Welcome to our new green groom
Jun 17th, 2009 by Katie
The girls have been doing a sterling job blogging about the triumphs and tribulations of their ethical wedding planning but finally we have a green groom to join their ranks!
Jeff Kear is a green groom (otherwise known as Groomasaurus) getting ready to wed in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. We’re thrilled that he has agreed to share his green groom moments with us on the Ethical Weddings blog – but before we get stuck in to his posts, here’s his blogger profile…
Your name: Jeff Kear
Wedding date: November 7, 2009
Venue and location: Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Budget: $15K
What inspired you to have an ethical wedding?
We both are pretty environmentally minded in our everyday lives. We recycle. We compost. We drive eco friendly cars (Mini and Prius). We buy organically grown veggies and range-fed meats. We vote green. We have re-insulated our house to save energy. And we always turn out the lights when we leave the room. So having an ethical wedding just seemed to be the natural choice.
What has been the most difficult bit so far?
Staying away from using paper. Instead of sending out save-the-dates and invites, we are doing everything via email. I think people always expect paper invites, so we’ve surprised many by doing well designed e-invites.
What has been the most fun bit?
Investigating all the alternatives to a mass-produced wedding. There are lots of fantastic alternatives to an expensive and large-carbon footprint wedding, especially recycled handmade products.
What are your 5 top tips for brides and grooms planning an ethical wedding?
1. Use the Internet for your communications, even your invitations – it saves on paper.
2. Stay away from favors and decorations that will end up in a dumpster and use things that are either recyclable or re-useable.
3. Be mindful of the “consumption” mindset of weddings (i.e. lots of stuff) and make your day about the relationships and the people, not the stuff.
4. Use carbon credits to offset the carbon footprint of your wedding.
5. Think of cool ways you can get your guests to be green (e.g., carpool to the wedding, don’t wrap gifts or wrap them in newspaper that can easily be recycled, etc.).
We’ll be back with more green groom posts from Jeff soon. In the meantime, why not try out his free online wedding planner, My Wedding Workbook?
Happy planning!
Katie
I wonder if he has an unmarried brother…..
Like the Green groom. Went on the Groomasaurus website and was delighted.