Vibrant Blog

You’ve done a great job including eco-friendly options into most all aspects of your wedding, from the location to the flowers, from the gown to the gift registry. But now you’re left wondering “How do I green my wedding cake?”

Never fear, many options abound for a sustainable, organic, locally sourced (and not to mention healthy) wedding cake. Seek out a baker in your area that is used to working with natural ingredients like unbleached flour and unrefined sugar. Also ask where they source their products from, as most European bakers import their materials from Europe adding to the carbon footprint of your wedding. Finally, be sure the chocolate and vanilla are not just added flavorings, but sourced naturally from Fair Trade organizations.

Choosing the right cake for your wedding can be a fun experience, so take your time, go to the cake tastings (YUM), and get to know your options so you can make the right choice that meets your style expectations as well as your personal values. Everyone has their own motivations as to why a processed, refined cake just doesn’t cut it for their green wedding!

You have food allergies. Whether you’re gluten intolerant, diabetic, or just plain health-conscious, no need to worry. Bewitching Elegance in Burlingame, CA offers diabetic friendly cakes made with agave nectar. Short Street Cakes in Asheville, NC has delectable treats and wedding cakes in gluten-free and sugar-free options. Many bakeries these days can cater to special dietary needs, so just ask!

You’re vegan. Many bakers now have redesigned their recipes to replace anything animal-derived, and there’s no sacrificing on flavor! Sticky Fingers in Washington, DC promises to have even the pickiest guest’s mouth watering over their vegan creations. Dulce Vegan in Atlanta, GA also offers 100% vegan, organic, and unprocessed sweets. On the West Coast, try Sugar Beat Sweets in San Francisco, or Black Sheep Bakery in Portland, OR – both are uncompromising in their values and committed to providing 100% vegan confections.

You want it to be organic. With the growing awareness of pesticides and contaminants in our food, of course that extends to our special-occasion baked delectables as well! Tree House Pastry Shop in New Mexico specializes in all-organic creations, while Stephanies in San Diego focuses on nutritious, wholesome ingredients. Lotus Cake Studio in Philadelphia makes all organic couture cakes and “artful edibles.”

Sustainable environmental and Fair Trade practices are important to you. Consider the lifecycles of each ingredient in your cake – was that decadent chocolate produced by workers subjected to slave labor? Was that sugar harvested in a plantation that destroyed the local habitat? Though easy to overlook, these are serious issues as well. Sweet and Organic in Oak Park, CA creates wedding cakes using kosher, organic ingredients, and supports sustainable business practices. Hippie Chick Bakery in New Hampshire sources their ingredients locally and utilizes green practices themselves – they even use eggs from their own flock of free-range rescued shelter chickens!

You’re a raw foodist. Although most bakers do not have a “raw option,” you know as well as I do that a raw cake can be done – just as rich and heavenly as a baked one. Karyn’s, which blesses Chicago with a raw food cafe, conscious foods restaurant, and a day spa, offers gourmet raw wedding cakes upon request. Also try Mary’s Secret Garden in Los Angeles to special order a raw vegan wedding cake that truly nurtures mind, body, and spirit or Veggie Munn in Miami for raw, vegan, wheat-free, sugar-free, organic delights. Tried and true Cafe Gratitude provides scrumptious raw wedding cakes for the San Francisco Bay Area.

Hot off the press! Introducing E-Clips, the coolest and most interesting way to announce your event.

These are short video clips customized into a unique invitation for weddings, showers, birthday parties, announcements, and more. As internet connections get faster and technology matures, online videos are much easier to watch than ever before. With music, a cute story, and creative techniques, E-Clips helps convey a feeling to invited guests in your own words and narrative. When you send your save-the-date or invitation video clip via email or post to your website you’ll not only invite your guests into your unique story, you’ll also save valuable resources like trees, energy, and water. The folks at E-Clips have done a great job making the case for their product, posting important facts and figures on the paper industry online. For some great examples of E-Clips videos, click here…we love Beata’s Birthday video. How cute is she!?

If you’re planning on making your wedding green, you’re probably already thinking about using eco-friendly invitations. But you may not be aware of all the latest and greatest green invite options that have popped up latley!

Traditionally, wedding invitations include an outer envelope, inner envelope, the invitation itself, a reply card, and directions to the venue – that’s a lot of paper! Paper manufacturing is extremely resource intensive, requiring huge amounts of water and fossil fuels. In fact, The Federal Network on Sustainability states that the pulp and paper industry is the second largest consumer of energy! Then there’s the printing industry, which uses millions of tons of ink, toner, solvents, coatings, and adhesives derived from non-renewable petroleum. Waste products from these processes cause great harm to surrounding ecosystems. Consider this – according to Green Print, production of 1 ton of copy paper produces 2,278 lb of solid waste!

There are many ways to incorporate all of the usual functions of a wedding invite, and still tread lightly on the planet in the process. Here are some of our favorites!

