Green Weddings

While I have posted on this phenomenon before, when better to post than on Earth Day. I found an article that the Atlanta Journal Constitution published on Sunday (http://www.ajc.com/living/content/living/stories/2008/04/17/greenwed_0420.html). One fact that I found surprising was that green weddings can cost as much as 20% more than a traditional wedding.

The article describes how couples can plan their wedding ceremony and reception to be “green.” I understand that we should conserve energy, reduce pollutants, and try to use sustainable resources, but I keep hearing this nagging voice in my head, “It’s your day - the one day you are excused from saving the earth...”

Some of the ideas I have heard before seem doable: having your reception during the day outdoors, catering with organic meals, and having your guests carpool. I feel like those measures are normal, feasible, as I said a second ago, doable. Other ideas, like hiring out a fleet of hybrid cars to transport the wedding party, seem a "off" to me. It sounds like a great idea, but wouldn't renting one limo still use only marginally more (if not less) gas than three or four hybrid cars?

There was an article from a regional, near-Seattle newspaper (http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19433826&BRD=1024&PAG=461&dept_id=231484&rfi=6) that lauded a couple for buying china from thrift stores to use at the wedding and then planned on donating the dishes to charity after the reception. Does this seem like (expensively) reinventing the wheel to anyone else? Don't companies already offer china as a rental service? Once again, this couple was planning on using corn-based, disposable dishes for their rehearsal dinner - which I mentioned in this previous post - http://catholicweddinggirl.blogspot.com/2007/11/green-weddings-or-im-bad-person.html.