... wish I could've stayed!

Montfair Resort Farm is a natural and comfortable location for your big day. Give them a call at: 434-823-5202

How Green Was My Wedding? from the New York Times Fashion & Style section on February 11, 2007 by Mireya Navarro.
A great article with lots of ideas for an eco-friendly event and many links to good green-wedding resources that you might like to consider in your wedding planning. Enjoy!

Couples spend lots of money each year on favors to put on their reception dinner tables for their guests. Earlier this year I saw a wonderful green alternative to the typical wedding favors and I want to share it with you.

Matt & Marlita (Matt is in the military) chose to make a small donation on behalf of each of their guests towards a charity that is near and dear to them, one that clears minefields. So, at each place setting, instead of a favor that would probably find it's way into the landfill before long, there was the card you see here.

In case you can't read the card, it says: "Thank you for joining in celebration of our new life together. To show our appreciation, a small donation has been made in your honor to the Adopt-A-Minefield program. Together these small gifts will contribute to the clearing of a minefield and to making our planet a safer place to live."

Another great resource for finding wonderful charitable favors you can choose for your wedding is JustGive.org. What a great way to start your new life together!

The Green Guide
It's important for all of us to do what we can to live more lightly on our beautiful planet. Weddings are notorious for being high-impact affairs... using lots of energy and making a rather large "carbon footprint". There are lots of alternative choices to be made that will make your wedding an event planned with love for each other and for our planet. National Geographic's Green Guide has lots of wonderful tips, insights and links to great information on creating a more eco-friendly wedding. Enjoy their "Three R's of Wedded Bliss" article by Maureen Ryan and get started today planning a greener, more conscious wedding.

Each month I'll share with you some of my ideas and resources on creating a more eco-friendly celebration. There are so many wonderful ways to have a fun, beautiful, delicious and sustainable event... check back weekly for more info.

When purchasing your engagement ring and wedding bands consider starting with a conscious alternative to diamonds that are mined in war zones and fund conflicts called "blood diamonds". My own engagement ring is a beautiful Aquamarine with 2 white sapphires. Nevertheless, if you have your heart set on having a diamond there are many routes to go, here are some ideas and resources:

• choose a vintage ring - whether it's a family heirloom or an antique find.
• consider a lab-created diamond, check out Green Karat.
• diamonds that are mined in Canada or Australia where "blood diamonds" are not an issue: See: Brilliant Earth; Cred Jewellery or Leber Jewelry's Earthwise line.
• also, look for diamonds that are certified as "conflict free" under the Kimberley Process, an ongoing effort to reform diamond mining in Africa. On Amnesty International USA's website you can download the Conflict Free Diamond Buyer's Guide for information and guidance as to what questions to ask your jeweler.
  

Get off to a great start in your new life together and set the tone for your future with the purchase of a beautiful ring that expresses your love and promotes your highest values.

Check back next week for another Green Wedding tip!