Bridal Living

Many concerns about the environment have environmentally conscious brides making their echo-friendly lifestyles apparent in planning their wedding. Traditional weddings produce significant pollutants. In fact, reports from the environment organization, Climate Care, show that 14.5 tons of carbon dioxide is produced from the average wedding. As more and more people become aware of harmful pollutants contributed to the environment and search for alternatives to decrease the attack on our planet, many couples are choosing to go green on their wedding day.

When a couple decides to use all natural products for the entire wedding, this is not a simple task. Things we take for granted from day to day have a huge impact on the environment. It all begins with a proposal that is usually accompanied with a diamond. Many couples who are aware of how the mining process heavily impacts the environment and the civil rights issues behind blood diamonds may choose to use recycled gold or even vintage jewelry. The wedding dress, traditionally made from polyesters and silks are typically replaced with hemp fabrics. Accessories, such as, guest books, photo albums, etc are generally handmade or hand picked from trusted all natural sources. Invitations are generally chosen using handmade papers that are not chemically produced or brides will choose to send email invitations or e-vites instead of cards.

These handmade invitations are the perfect choice for the echo-friendly bride because they are seeded and plantable. These handmade invitations cut down on wastes. Recipients are instructed on how to plant this natural card back to the earth. Botanical Paperworks is a great source for seeded and plantable handmade invitations.

For more information and recommended suppliers for your green wedding, check out Organic Weddings.

Not all brides are looking for the fancy chemically advanced silk fabrics, piped out polyesters and tons of lace to adorn them as they take the most anticipated walk down the aisle. Many echo-friendly brides are scouting environmentally friendly wedding items, echo-friendly favor boxes and more natural blends of fabrics over traditional fabrics for wedding dresses.

Hemp is the cure all amongst materials that can be destructive to the environment. What is hemp? Hemp is a natural fiber of the Cannabis sativa plant that is especially bred to yield long fibers. Hemp is not only used for medicinal or what some would call ‘spiritual’ purposes. Before alternative fabrics were introduced as industrial, hemp was used to manufacture rope, paper, clothing and canvas. Hemp is traditionally a very course fiber. Due to advancements in plant breeding and treatment of plants, hemp has come to be a much softer fiber and more useful for elegant clothing such as wedding dresses. Wedding and evening gowns made from hemp are usually blended with natural silks and in some cases satins. There are even hemp and tencel blends for the Vegan bride.

Clothing made using hemp fibers are generally found in organic and echo-friendly stores. Hemp wedding dresses, bridesmaids dresses and flower girl dresses can be found at getconscious.com.

This hemp/silk blend is a typical fabric echo-friendly brides use for many clothing items, including wedding dresses. Fabric is 75% hemp, 25% silk