Looking for a well designed invitation with classy appeal? Earthly Affair– who’s latest designs are featured above– offers gorgeous, eco-friendly invitations in two paper options – 100% Post Consumer Waste (considered the most environmentally efficient option, using no new trees) and cotton, which is FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified for responsible forest management and consists of partially recycled content. Earthly Affair is committed to recycling, reusing, or composting everything in the studio. They even keep track of their shipment to you and will offset the co2 emissions through the nonprofit CarbonFund! Stay tuned for the option to custom design your invites in the next few months. Vibrant loves: the modern, yet earthy “Daffodil” collection.

For a more DIY approach, InviteSite offers a huge variety of luxurious tree-free and 100% postconsumer recycled invites. You can print them yourself, or have them do it w/ their own vegetable based inks. InviteSite is dedicated to promoting alternative fiber papers such as mulberry, latka, and milkweed. Vibrant loves: the 100% eco “Lily.”

Want to go paperless? You know about Evite– but maybe you haven’t thought about using it for your wedding because they are usually lacking in elegance. That’s where Pingg comes in! Stylish, sophisticated, and deeply customizable – these invites have it all. Advanced, yet easy RSVP management, gift registry integration, and even the option of printing and mailing – because some people just want an old-fashioned invitation. And unlike Evite, guests can conveniently RSVP without going to the website. We think Pingg is a great option for your green wedding invites - without sacrificing in the style department!

Still need some help? Vibrant Event is a full service green wedding planning company. Give us a call now to find out how we can support you with customized eco-invitations that don’t skimp on style! There are many local and green options available, if you know where to look. We’ll help you find the best in your area.

The Green Guide is covering green weddings in its May/June issue. The Three R’s of Wedding Bliss has tons of great resources for the DIY green bride, and the few nice suggestions from me here and there, make for a really nice piece! I love that Maureen Ryan, the author, included candles in the conversation. Not a lot of the recent articles I’ve read have had those resources or mention the importance of non-petroleum based candles at your special event.

If you are just getting started with your green wedding resources, this article will get you going in all the right directions. But if you have been researching for a while now, you’ve probably seen these before…or not!

This month TIME Magazine features 51 Things We Can Do in response to global warming. Along with switching to energy-efficient light bulbs, turning fuel into food, and capturing CO2 with clean coal plant solutions, I was surprised to see that the greening of weddings made the list!

#28. Have a green wedding
By Catherine Sharick

You won’t be able to stop global warming on your wedding day, but your choices can lessen the carbon footprint of your event. For example, if your guests are traveling long distances, offset the carbon emissions from their trips with a donation to renewable—energy projects. The sustainable— wedding website Portovert.com, in partnership with NativeEnergy, a renewable energy company, offers a wedding carbon calculator where couples can enter the number of guests and approximate miles traveled, to calculate the carbon impact of their wedding—related travel.

Wherever you celebrate, you can reduce your CO2 impact and often save money by giving your wedding a local touch. Buy wine from a nearby vineyard or beer from a neighborhood brewery. Get your wedding cake from a local bakery, and use seasonal flowers, not imports. “Why eat food or drink wine or beer that has traveled thousands of miles when you can choose local options that are just as good?” says Meghan Meyers, CEO of portovert.com.

The wedding industry is a $139 billion a year in the US, spent on rings, venues, engagement parties, the ceremony and reception, gowns, rentals, the honeymoon, etc. These events, though seemingly short in time, are full of environmental impact. Using local and organic caterers, sourcing organic wine, and offsetting your carbon emissions from nonprofit organizations like DriveNeutral can make your event a responsible celebration which supports our environment for generations to come.

Consider “going green” your wedding gift to the planet!

What are some of the easiest/simplest ways to green a wedding or event if you have very little time or resources to devote to it?

If you don’t have a lot of money or a lot of time, here are five quick and easy steps you can take to green your special event. Personally I always start with the 3R’s:

1. Reduce the amount of “stuff” you purchase. Remember the golden rule of design: less is more. Don’t over purchase food or supplies for the party. This just adds to the waste—of natural resources and hard earned cash.

2. Reuse, or borrow where you can. I’ve planned a lot of weddings that incorporated antique tea cup collections, platters and plates, or a variety of flower vases and candlesticks all borrowed from family members happy to help. This not only adds a lovely chic look, but it also brings a warm and touching representation of family into the occasion.

3. Recycle whatever you can. In some cities recycling everything may be difficult, so just do your best. Set out separate containers to capture glass bottles, plastic, aluminum cans and after the event be sure to recycle the aluminum containers your caterer may have brought the food in—this is often overlooked, and an important part of having a zero waste event! Remember, it takes 90% less energy to recycle an aluminum can than to make a new one.

4. Donate leftovers. This includes food, unopened drinks, decorations like live plants or flowers. These items will be happily accepted by nursing homes or shelters for the homeless. Check your local listings for organizations to support.

5. Consider offsetting the emissions of your event by having guests pay a suggested amount. At one event I produced, the hosts had a small, very attractive sign at the sign-in table which explained carbon offsets and their desire to make the event carbon neutral. They suggested a dollar amount each guest leave inside a designated box. For some this may seem too forward, but in this case it was successful because of the nature of the event and the creative way it was presented. I think you might be surprised to find that guests are thrilled to participate in such a unique suggestion that helps a great cause—stopping global warming.