Posts in the 'Eco-Lifestyle' Category
December 7th, 2009 by The Broke-Ass Bride
The Fresh Hubby and I are proud to announce our debut as the Green-Ass Bride & Groom, bringing you Eco-Chic on the Cheap, a regular column in the (soon-to-be-launched) Eco-Beautiful Weddings E-zine and their brand new eponymous blog!
We’re totally psyched to be bringing our love for weddings and our love for the earth together in a big old lovefest (aka our column, debuting December 15th) to help you find your perfect shade of green, while saving some green!
Oh snap, who dat?
And, I ain’t gonna lie, I’m totally crushing on my cute cartoon hubby! Our likeness was done by none other than the fabulous illustrator and Broke-Ass sponsor, Astrid of
Champagne Promises, LLC, thanks to Katie from
Elegance and Simplicity – our friend, and editor in chief of EBW!
So
stop on by, have a look see, and get excited about all the eco-goodness comin’ your way. See you over there!
September 3rd, 2009 by The Broke-Ass Bride
We got the idea to register for vintage dishware after seeing the plates of our dreams on set at a television sitcom taping we attended. I was flat out drooling for them, and even Hunter gave them a hells yeah. We scampered over to check the stamp on the plates, ran home to google it, and mentally filed it away. After a long and painful search for something new (and more readily available) that we loved just as much, we finally decided to go our own way and register for the first dishes to steal our poppy lovin’ hearts.
Wild Poppies – Metlox: Aren’t they dreamsicle?!?
It was the perfect decision for us, and we love our dishes more and more every time we use them. In fact, we ended up buying vintage silverware to go along with it!
The benefits of vintage dishware are threefold:
1. more financially friendly – the set we picked out cost less than most sets we saw at Crate and Barrel or Macy’s.
2. more eco-friendly – reuse is always a better choice than buying new, any day!
3. more finger friendly – we excel at breaking dishes. Vintage dishware is often sturdier and more break-resistant, which means keeping our wedding dishes safe for years to come!
Whatever your taste, you can find vintage dishes to suit them, in many places both online and in shops. Check out these babies:
Manzanita by Brock
Johnson Bros – Chelsea Collection
Starburst by Franciscan
Gold Dahlia by Metlox
You can search for vintage dishware at sites like Metlox California (who were supremely helpful in our registry process), Replacements.com, etsy, and ebay among many others. You can also try flea markets and antique bazaars in your town, like the Rosebowl.
There are also some progressively fierce companies taking vintage dishware/china and turning it into something modern and delicious, like Esther Dirkx!
via Reform School – a favorite green boutique of mine
“But, Dana” you protest “how do I register for something so random and hard for guests to find/pay for?”
Woman, hie thee to Wishpot! You can register for items you find anywhere, in brick and mortar stores or on the internet. Its a convenient way to unleash yourself from single-store registries, and allowed us to explore our eclectic tastes in a personal and customizable way. It worked great for us, even when we bought our flatware through auction. We just manually listed it, posted the price, and someone “reimbursed” the gift to us. Or, contact a replacement company and ask if they’ll set up a registry for you. Many offer that service these days.
There are tons of ways to make your registry more personal, and more green. But vintage dishware is my absolute favorite (she says, as she eats her cereal from a sunny poppyfilled bowl).
Did you register for any vintage items?
August 28th, 2009 by The Broke-Ass Bride
Hey LA brides! Come on down to the Soi-Meme eco-bridal salon event tomorrow, featuring loads of ideas on how to walk down a greener aisle. I’ll be speaking on the Green Media Maven panel at noon – hope to see you there!
From their site:
“Soi-Meme” – a French word meaning “oneself” – characterizes the spirit of the modern couple searching for affordable, do-it-yourself solutions to planning a wedding with unique style. Following the success of last year’s “Love is in the Air” eco-luxe bridal salon, Pink Cloud Events is once again hosting a fabulous day-long salon for eco-conscious DIY brides and grooms to connect directly with the most inspiring eco-friendly wedding products and service providers.
