Eco-Chic Weddings: Simple Tips to Plan an Earth-Friendly, Socially Responsible, Affordable Green Wedding

by Emily Elizabeth Anderson

Add Style to Your Wedding and Stay True to Your Beliefs

Planning your wedding can be the best time to be eco-friendly. The wedding industry has a huge impact on the global economy and the environment, as wedding parties spend over $125 billion a year in the U.S. alone. Eco-Chic Weddings presents the quick, simple, and easy-to-follow tips you need to make your wedding socially responsible. This indispensable guide gives you the choice, comfort, and chance to share your own unique style for a truly memorable wedding.

Going green doesn’t mean you need to spend the green. Eco-Chic Weddings provides all the resources you need to create your environmentally friendly and fun celebration on a budget, such

* Use in-season flowers to save on price and reduce the environmental cost of shipping in non-local flowers.
* Skip the save-the-date card and save some trees–and a lot of hassle.
* Don’t purchase items you will only use at the wedding; instead, invest in dresses, shoes, or glassware you will alter and reuse.

From the location to the dress to the menu, there are dozens of easy ways to make your wedding beautiful and still reflect your personal beliefs in sustainable living. Eco-Chic Weddings will show you how to craft your perfect day.

Genres: Reference, Environment, Nonfiction

168 pages, Paperback

First published January 2, 2007

Reviews

[Jessica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty basic, but there are a few good pointers that I noted.

[Melanie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book didn't push the green card enough. It capture the basic idea, but it didn't promote many truly innovative ideas or as the bride to sacrifice a little when there really are no green alternatives to wedding consumerism.

For example, in the entire chapter on wedding invitations only a tiny blurb was devoted to e-invites while the rest of the chapter focused on tree-free paper and recycled alternatives. Surely avoiding paper altogether is not only the greener alternative to paper invites, rsvp cards, multiple envelopes and those useless pieces of tissue paper that always seem to be included.

Another issue is that no mention was made of carbon emissions produced by the wedding party or guests. The author used an example of a wedding in a Costa Rican rainforest as an example of a beautiful outdoor wedding that would require few decorations, etc. But all the carbon emissions produced by all the guests jetting hundreds of miles down to Costa Rica was not mentioned. What about having your wedding in the town where the reception and ceremony would be just a short drive away for most of the guests? Isn't this perhaps reducing your wedding's environmental impact a tiny bit more than an organic wedding cake?

[Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book would be best for someone who has little to no previous interest in sustainability or eco-friendly practices. Because while I am in no way an expert on those topics, I do have an active interest in being sustainable in my lifestyle...which meant a lot of the tips that are offered felt obvious. For example, using china and glassware that can be reused instead of plasticware that will be thrown away - that's something I've known will happen at my and my fiance's wedding from day one.

However, I applaud the author for her interest in compiling all these tips and resources into one useful reference. (The list of internet resources alone will be quite helpful!) With such an enormous wedding industry out there, full of companies offering so much "stuff" just for weddings, I really appreciated her message of, "how can the things you buy to make your wedding stylish and special be reused or repurposed after the wedding?" I wish more brides and grooms would consider that question!!

[Molly · Rating 1 out of 5]

Didn't like it. There are so many bridal books out there, and I'm beginning to think that it's because they'll publish anything. Don't get me wrong- I would not have checked this book out if I didn't totally agree with the title. But the writing was weak and the strongest parts were merely lists of links to internet sites that looked potentially useful. Call me old-fashioned, but I don't want to read a non-fiction book where the author says, "Did you know....? I didn't" It just makes me feel that they picked a topic to publish, and didn't necessarily have any pre-existing expertise in the subject matter.

There's got to be something better on the same topic- I'll investigate.

[Jen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not nearly as good as I'd hoped; more a primer for brides who aren't eco-conscious in their everyday lives than for folks who try to make environmentally friendly decisions day-to-day. One section was informative: eco-chic honeymoons, featuring resorts that try to be earth-friendly.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was only medium helpful, as a lot of the advice is pretty intuitive, or we're already doing it, but she does have a list of vendors and companies I wouldn't have found otherwise so that's good.

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

A well-intentioned book, seems best as a source for helpful green websites. Taking up about 15 pages at the end of the book to reprint all the websites that are at the end of each chapter seemed like a huge waste of paper.

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Handy reference; lots of helpful links and resources. Most of the ideas were pretty straightforward, but I'll probably use it as I'm planning to make sure I don't forget something. Easy to read.

[Britt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very useful! Has lots of good web references, ideas, and promotes a great philosophy on having a fun wedding without going over the top.

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of useful links, even though some are out of date. Mmm wedding fun!

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned a lot from this book! Definitely worth picking up if you've got upcoming nuptials.