Eco inspired invitations

Rustic wrapping paper charm in a storytelling vintage way... the 20ties come up, shiny old German printing presses, a foggy street with a red Crossley Silver and its shiny wire wheels, men in soft hats and long cashmere coats...
These green wedding invitation suite is printed on recycled card stock. The outer envelope and the R.S.V.P. envelope made from recycled paper. All wrapped with black twine.
From Beacon Lane.

Malibu Nature Preserve

 

I am looking forward to my next wedding at the Malibu Nature Preserve on April 9, 2011. Wedding planning is in full bloom and I will meet Suzanne and Christopher on Sunday to finalize all the fun details.

 Hand painted signs on reclaimed wood are beautiful in rustic settings.

 Michelle opted for wild flower style center pieces and bridal flowers.

Her hand painted table numbers were already integrated into other wedding designs to the delight of the eco cool thinking brides.

Green Wedding Venues

Before I go local LA about eco wedding venues, here's one in Nashville, the rustic chic of Cedarwood Weddings in White Creeks.

The 1830′s antebellum farm estate is amazing for fun, contemporary wedding pictures.

 

They schlep their valuable furniture into the gardens for you to cozy up and offer an amazing array of antique decor for rent: silver, vintage crystal, wedding cake stands, rustic crates, birdcages, chandeliers, lanterns....

Photo: One Wed.
What's also green about them? The place is an historic landmark. To restore and keep these memory packed places alive is a good green way to invest our money. I am awaiting a phone call back from them to see how they deal with their landscaping and energy needs. Maybe there's even more green to them.
"Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Whites Creek Historic District is the best representation of an architecturally and historically significant rural community in Metropolitan Nashville-Davidson Country", seems cool for history buffs and architecture lovers and really for any hip romantic with Wanderlust. (If you ship your guests far away and still want to be eco, carbon offsets can be purchased)

Handmade wedding invitations

If you love the whimsical, natural and arty, Amy Tan's hand drawn invitations might be the perfect prelude to your wedding.

Wedding Inspiration Boards

Inspiration boards are fun but my experience with some of the websites offering them, isn't the greatest - so far. I wanted to make it easy on myself and skip Photo shop but wasn't lucky with Style Me Pretty and it took me a while to it right at Polyvore. Next time it will be Photo Shop again.
But to dwell in warm summer and fall wedding colors was a joy in this gray and cold weather in LA.

Upper Las Virgines Weddings

Ian Grant shot several weddings at the Upper Las Virgines Preserve, which Joan, the manager, loving calls "The Ranch".

The weddings, which we created around the lovely little farm house were all heartfelt, joyful and creative. Maybe it's the love of the endangered frogs, which were saved from big development and preserved many acres of untouched nature, which makes this location into a haven of happiness.

Vintage Wedding

Olivia and I collected vintage dinner plates, each guest had his own individual design, Amy and I collected bronze and golden candelabras to contrast the jute napkin rings and to match the golden bridesmaids shoes, to find vintage tins for eclectic center pieces will be the next fun task.

Green Country Fair Wedding In Bel Air

 

Blake, an excellent horse lady and actress and Stephen, a producer of cool movies like Dogtown and Z Boys and eco cool documentaries like Fuel,  invited me to produce their County Fair wedding in Bel Air. We had months of fun designing the exuberant green event. I contracted amazing entertainers, from jugglers to live music, organized a petting zoo and a Maroccan canope for the dessert display to match the Gypsy psychic. So many interesting details and juxtapositions, so much joy and - their 500 guests had a blast.

Come back for more.

Green weddings with a shamanic touch

Robin and Todd got married at the Inn in Topanga on Saturday, 10/30.  They are an elegant couple with a love for whimsical natural design, green and Native American ideas; their favors were dream catchers and they blessed their guests with burning sage during their ceremony.
 
We loved to decorate their organic, gluten free cake with eclectic fairy tale flowers.

The family helped with sage and lavender decor, a memorial table, Norwegian krumkake and many details and make this a very personal affair.

Eco friendly Cake Toppers

The handmade monkey cake toppers are easy to associate with the funny, playful, witty Shelley and Jason who celebrated their eclectic, DIY wedding at Nature Friends in Sierra Madre.

Ninjas, sneaky warriors in feudal Japan, specialized in underground war, boy, that's a couple who will get what they want... Wei-lin and Evan successfully snug into the super busy 10-10-10 with a morning brunch wedding at the Inn in Topanga. Recycled wood makes these toppers eco-sweet.
Edible, biodegradable, original: Origami Sugar Birds.

Tips for toppers:

• Find arty pieces, which makes a sweet little decor in your house later
• Look for toppers made with easy to recycle, sustainable, or natural materials.

 

Vintage, if not from grandma perhaps from Ebay, is always a good greenish choice, seen in an old fashioned jewelry shop in San Francisco.

 

• DIY wedding cake toppers are somewhat eco friendly to begin with as they don't require shipping, made with sustainable or recycled materials: even better.
• Use flowers, herbs, leaves, succulents and branches on your wedding cake. All easily composted.
• Edible toppers are recycled by eating, always the easy going choice

.... some cakes like Olivia and Andrew's just don't need a topper.
Their Croquembouche was supposed to be one of the first wedding cakes, created by a French baker. After he supposedly watched a wedding game in medieval England, where bride and groom try to kiss over a big batch of bread roles, which then roll everywhere and guests eat them for luck (?) he was inspired to pile up the super sweet goodness of the cool looking cake. Filled with a pudding/cream this cake works for me, I love small bites of heaven.
Olivia and Andrew also offered tasty and meaningful Argentinian cookies to sweeten up their Good Bye's - and left for a year to Argentina.
Not only the must of wedding favors and the white wedding dress idea but also the cake topper invention came from decor diva Queen Victoria, showing of her self adoration when she married Prince Albert in 1840. In our days she most probably would have created Ebay...
Like many wedding traditions the beginning of the cake is rather ironic: a Roman Empire groom hit a loaf of crunchy bread over his bride's head to show his muscle. Guests then ate the crumbs... Bon appetite and happy slavery... The new "tradition" of smashing cake into each others face at least is a mutual embarrassment.

Wedding on the beach

Sara and her famous stuntman love Paul Sklar got married at the beach in Topanga...

 Driving a styling truck..

 ...

 Having a lot of fun..

They truly enjoyed the casually classy ambience of the Inn of the Seventh Ray.

Wedding Decor

Cherish and re-use the beauty of the past; vintage is in the air. Paige used a vintage suit case for her wedding on October 2 to Lennin at the Inn of the Seventh Ray in Topanga, displaying their child hood pictures.

The eclectic vases with some flowers, lots of herbs and lavender and her honey favors fit perfectly to girly girl Paige's sweet nature.

The delicious organic chocolate raspberry cake had one vegan layer for the groom. And I had no time to take more pictures...