Unique Green Wedding

My favorite in the favors world so far: Model Christina and film maker Marcel collected vintage salt and pepper shakers, cool and cute pop/kitsch/collectible pieces, which everybody truly enjoyed.

Their edible vegetable center piece accompanied by a bud vase with peppermint and lavender were waste free, looked funky fresh, and the fragrance of lavender/mint was invigorating.

All signs were vintage chalk boards, table numbers or trays were cut pieces from a crashed tree and a Moroccan lamp served as the unusual gift card holder.

The crew (guys and girls) were smitten by gorgeous Christina and her tall-glass-of water-model friends cat-walking in heels which took my breath away. It would take me days to learn walking in them that gracefully. The Inn was all light hearted fashion glamor that night.

Driftwood Crafts for Green Weddings

Love these handmade driftwood chalkboards for seating lists and other green wedding announcements.

Rowan's room offers the elegant chalk board version made with vintage frames, whereas Mark and Robbin  from 2 Dogs wood working create these unique rustic frames in an earth friendly way:

 

No harmful additives such as lead in their paint and all wood comes with the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) logo. This logo identifies products which contain wood from well-managed forests certified in accordance with the rules of the Forest Stewardship Council.

Green Weddings go Photojournalist

As above so below: as your life style so is your wedding photo style, green is journalistic.
The eye of a photo journalist like Jared Iorio's catches those truly unforgettable moments, often the best and quirky surprises from behind the scenes for the newly weds and sometimes works of art.

Looking at Green as a philosophy of life, wedding receptions are not just me-me-me affairs anymore, they are celebrations of life and community. I haven't met a Greenzilla yet... Couples have a blast with the process of creating the "best weekend in LA" for their guests with the benefit that they'll be joining the fun themselves. Everybody gets their moment of quirky glory and now guests are happily taking pictures without impacting the environment with disposable cameras, go photofest or canditto.

Photos: Jared Iorio
All events : Angelica Weihs Events

Eco Wedding waste

Checked the eco friendly favor listing at the Knot's wedding shop. I really don't know why disposable cameras would end up in there, they're not friendly at all.  So I thought I share this moment of raising my eyebrows: green is greedy? I see the eco business becoming the new money cow, endangered to fall into production craze like everybody else. All that kitsch people sell and think that calling it eco-chic makes consumerism cool is simply ignorant. Yes, we want decor, joyful, lush and head spinning receptions but let them be smart and savvy. Some items, like the bees wax candles are surely useful, rather perfect, plantable paper and confetti, okay. Other cutsey stuff could be so easily avoided without ruining the fun: instead of lavender toss in hundred of little separate bottles, present it in beautiful big bowls and reach then around when the toss is up. We did it with rose petals and guests totally enjoyed loading up with fistful of beautiful colors and fragrance.

Ola, green winter brides

Handmade, on the rustic side of elegance but surely cozy.  From Sea Horse.

Green Wedding Planning

The amazing ladies from best bridal blogs love the idea of going green and asked me to put up a little planning help. So here is a general list of how to go green on your wedding day. Stay tuned, as I will blog the real life steps leading to Blake and Stephen's green wedding in Bel Air, coming up in May 2010. And then, check in again next year and buy my green wedding book with the coolest couples, vendors and the best creative green tips and ideas ever:)

1. Venue: choose an outdoor venue, if possible with caretakers protecting the environment and reinvesting some of the rental fees for restoration and environmental causes. Historical places and museums create perfect settings and your money supports our cultural inheritence.
2. If it is a well known wedding venue the couple before or after you might have a similar taste or layout, maybe they'd like to share rentals
   
3. It must be a destination wedding? Buy carbon offsets, it's like knowing that you will sin and then ask for absolution from your priest but then, it's still better than denial.
4. Ceremony and Reception: have both at the same location and save lots of traveling and on extra decor. Sarah and Paul did it all in one go, they got married at the beach and drove to their venue just around the corner, the only extra were the hundred chairs on the sand, not too bad.
   
5. Season: day time weddings in any season but the winter use much less energy as they don't need heating or lighting. The magic of the night is often too attractive to miss out on though,  I certainly would want to party into the night.  Led lights and bio diesel generators help to reduce the impact.
   
6. Invitations: Forget about paper, create an amazing, interactive website, a lot of fun for your guests. When I did my first one for one of my couples I couldn't stop smiling and the coolest: you get the RSVP's in a fine list, no more checking resonses and other paper war. You can even host it with a low impact company
7. Love paper like me? Can't live without a keepsake? Do it tree free, use hand made or recycled paper, print with soy inks, find an eco friendly print shop or invitation business
8. Engagement rings: watch Leo's movie with the same title and stay away from blood diamonds.  Ethically mined diamonds sparkle even more and colorful gems can be so uniquely you. The trend to artificially grown diamonds is slowly rising: these sui generis pieces with your one of a kind number and certificate have a futuristic touch.
   
