Here comes the bride...

I'm not engaged (yet) and I've never been married. But, I am obsessed with weddings. I have cried through every single exchange of vows I've ever seen, swooned over thousands of stunning wedding gowns and thought long and hard about the perfect love songs to play at the reception. So when I was told that I was going to have to maintain a blog about green living for my capstone journalism course at the University of Arizona, I thought "WEDDINGS!" immediately.

Because of my obsession with weddings, I firmly believe that a wedding can and should be one of the most important days of a couple's life. Why shouldn't they go all out for such a big day? But when I started looking at the amount of resources used in a wedding--tons of flowers, cartons of invitations, place cards and menus-- I realized that a wedding's ecological footprint could use a little reduction. Think about what a wedding entails: engagement rings, engagement parties, bridal showers, bachelor and bachelorette parties, rehearsal dinners, wedding planning resources, all the wedding gifts and their packaging, plus the actual ceremonies and receptions. Does it make you cringe a little to think of all the waste that's generated? Me too.

My blog is all about helping the eco-thinking bride- and groom-to-be find ways to reduce their wedding's ecological footprint. If you're the girl who takes canvas bags to the grocery store to use less plastic, or the guy who dutifully recycles all of his beer cans, this blog is for you. Don't abandon your green thinking skills just because you're having a wedding! Let me show you how you can make your wedding eco-friendly, just like your lifestyle.

And if you're not already into the green scene, your wedding can be a great place to start. Skip all the decadence and have a personal and moving wedding, relying on more eco-friendly tactics to spread the word about your wedding (using a custom-made Web site instead of sending out invitations), and having a more modest number of guests (reducing the amount of miles travelled for guests to get to your wedding).

So to get you thinking, here are the top 5 tips I've discovered on my first green crusade:

1. Get all your resources as locally as possible. If there's a nearby paper store, have them print your place cards instead of catalog-ordering and having them trucked in. You can save a lot of carbon emissions by reducing the amount of miles that your resources have to travel.

2. Make sure your resources are ecologically responsible. Serve all organic foods at the reception and use recycled paper. And try to make all of your resources as reusable as possible. Choose a gown that can be worn again and pick decorations you can use in your own home, or can even double as gifts for bridesmaids or groomsmen.

3. Keep your wedding small. More guests means more miles travelled, and that means more carbon emissions.

4. Stick to a personal theme. The more over-the-top your wedding is, the more resources you'll consume and the larger your wedding's footprint will be. If you make your wedding about just you and you significant other, it will be less about consumption and more about your love for each other-- what everyone is there to celebrate!

5. Spread the green word. Your wedding is a great venue to help turn on more people about living green. Relax, this is not as hard as it sounds: just serving organic foods and using reusable resources in your wedding is enough to let your family know about your earth-friendly attitude, and make them think twice about theirs.

Stick with me this semester as I explore how you can make your wedding tasteful, elegant and, most importantly, green.