Hoodwinked! hd

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Things are winding down to the last month before our wedding. We have gotten a lot done, but there is still a lot to do of course. Our major accomplishment last month was sending out our invitations, which we screen printed on plantable seed paper. It was a lot of work but we’re happy with how they turned out. I was also excited to get the short dress that I’m changing into for our reception, a pretty vintage dress that I am borrowing from a friend. My project of the moment is finding my shoes. I want them to be comfortable and ethical (and pretty since they will be clearly visible when I change into the short dress). I’ve looked at many websites selling eco-friendly, vegan and sweatshop-free shoes but I haven’t found anything that I really like (or like and can afford). So I think my best option right now is to look for vintage or used shoes on ebay. Previously worn shoes are the most eco-friendly option anyway since no energy is used to make new shoes (just the energy required to ship them to me). So I’m keeping an eye out on ebay and hopefully I will find something I like soon!

Right now I’m working on designing our invitations which have to be sent out in less than a month!

I’m excited about using tree-free plantable seed paper and the same chemical-free screen printing process that I used to print our save-the-dates and thank you cards.

I have been debating about the rsvp cards though. I don’t know whether or not we should have rsvp postcards which would save envelopes, or if that is too informal?

I think we already have enough envelopes for them because we had to order two boxes to cover the thank you cards and save-the-dates. But if we save them they can always be used in the future for some other envelope-requiring situations.

Something to think about.

The first exciting thing we did was buy the fabric for my wedding dress with my mom (who will be making it). She was very supportive of my wishes not to use polyester, even though it’s considerably less expensive.

We also met with our officiant, and we are really happy to have him performing our ceremony. We had never met him before, and we were a little nervous about how open minded he would be about the kind of ceremony we want and don’t want, and about our different religious backgrounds. But he was very nice and supportive of all of our ideas and we feel very lucky to have him.

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We also met with our caterer and went over menu ideas. She too was very supportive and is fully behind our wishes to have as much of the menu made from locally bought food as possible.

And we finally got a chance to see our location in person and meet the director there. She showed us the huge closet they have full of items we can use for our decorations like vases, candle holders and more!

I was already very excited about the location before, but when I found out that that they have all of these things available for every event to use and reuse, I loved it even more. Not because I will be saving money (although that is always nice), but just knowing how many new decorations are saved from being purchased and possibly thrown away or never used again, is so wonderful. They could so easily leave everyone entirely on their own, but they choose to have these things available for every event to use at no additional cost!

So things are looking pretty good at the moment, ethical and eco-friendly-wise. There is one remaining aspect that I’m worried about though, which is the rehearsal dinner. We’re having just a simple cookout at my mom’s house, and it seems like we can’t feasibly use non-disposable dishes. My folks certainly don’t have enough dishes for everyone, and even if they did (or we borrowed some), no one wants to deal with washing all of them.

What to do? I told them we would have to get compost-able dishes if we have to get disposable, but I still feel bad about wasting.

One thing I debated in my head for a while was how big to make our save-the-dates and invitations. I was torn between tradition and expectation, and saving paper (and time). It seems that even cards and invitations haven’t escaped the “bigger is better” way of thinking. Most invitations are in the 5″ x 7″ range (127mm x 177.8mm). The screen I used for printing is 8.5″ x 11″ though. If I made my cards that big, I would only be able to fit two on a screen and I would have a significant amount of waste paper. I thought that if I made them small enough to fit 4 on a screen (4″ x 5.5″ / 101.6mm x 139.7″), people would feel like they were too small since they are used to getting invitations that are quite a bit larger.

But like any good ethical bride, I of course chose to care more about saving paper than about tradition and expectation. I made the cards small, and they still felt very lovely and no less special than if they had been larger. In fact, I loved how the smallness reflected our emphasis on simplicity over unnecessary extravagance. Now I’m looking forward to making our invitations in a couple months on plantable seed paper!