Real Wedding: Crafty Bride’s Green Wedding

Every now and then I have the great honor of working with a couple who have deeply held personal values and want every aspect of their celebration to reflect what’s important to them. Victoria and Jeff were one of those special couples. Their wedding celebration perfectly showcased their family, community and commitment to the environment. They also took on several craft projects to bring an even more personal touch to their festivities.

• Family:

The bride recruited her siblings to help with everything from decorating to catering. The bride and groom’s home was a hive of family activity on their wedding day. And the bride clearly loved every minute of it!

It was also super important to them that Jeff’s nearly-grown son be meaningfully included in their ceremony.

• Community:

Vic and Jeff’s wedding didn’t cut corners, but they didn’t hire many professionals either! They asked a friend to run music through his iPod for the reception. Another dear friend officiated their ceremony, and they chose the  professionals they did hire (myself & Althea Dotzour) based at least partially on preexisting friendships!

• The Environment:

One of the details that was very important to Vic and Jeff was minimizing the environmental impact of their wedding. They contacted Madison’s pilot composting program, to arrange for composting of food and other compostable waste. We also hired Paolo Verde Consulting to manage the event waste. Their ceremony was held in the UW Botanical garden,- so beautiful and close to nature. Their reception venue was the Goodman Community Center which is an awesome community resource and proponent of recycling and water conservation.

• Personal Touches:

Vicky spent the year before the wedding creating gorgeous paper flowers for centerpieces, bouquets and boutonnieres. They also made their own cupcake stand, and other decorations for their reception. Not only was the whole effect beautiful, but is was completely one-of-a-kind and created a celebration that was better than any money could buy.

You can see more great pictures of Vic & Jeff’s wedding here.