We've been neglectful of the best bridal site out there, which is Shiny's own Bridalwave, run by the utterly super Camilla Chafer, and paid the price of not plundering her totally fantastic Green and Organic Weddings category. I hereby publicly apologize for being such a dope and urge any matrimonially-minded readers to hotfoot it over there. Go on, I'll wait. The eye-opener was her writeup of Lovely Organic's wedding hampers. I was introduced to them by Kiss and Makeup's writeup of Lovely Organics, but Charlotte seized on the most relevant part for my brideness-to-beness, which is the gorgeous range of Lovely kits for brides and bridesmaids, including a terrific thank you bag you can give your bridesmaids - a total steal at only £5. I also was intrigued by her post on heart shaped rice confetti (as a biodegradeable alternative to the normal rice or paper) and she had a great option for plantable invitations. The Bridalwave organic category has really taken off lately and Camilla is to be congratulated hugely! [GT]

Lovely Organic's wedding hampers [via Bridalwave]

More Green and Organic Weddings at Bridalwave | More Green Weddings at Hippyshopper

Hippyshopper editor Gabrielle (aka [GT]) chronicles trying to have a small, affordable wedding while pleasing her dreamed-of-a-fairytale-wedding- since-he-was-a-boy fiance John, and trying to keep her consumerism low.  But what to do about the bouquet?

Having decided what the invitations were going to be made of (stone, surprisingly enough) but not having actually completed the list of those to be invited - the "everything I can do" on that front having consisted of instructing John that he should sit down with his parents and hash out his side, lest we end up doing a Justice of the Peace thing downtown with random street people as witnesses (which would be entirely satisfying to me!) I decided I should start thinking now about the bouquet.  It, like the food, was going to be difficult, expensive, or both.

Hippyshopper editor Gabrielle (aka [GT]) chronicles trying to have a small, affordable wedding while pleasing her dreamed-of-a-fairytale-wedding- since-he-was-a-boy fiance John, and trying to keep her consumerism low.  This week, a solution to the invitation issue arrives.

Last week I was debating what to do about invitations.  I did get some satisfactory-to-good samples from Seal and Send which were made from natural or recycled fiber and printed with vegetable ink.  However, since I have several years experience in magazine layout (not something most brides can conjure up quite so conveniently!) the pre-made invitations confirmed for me that I wanted to do it myself. 

Given the Steenbergs organic wedding token is £4.50 each, they won't be appearing at my wedding, for I am more of an economist than a romantic, but, the idea is gorgeous and I believe John and I may end up sitting around stuffing organza bags with a similar mix to this. The Steenbergs blend is nutmegs are a European tradition for a happy marital home, star anise symbolise love and marriage in China, while rose petals and lavender are beautiful flowers, closely associated in weddings and the marital home. This organic wedding token comprises a handful of organic pink rose petals, some whole star anise, some nutmegs and lavender in a acetate(see through) rectangular box. And if you get tired of it, it sounds like it would make lovely tea. [GT]

Steenbergs organic wedding token

Related stories: Review: Simply Green: Parties | GreenKarat ethical assays | Green weddings category

Simply Green: Parties
by Danny Seo, published by HarperCollins, £7.25

I enjoyed Danny Seo's Simply Green: Giving quite a bit, so when I received a review copy of Simply Green: Parties, it was with enormous relief.  Here, I figured, was something that could be invaluable in planning this wedding thing in a practical way.  While it doesn't specifically address weddings, it does cover baby showers (no darling, that's not an oblique way of telling you anything), housewarmings and general summer parties.  Seo gives plenty of interesting little tips on how to improve the green factor of any social event at a minimal (if any) cost. Also engagingly written; every time I sat to flip through it I found myself absorbed by the accessible, sensible style.  Although I agree with his decision to showcase six types of parties to wrap his tips around, at the same time I would have appreciated more general advice on structuring a green event.  4/5.  [GT]

Related stories: Review: Simply Green: Giving | More Green Weddings posts

Hippyshopper editor Gabrielle chronicles trying to have a small, affordable wedding while pleasing her dreamed-of-a-fairytale-wedding-since-he-was-a-boy fiance and trying to keep her consumerism low. Invitations are a guaranteed puzzler.

In addition to being cantankerous, non-girly when it comes to weddings, and, shall we put it nicely, value-conscious about my spending on events, I am also not much of a crafty type.  Arts yes, crafts, not so much.  Nonetheless the idea of making my own wedding invitations was appealing, partly for the strictly practical reason that it meant I could design them to be a more standard letter size and thereby avoid the postage premium attached to non-standard format envelopes.  I'm also aware that the closer the wedding gets, the less time there will be to deploy the human touch - we'll be increasingly disposed to shell out for ready-mades.

The first question, of course, was, "John, how many invitations do you think we'll have to send out?"

"Oh, about two hundred," he said, and went back to typing.

"WHAT?"

When John mentioned the idea of an organic wedding cake, I admit I rolled my eyes.  I'm a bit, shall we say, fiscally conservative, to begin with, and never really had the girlish daydreams about a big wedding (certainly far less than he does!) so the first thing I thought was, how much more is this dratted cake going to cost now?  I'd seen the cakes in the bakery windows and instinctively guessed that, like the dress, anything that single-use was going to be expensive.  Yes.  Top Hat Cakes, the first Soil Association approved wedding cake maker, charges £60 for their simplest 30 serving, and it goes up to £800 for their most elaborate 200 serving cake.  As I complained about the dress, I could get quite a nice new MacBook Pro for that price.  I am sure it is fabulous, life-changing cake.  I am not casting aspersions on those of you who feel a wedding is important enough to merit £800 for one cake alone.  But I did have to think about it for a while before I came around to believing it was indeed a good idea - not just the cake, but doing all the food with organics.

Ever since he was a little boy, my intended has dreamed of a proper church wedding.  Being a bit of a stoic noncomformist type myself, I've suffered this idea in comparative silence, until one day that we were cruising past a David's Bridal and I hauled him in.  "Notice," I said breezily, "polyester dresses starting at $300.  Ooh look, this one's nice.  $800.  Still polyester though."  By the time we left, a scant fifteen minutes later, he was whiter than the gowns and paying close attention to my observation that our wedding clothes alone could cost more than two new laptops; that we could have one big party or a modest down payment on a place where we could live for the rest of our domestic lives.  That day he gave up the idea of seeing me in glistering princess white - and three days later, the idea sprang back to life.

Precious metals and stones often have a nasty secret history - but at GreenKarat you can know exactly where it's coming from through their Green Assay.  For each piece, the listing contains information on whether the metal is recycled, if the gems and other components are ecologically mined, if the metal is from an ecologically certified refinery and if the jewelry maker used ecologically sound manufacturing procedures.  They also recommend you pay the voluntary carbon tax - a premium of about half a percent that covers the carbon.  My favourite piece is called First Fig, which features a lab-created emerald in either recycled gold or platinum.  At $325 USD and with so many ethical components, it truly qualifies as what they call a Responsible Indulgence.  [GT]

GreenKarat

Related stories: Stephen Einhorn's ethical and bespoke jewelry l Ethical Lord of the Rings l Recycled silver jewellery