My green(ish) wedding

A wedding day is about making promises for the future, about what you as a couple think is important – since Dave and I care a lot about the environment, it seemed logical to make our wedding as green as possible when we got hitched last year.

I’ve seen articles about people who had proper environmentally-friendly weddings, with hemp suits, hybrid cars and all-vegan menus. We’d never organised a green party before, and the eco-options here in Perth were limited then. So we decided to green what we could and not fret about the rest. Here’s how we rate according to Treehugger’s Guide to How to Green Your Wedding:

What we did well

• Reduce the size of the guest list: we preferred to just have people we were close to, rather than every relative this side of the Nullabor.
• Choose re-usable: the guys wore their own suits or bought ones they’d be able to wear again; the bridesmaids chose dresses that were more of a cocktail style and two have been worn again already; the decorations (vases, candles and table-runners) were re-used at my cousin’s wedding. I’ve worn my shoes again several times, since they’re pretty and suit several of my other nice dresses.
• Eco-friendly products: we used recycled, fair-trade paper from Paperwise (formerly EcoPaper Shop) for invitations.
• Choose local: we got married at a winery, so the wine was as local as it gets; the menu featured many foods from the South-West, like lamb from Gin-Gin and Mount Barker free-range chicken. It was delicious! Our venue also agreed to serve fair-trade tea and coffee.
• DIY: my bridesmaids and I made bouquets from beads and wire. They were a lovely alternative to flowers grown miles away and transported by cold-storage trucks to Perth.
• Our registry had some green options, and was short because we’re not into over-consumption.
• Communicating our greeniness: one of our readings was from David Suzuki’s book The Sacred Balance.
• Honeymoon: at Forest Rise Eco-Retreat, a 3hr-drive from home (better than flying, but still far away enough to get away from everyday life).

Where we could have done better

• I had plans for DIY green favours, but ran out of time. We ended up with jellybeans in cellophane, which was fun, yummy and cute, but not eco-friendly.
• Our cake used free-range eggs, but if I’d started sooner, I could’ve found someone willing to make this all-organic for me, or done it myself. We went with a local lady who made us a completely delicious cake so it’s hard to be worried about it
• Dave tried hard to find green transport, and came up empty-handed. There’s just not much of it in Perth. We looked at renting a Prius (none available at that time), or renting a hydrogen-powered bus from Transperth (not allowed). Our venue was too far out of the city for public transport, unfortunately.
• My dress wasn’t eco-friendly at all, but it was handmade here in Perth – no sweatshop or importing necessary.
• The rings: we bought our plain rings from a place that doesn’t use conflict diamonds. Perth doesn’t have much in the area of recycled or GreenKarat rings, and antiques aren’t my style.
• Offsets for bridal party travel, or honeymoon travel: we didn’t think of that until too late, and too broke!

If I get married again (just joking, sweetie!), I’d know better what green options to look for, and there are more green products in Perth every day. I’m sure I could have a greener wedding this year than I had last year. The only thing I’d really change is the favours: they’re not essential. I should’ve skipped them altogether and spent the time and money on a good massage instead!

We had a lovely day, surrounded by family and friends who support our eco-friendly attempts and wish us well in our marriage. I’m glad we tried to make the occasion as green as possible – it was one of the many things that made the day special, and reflected our hopes for the future.

Some weekend reading

I was going to get into the city today to try the organic jeans at Just Jeans, but the weather is miserable. So instead I’m staying inside with a cuppa, and sorting through the green news and bits of interest that came my way this week.

Two Blog Action Day posts that I didn’t see at first:
Zen Habits discusses 5 Ways to Save the World, While Getting Fitter, Saving Money, Simplifying, and Becoming Happier – it sounds like a tall order, but the things we do to make our life more satisfying are frequently the same things that help the environment.

Unclutterer mentions the Kill-a-Watt device , something I would really like myself – I’m very curious about which appliances or electrics in our house are chewing up the most energy.

In Australian environmental politics:
The ACF has an election score-card, rating each party on it’s environmental promises in the run-up to the election.

Tim Flannery writes A Call to Action at Cosmos Magazine, showing us a path to real environmental change in Australia.

In offline news:
Check out this fortnight’s edition of The Big Issue – their feature topic is the environment, with a really good article about carbon rationing. The idea is that you set an amount of carbon-dioxide emissions for your household, and work out ways to stay within your “budget”. Carbon Rationing Action Groups have formed to help each other meet their goals, starting in the UK but with some in Melbourne already.

There’s also an article about eco-etiquette from the always-funny Fiona Scott-Norman (do you ‘let it mellow’ when visiting a friend’s home? do you have to pretend to be interested in carbon trading debates?), and an interview with Thomas Homer-Dixon, the author of The Upside of Down.

From kitchen waste to fresh eggs

On the weekend we visited my in-laws, who have a fantastic vegie garden, fruit trees, a few sheep and a lot of chickens. At home we put our kitchen waste in the compost bin, but when we stay with the in-laws, most of it goes into the ‘chook bucket’.

I like feeding the chickens – they’re very soothing company, even if they are a little stupid. When they see you coming with the chook bucket they get so excited, it’s pretty funny. They also provide manure for your garden, and eat a lot of pesky insects. But the fantastic part is the fresh eggs…

Our garden is just a bit too small to keep chickens. However, if we had a standard-size block I’d definitely keep a couple. You can go upmarket with the Eglu, but Josh Byrne from Gardening Australia has free plans you can use to make your own chook pen (pdf), big enough for two chickens (or three if they’re a small breed). Gardening Australia also has plenty of information about keeping backyard chickens.

Taking the Prius on a road trip

On the weekend we took the Prius out for it’s first long-distance drive. We travelled about 450km to the town where Dave’s parents live, taking about 5 hours (including a couple of stops).

We’d been told that a Prius wasn’t as efficient on country drives, but our experience showed it being only slightly less fuel efficient than it is on our regular city routes. It did very well on the long drive: on the way there we got an average of 4.8L/100km fuel use; on the way back it was more like 5.6L/100km. Dave found that cruising along in 90km per hour zones was more fuel efficient than driving in the 110km per hour zones.

Our return trip had us driving into a strong headwind, which is why there’s such a difference in the rates. Some Prius reviewers had mentioned that it gets blown around a bit in strong winds, and we found that to be true! Geraldton is pretty windy, and the Prius is a pretty light car, so we weren’t really surprised by that.

Brownes vs Just Jeans

On the weekend Dave bought a Brownes Choc-Chill and was annoyed to find that they’re currently running a competition where you can win a Hummer, the ultimate poseur vehicle guaranteed to waste your money and pollute the world. We were going to email them to complain, but found that Brownes no longer has its own website. They have been bought out by multinational dairy company Fonterra, who are pretty light on product information on their website [note to self: take Brownes off the list of local WA brands to support].

However, on the upside, Just Jeans is promoting their new line of organic cotton jeans by running a competition where you can win a Prius. Well done, Just Jeans, for including eco-friendly products in your shops, and for promoting them without also being flag-bearers for affluenza.

If we’d known there was a chance to win a Prius instead of buying one, we would have waited a little longer! But every purchase of organic cotton jeans will get you a free re-useable organic cotton bag, so I’ll definitely be checking out the jeans while the promotion is on.