The event will bring everything needed to plan a sustainable wedding on Saturday, August 29th from 11am – 4pm at the newly renovated James Irvine Garden at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center, located in the heart of downtown LA’s Little Tokyo. From the wedding ring to the honeymoon, our experts will be available for one-on-one sessions and workshops to help you find all that you need for your wedding day, in just a few hours!
For only $25, complimentary organic beverages, hors d’oeuvres, great DJs, a resource guide and loads of giveaways will make this a fun-filled day for you and your wedding planning party. Register online now for a chance to win a free 4 night stay at a private eco-villa resort in Tulum, Mexico by Azulik!
July 8th, 2009 by The Broke-Ass Bride
This weekend, I’m going to experience some very happy wedding deja vu. My Bride$hare buddy is getting married, and Hunter and I are thrilled to go back to the Bungalow Club for the first time since our wedding 6 weeks ago, and enjoy some of our decor, drink delicious mojitos, and dance our faces off, for the 2nd time around.
These are the fateful paper lanterns that spawned the whole idea for Bride$hare! (photo by Dan Chen)
Way back when, Rebecca saw a blog post of mine lamenting the desire for paper lanterns to spruce up the space at my venue, and she contacted me to suggest we go in on them together and share them. That was just the beginning. Together, we were able to co-purchase and recycle many items from our weddings, which went perfectly with Hunter and my mission to both save green and be green in our wedding plans! In fact, the reception venue owner likes them so much, she might even buy them off of us after the fact and keep them up, which means future brides can benefit from them, too! My bridal karma meter must be off tha charts, son!
These manzanita trees will make a repeat appearance this weekend, too!
Having a Bride$hare buddy was not only a great way to be more fiscally and eco-responsible, but it was also the beginning of a fun and resourceful friendship. Whenever we researched or booked vendors/hotels/rehearsal dinner venues, we’d check in and make suggestions or give feedback to one another about it. We talked invitation design and oohed and aahed over eachother’s creations. We generally supported eachother in a way that most brides only find via message boards, and that was a priceless bonus of the whole experience.
Together, we shared roughly $4,000 worth of goods/services. It was so inspiring, that I set up a website for other brides to connect and get their own share on! Saving all that money was certainly thrilling, but after blogging about it what excites me most is the amount of interest in and embracing of the BrideShare concept from gals all across the web. I encourage you all to try and share and save – after all, green is the new white! So whatcha waiting for? Go get you some!
I am so happy for Rebecca and Rupen this weekend, and can’t wait to celebrate with them, and raise a glass to our collective good fortune.
June 24th, 2009 by The Broke-Ass Bride
I’m thrilled to finally announce the launch of my newest endeavor, Bride$hare! Some of you old foagie readers might remember that last year, I was approached by a bride who loved our color scheme and design ideas so much that she offered to split the costs of and share many decor items for our weddings. That spawned the great idea of Bride$hare – a social networking community where brides can find each other and save more green while being green!
After actually living the process, and reaping the benefits, I am so excited to share this with the bridal world. I’m really proud of how far it has come, considering the lack of technical prowess that I possess! My amazing brother Michael helped me put it together, and was endlessly patient as I changed and rechanged my mind about every little detail. But together, we were able to develop a site that allows brides to team up and have more for less, while being environmentally-friendly through the use of recycling and sharing!
Are you dying for Chivari chairs? Craving manzanita centerpieces? Looking for your dream shoes? Vying for a DIY photobooth? Loving lanterns? These are just a few items that you can share the cost of with fellow brides, with a few simple clicks of the mouse!
With options to search by color scheme, theme, city and venue, you can search for brides with similar taste and style to yours – making finding your perfect Bride$hare buddy a cinch! You can also buy/sell/share on the classifieds, join groups, chat on the boards, customize your profile and more. The possibilites to save are limitless.
I really hope you enjoy the site – if I can help other brides save as much as I did, using simple teamwork and creativity, then my mission is accomplished!
Psssst – tell your friends!
So, what do you think?
April 15th, 2009 by The Broke-Ass Bride
My bride-friend Maria and I share a photographer, and a love of good karma. Though we’d spoken on the internet, I didn’t officially meet Maria until we both ended up at the Trash the Dress Bash last fall. Maria and Mike are the cutest couple, and just tied the knot last weekend! Congrats M&M!