9. Wedding rings: Think vintage - is there any gold in your families, which is dusting in drawers? Like broken or outmoded pieces? You can re-use the gold for your wedding rings and have your families on your ring finger (not breathing down your neck) Other metals become fashionable, and, for the extreme tree hugger, I've even seen them in lovingly polished wood showing nature's inventive design.
   
10. Talking about family: find a cool but sensitive wedding planner, who not only offers innovative ideas of how to green your wedding, but dances the family dance: yes, you can help and no, you can't dominate my couple. Mom's wedding dress, a roasted pig and the church ceremony might be out.
    
11. Wedding dress: Think vintage again: lots of amazing vintage boutiques have opened by now and the choices go from really old fashioned (can be revamped) to slick thirties and sexy fities to retro seventies. The modern bride can go "one-time used" and find contemporary designer dresses from five minutes ago for much less at the new paradigm chic consignment stores.  
12. Shoes: Vegan, meaning shoes without animal skin, become sassier, but buy them in time, as not every new company gets it that shoes have to be comfy too, a wedding day is long. Some of the artificial materials used can be a little unflexible and hurt.
    
13. Choose bridesmaids dresses that your friends can wear again, and please let them be sexy too. Eclectic can be rather amazing and if every girl is allowed to wear what actually fits her she will definitely give some extra happy shine to your wedding. Of cause if your friends are all models - go wild
    
14. Boys will be boys: don't force the men into tuxedos, if that's not their dream, let them have their organic cotton suits, chucks and flip flops if they wish. Piece silk scarfs rather than the traditional ties add to James Bondish handsomeness and vintage suits are so Fred Astaire visits Casablanca.
15. Caterer: If there's no eco-caterer handy, serve a local menu and get as many organic ingredients as possible. Vegetarian menus cut down on the environmental impact. We have worked with creative chefs whose vegetarian gourmet dishes tickled even the most convinced carnivore. 
16. Grooms: Sea Shepard warrior grooms love to fan a sustainable fish list in the caterer's face and often really enjoy to find the organic booze.
    
17. Beverages: Wine, beer, booze and sodas - organic is becoming big here. If you ever tried a VEEV mojito, you never go back to the regular stuff. And the guys from Sierra Nevada are so eco-fizz. 
18. Rentals: Find an eco-friendly rental company, transporting your tables in bio diesel trucks and use non-toxic laundry detergent. 
19. Linens: Buy your linens and re-use them, give sets to your bridesmaids (after the eco-friendly dry cleaning)
20. Decor : you might have collectors in the family who go beyond the stamp collections: from Mc Coy's kitschy figurines to grand ma's vases, there's often inspiring decor in attics or cup boards, which add to your creative ideas for your unprecedented wedding design. Decor is re-use galore and you can really go eco-creative here
    
21. Donate your decor: If guests don't want to schlepp anything home, donate the left over food (check the health codes) decor and center pieces to a retirement home or a local shelter
22. DIY: inherently green and fun for family and friends. Handmade decor saves money and is so personal. Jane&Ethan's clan created 1,000 Origami cranes, they dangled from the over head string lighting, in tree and bushes, sat on bars and tables, such a happy sight.
23. Having an picnic type wedding? Use bio degradable table ware.
    
24. Flowers: use none or less cut flowers, make potted plants, herbs or succulents part of the center piece. They make amazing gifts for your guests and will decorate home and garden for quite a while. I still have Dan and Daniela's (wedding was in April, 2009) arty arrangements sweetening up the front of my house.
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
25. More on center pieces: Fruits (eat them or donate) and drift wood (recycle or use for the fire place or bonfire) can be the base for spectacular designs. Integrate art objects, candelabras, whatever matches the theme and is already available
    
26. Recyle: green waste companies put up their recycle bins for glass, alu, paper. Eco-caterers often recycle their stuff and dispose of gray water the proper way
27. Transport: Bicycles wedding have been reported but aren't everybody's cup of herbal tea. The other options are eco vans and limos, only available in some cities but most rental companies offer at least hybrids by now. I haven't measured the impact but would imagine that a (often sadly smokey) school bus transporting 60-70 guests is friendlier than 30-40 regular cars.
    
28. Registries: choose a couple of the green ones and perhaps add a local animal shelter or any other philanthropic idea so that your guests can give your the healthy iron pots'n pans or save the lives of a herd of wild horses
    
29. Gifts: please don't wrap, what a waste.
30. Favors: combine escort cards and your gift and please make sure, it's something your guests can actually use or eat. Organic chocolates are always good, but when going creative go useful. I had to toss too many little trinkets to happily welcome favors of any kind and then to see my brides sad after most guests didn't take their favor is depressing.
    
31. Candles: soy and bees wax candles aren't toxic
    
32. PR the green idea: write a little story about your green adventures, the ups and downs, pros and cons on your website.
    
