Continuing with our three day “Green” celebration, here are more ways to incorporate eco-friendly details into your wedding. As promised, today we’ll talk about alternatives for the ring (both engagement and wedding band) and the dress (for you and your maids).
When it comes to diamonds, you may think that buying “conflict free” is an eco-friendly and humane alternative, where it is definitely the latter (read up and understand why buying “conflict free” is so important), it isn’t clean of leaving a carbon footprint. Both gold and diamond mines produce waste that include toxins such cyanide and mercury, which seriously affect the water and environment alike. Vintage and antique rings are a 100% clean alternative. Yes, they are used, but they come in more styles and at a much cheaper price than whats in retail stores. The other great thing is that they are unique, you are the only one with that exact ring. That’s more meaningful than a mass produced ring. As for wedding bands, go for recycled metals, or re-used diamonds, often salvaged from old estate jewelry.
As for the dress, you might not want to comprise on, but maybe you’re unaware of just how many options you have. There is a variety of resources for choosing the perfect dress with a conscience. You can buy vintage, gently used, or recycled.
Vintage: Unique, one of a kind, well preserved vintage dresses are a great choice to have some retro flair in your wedding. There is every style, every cut, every color you could wish for, as most of the fashion of today’s dresses are just based on retro styles anyway. Check out Vintageous.com.
Gently Used: Lets be honest, a used wedding dress is probably the most pure form of the word “used” as you know it was only worn on one occasion. You can trust it is in good condition, check out BravoBride.com or RecycledBride.com.
Recycled: If you’re particularly crafty, you can make a unique dress by using second hand or thrift dresses and making your own with the fabrics.
Same goes for shoes and bridesmaid dresses. A great way to recycle is to sell your dress and other items post wedding just as the brides did whom you bought from!
Useful Articles:
@ Stress Away Bridal
@ Environment Canada
PreOwnedWeddingDresses.com is another great resource for gently used gowns. They also have TONS of dresses that have never been worn. So you can get a “recycled” dress that has never even had a trip down the aisle.