Save a little paper: use the internet

My time at the University of Arizona is almost over: just eight more days of classes, a few term papers and two very threatening exams still loom.

But as of today, my assignment to blog about green weddings is over. That doesn’t mean I’m through writing though!

With a bit of sadness, I’ve chosen not to pursue a career in the field journalism so after May 7, when classes end, there will be a significant and noticeable lack of journalistic practices in my life. Married to Green will be a great way to keep me writing, although you can definitely expect shorter entries!

Plus, it looks like there are a few people, including my boyfriend’s mom, who have been reading this blog for fun and might want me to keep writing. I was really excited to see that random people were reading my blog and commenting. Of course, the two random commenters were plugging services, but that’s ok: they both have created great Web sites that help wedding-planning couples save paper and so they both contribute to the green wedding theme.

So, let me share with you a few ways you can cut out a little paper and money from the invitation process.

My Invitation Link is a site (described as “completely green” by random commenter no. 1) that designs totally personal invitations that can be accessed online by your guests. Now there’s no excuse for ignoring my wedding Web site and blog ideas because this is a very easy way of inviting your guests sans paper. All you do is pick a provided template, upload pictures and add text and music and voila: the site creates a personalized slideshow that tells the love story of you and your fiancé. The templates are really cute and elegant and the site is always adding new ones.

You might not have liked the idea of having your own wedding Web site or blog, but My Invitation Link provides something that’s almost better and more telling than an invitation. You can have the invitation online for up to a year, with prices ranging from $39 for three months to $75.

There is one problem though: it’s most likely that our grandmas know absolutely nothing about the internet. Inevitably, there will be at least one invited guest who doesn’t use the internet. But that doesn’t mean you have to abandon the online invitation idea. You can always send out a few paper invitations but use the online service to invited most of your guests. Or, just use a system like My Invitation Link to announce the wedding in the place of sending out a save-the-date card, then you can call the few guests who don’t use the internet.

Also, I don’t think you can have inserts in the invitation, like a map for your guests. That’s where random commenter no. 2’s product comes in. Wedding Mapper helps create an interactive Google map of your wedding venue, church, nearby hotels… whatever you want your guests to know about the area. You can add photos, comments and descriptions to any of the locations. Once you’re done, share the map with all of your guests for them to print out and use. Simple, fun, non-wasteful and free!

Thank you commenters for sharing your paper-saving ways!

I could even imagine using Wedding Mapper as an invitation. My boyfriend and I have tons of memories around Tucson: what about telling our “love story” using an interactive map with pictures and stories about where we fell in love?

I’m learning more and more that a green wedding is about using your creativity to find fun ways around using tons of resources.

I'll see you soon!