Maria contacted me the other day, asking if I knew anyone who might be interested in her TTD dress. She got it for free, and wanted to pass along the good fortune to any other bride who needs it. The only conditions are that the new owner must be able to pick up the dress locally, and to keep the karma rolling, must pass along the dress for free when done with it. Its like sisterhood of the travelling dress, yo!
Maria is a size 6, and 5′4″ – the tea-length dress fit her perfectly.
Check out the cuteness:
source
source
The fabric has a beautiful sheen to it, and the dress is flouncy and fun. It has a few small dirt marks from the Trash-the-Dress shoot, but is totally wearable again. It would make anyone a beautiful bride!
Any takers? To be eligible to win, please comment below by midnight Thursday, April 17th, and tell us what you’d do with the dress!
September 28th, 2008 by The Broke-Ass Bride
I was recently contacted by a fellow Bungalow bride, whose wedding is 2 months after ours. She very sweetly explained that she had happened upon my blog, and loved our design ideas so much that she offered to share most of the decor and split the cost. I was healthily humbled and flattered to be approached this way, and saw it as a fortuitous money saving opportunity: Brideshare, the carpool of wedding planning!
The best part? We’re not only saving money with this mutually beneficial arrangement, but we’re also getting to reuse or recycle almost every extraneous purchase that we’d have no use for after the day. Eco and budget friendly? Somebody pinch me. I’ve heard about brides splitting costs of Chiavari chairs or tents over a weekend, but this is so much more!
I met with my brideshare buddy on Saturday for drinks at the Bungalow Club, and gabbed for hours about colors, details, and plans over mojitos and martnis. It was so fun to connect with a bride who had such similar vision and sense of style! It will be really fun to go through the process together over the coming months. We may even have a gocco party together!
I’m so glad she contacted me. I’ve heard brides complain about people borrowing from their wedding design or ideas, but to me its the ultimate flattery…. and I’ve made a fun new friend in the process.
Try it yourself! Scan the web to see if you can find a blogger who shares your venue and reach out. You might just be able to tap into the bridal karma honeypot, and help eachother out in a big way!
May 14th, 2008 by The Broke-Ass Bride
Before I was engaged, I had only attended a few weddings in my day, and, of those, only one was a “fully fleshed out” event. So, imagine my surprise when I found out that the average cost of a wedding in Los Angeles is upwards of (insert spit take here) $30,000!!! Not to mention all the waste and energy use that one creates, which is no bueno for our lovely mother earth. Not for this dirty hippie, yo.
(hippie goodness)
So, we’re trying to do our part to reduce our carbon footprint and be frugal about the process. Honestly, the frugality is more a product of necessity since we’re broke-ass, but it also makes me feel less wasteful. Bonus 
One thing we explored early on was printing our invitations on seeded paper, or at the least, recycled paper with soy-based ink. Seeded paper also comes with the added bonus of having something tangible grow from our love, which is too charming for words. Greenfield Paper Company is a great place to find these invitations, notes and other cute eco-friendly items.
(source)
We also considered doing seed packet favors, or seeded paper favors, but the packets are cuter, no? Since we lined up the photo booth, we’re not sure we need extra favors… but we’ll see how the budget looks as we get closer.
We’re planning to secure party-shuttle transport for the out-of-towners or anyone else who wants a ride, to keep down emissions and also provide a sober means of transport. For everyone else, we’re encouraging carpooling.
Lastly, I’ll be wearing an eco-friendly gown which features recycled and organic fabrics, made by a local designer (more on this later). We tried to find a way to also get the bridal party and my man into eco-conscious clothing too… but that’s much harder to come by, and often not the most cost-effective.
Sometimes I get down on myself for wanting to choose the prettier, funner, more exciting and often cheaper option over what’s “responsible”. But then I remember that keeping the earth in mind a little while planning is better than not at all. Hopefully, my little bits of greenness will compile with other brides’ efforts… and if we each do a little something to be kinder to the earth, it will all add up. I still try to come up with ways to be green each day I plan… and if they work, then all the better.
Go team Earth! What are you doing to greenify your wedding?