33. Have fun don't and leave rigid rules to traditional weddings: there are always different shades of green and if you choose the greenish way or  mix and match the good and the questionable, it's still better than stomping on the careless path.
34. Last: after five years of green wedding planning I can only say that there wasn't any idea yet for which we didn't find an eco-friendly solution and every couple had a blast with innovative green: re-invent, re-create, re-think and live happily ever after. 
    
    
    

Eco Friendly Florist

 

Flower Dec in Los Angeles dives into colors, I love how they spiced the orange fall/winter color with yellow napkins and fuchsia/pink in the center pieces. Owner Rosalee sources eco friendly and local flowers by request. She used all organic flowers last year for one of my weddings at the Adamson house. 30 big eco cool center pieces saved a lot of chemicals and as nothing was flown in, the carbon foot print was ballet dancer light.

Place cards: Gerbias with names on little paper "leaves". Check on other eco florists in our side bar.

Vintage wedding signs on reclaimed wood

My new green couple, Blake and Stephen, will get married on May 30, 2010 in Bel Air. They are the most adoring couple with a life loving, creative green life style. Stephen drives a zero emission GM, for carbon print's sake!  I really like to make them happy with a sparkling green wedding.
We will have a green county fair theme, which is an oximoron and therefore even more fun.
Every food stand will have a funky sign and the guys of not-on-the-high-street, who create vintage looking signs on reclaimed wood seem to be the perfect guys for the job.

Expert Green Wedding Planning

Olivia and Andrew's light hearted country wedding took place at the Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve, we lovingly call it "The Ranch" in Calabasas on October 20, 2009. They posted a big applause for the most innovative green wedding planner in California, Angelica Weihs:
Angelica was wonderful in helping us brainstorm and plan our wedding. She completely understood our vision and suggested amazing elements that enhanced it. For us, the four qualities that we most valued about Angelica were her equanimity--she's a calming presence; her creativity in all areas and details of the wedding; her ability to listen and advise in equal parts; and her commitment for keeping our wedding within budget. I never felt pressured by her to go more than what we wanted to do.
The wedding day itself was organized, stress-free and ethereal. Our green wedding was in all aspects more than we even dreamed about. It was a perfect fusion of Italian country wedding and Shakespearean charm.

   

Photos: Jared Iorio, Los Angeles

Read more....

Eco friendly wedding books

Not happy with online photos only? No problem. Wedding books are up to the green challenge. Wild Magnolia's organic vintage covers are made from 100% hemp canvas printed with a special transfer process involving archival quality ink. They use Sugar Cane papers from“bagasse” pulp that is a by-product of raw sugar production and the cotton portion is made from recycling Wild Magnolia's own paper waste. Go books.

Must love Vintage 50ties dresses

Can a dress make you wanna get married? Yes, it can.

New Moon Vampire Wedding, anybody?

For lovers of the night...

Bravo Brides Recycle

Wanna sell your wedding dress or decor? There's a site for that. Buy and sell in the wedding worlds ebay at Bravo.

Handmade Bird Cage Veils

Bold and beautiful bird cage veils are always fun to check out. These are from Looks Good together with faszinators and head bands, and all handmade of course.

Pumpkins and a Vineyard Wedding

It's the season: another pumpkin inspired wedding by the talented Martha Andrews.
this one on a beautiful vineyard in Plymouth, CA, Terra d'Oro 

Photos: Allison Stahl

The arty bridesmaid in recycled fashion

For bohemians, art lovers, green and wild girls:
Deluz reconstructs and reinvents dresses using existing fabrics and reusable garments to create One-of-a-kind, Wearable Art.

For the queen of arts only: A radical eco fashion creation by Rachel Wright. The dress is made entirely out of recycled materials: the skirt is half-inch polyethylene foam and the jacket is very thin packing foam. Underneath is a 1930’s satin nightgown.
Where can you find the wildest creations? At Etsy of course. A bit of a hit and miss but always worth to have a peek.

5o ties inspired bridal dresses

Blush , a new bridal boutique shines in pretty design. Erika, the owner's taste is rather impeccable. Love those "Fancy" 5o ties dresses.

Japanese Green Wedding

When Noguchi told me that they'll have a "little Sake ritual" I did not imagine a huge cauldron filled with the amazing brew, nor the couple smashing the lid with two wooden hammers and spooning the rice wine out with wooden ladles. Noguchi and Asako got married on Thursday, November 5 at the Inn in Topanga mixing up American and Japanese wedding traditions with lots of giggles and happy smiles and a couple of fun surprises.




The wooden cups had to be arranged in a "mountain" shape for good luck and were taken home as favors.


Everybody had a blast and welcomed the next surprise: Noguchi's friend serenaded a song written for them, which was emotional...


... and funny...

...and very much enjoyed and applauded by their guests.

The organic cakes and cup cakes were all baked by family and so delicious!

About 50 cameras clicked...


...until I climbed on the roof and shot the Inn's famous staircase picture.

I'm still smiling, thank you Asako and Noguchi for having me as your wedding planner for your fun wedding, where we didn't need a DJ to get the party going.
Photos: Copyright Angelica Weihs