Using edible flowers in your wedding menu is such an excellent idea. Not only are most edible flowers tasty, but they’re an eco-friendly meal addition and really are lovely in food dishes and make a typical menu pop with color and unique style. Of course you can make candied edible flowers and use them atop wedding cakes or wedding cupcakes (even give them as favors) but fresh edible flowers are a hit too.

Here are some tips along with some amazing dish ideas.

Tips for using edible flowers in your green wedding menu:

• Safety first – not all flowers are safe to eat and many are seriously toxic. Never eat a flower unless you are 100% sure that it’s safe to eat. I suggest working with an expert caterer (who has worked with flowers in the past) or picking up a good book on the matter, such as, The Forager’s Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants or The Edible Flower Garden. One more note, flowers in magazine menu spreads look lovely, but many food magazines use flowers merely as decoration. Don’t put flowers on your menu just because you see them in a magazine.

• Not all parts of all edible flowers are safe to eat. For example, you can eat lavender and rose petals, but not the rest of the plant. Again, refer to an expert.

• Don’t just aim for color – you may want to match your wedding colors, but not all edible flowers deliver the same flavor. Some edible flowers are more bitter or spicy or just not as sweet and yummy as others. Taste and looks, not just looks is a big consideration.

• Always use organic flowers if you’re going to eat them.

• Remove stamens and styles from edible flowers before eating. The pollen may cause an allergic reaction in some and can detract from the flower’s flavor. Plus it looks unattractive to have pollen dust floating around the table.

• Flowers have a sort shelf-life. If you’re using edible flowers in your green wedding menu, make sure to purchase them right before the wedding (if you’re planning on a DIY menu). You can store edible flowers on moist paper, inside a sealed container in the fridge. If your flowers look iffy and limp, revive them by placing them, well, floating them in very cold water for a few minutes. This should be done soon before you’ll use them.

Beautiful edible flower ideas:

1. My new favorite edible flower idea of all time is lovely Floral Pasta. The folks at Kitchen Caravan were oh so clever to come up with this. I’d never thought about something like this. I think it’s a smashing idea for a pasta dish at a green wedding, especially if you stick to nice white or wine sauces so the beautiful color shines through.
2. To see amazing ideas for Lavender Blueberry Soup, Edible Flower Cream Cheese Spread, Chicken with Lavender and Honey, Rose Petal Ice Cream, Strawberry-Rose Bellini, Kedrin’s Golden Corn Muffins with Calendula Petals and more see this great pdf of edible flower recipes.
3. A very modern and pretty salad of goat cheese, asparagus and beet with lovely purple puffs of chives.
4. A Garden of Cocktails: I adore these pretty drinks and your guest will too.
5. All sorts of ideas for various blooming salads. Petal choices, shopping ideas and even tips on growing your own edible flower garden from Sunset.
6. A great starter – Organic Edible Flower Canapés – basic but really pretty idea.

Will you be using edible flowers in your green wedding menu?

[edible flower header image via Flickr user Joye~]

There are many reasons to choose organic wine and bubbly for your eco-friendly wedding celebration. First of all know your choices -  later we’ll look at some specifics, but just to be clear you can choose basic organic wine (no bubbles), organic champagne and sparkling wines (all are different). Below are just some of the reasons why you should look for organic wine and bubbly for your green wedding.

An excellent taste experience: Organic bubbly and wine flavor far surpasses conventional versions. Organic farmers take plenty of time to create better soil before they grow their fruit. Better soil leads to better fruit which of course leads to an overall better beverage. When considering wine alone, healthy soil and special soil amendments mean that organic wine tends to have a bolder more intense flavor than conventional wine.

Pesticides don’t belong at any celebration: Honestly, why drink pesticides if you don’t have to? Especially on your very special wedding day. Certified organic beverages have zero pesticides to dampen your wedding. The USDA notes that any wine or other beverage labeled with 100% Organic, ”Must contain 100 percent organically produced ingredients and have been processed using organically produced processing aids.” See the USDA wine labeling guide (pdf) for more information.

Speaking of pesticides: While it’s nuts to allow pesticides to pollute your body, pesticides also mean bad news for the planet. Grapes are one of the most heavily sprayed (with pesticides) crops. In fact, year in a year out, grapes make the dirty dozen list. Not only do pesticides affect your body but they affect the soil, air and water (used to grow other crops). Pesticides also harm farmers and their children. When you choose organics for your wedding and all year round you’re not only keeping yourself healthy but also helping to keep farmers (and farmers children) healthy.

Prevent soil erosion: I know, nothing is more glamorous than soil erosion! But seriously, if soil erosion isn’t something you’re currently thinking about, it should be because it does affect you, your health and the health of your loved ones in ways you probably can’t even imagine. Not only is massive soil erosion responsible for planetary woes including land damage estimated to be $400 billion per year and biodiversity problems with crops but erosion increases the amount of dust carried by wind, which creates air pollution issues and can carry human infectious disease organisms, including anthrax and tuberculosis. Sadly there’s a lot more at stake – learn more about soil erosion.

Organic wine and sparkling beverages are the perfect way to celebrate while helping to eliminate all these issues above. It’s a far more lovable choice for your green wedding. When choosing a wine or other sparkling beverage make sure it comes from a sustainable vineyard or certified organic company.

More help:

• Look for biodynamic wines.
• A great F&Q about organic wine from the Organic Wine Company.
• Clearing up the Confusion about Organic Wine
• Appellation Wine and Spirits – this unconventional wine store focuses on producers that depart from convention and make wine that is organic or biodynamic. They don’t just carry wine though and also make a point of sharing exactly how each product they sell is sustainable or not.
• Organic Wine Journal

There is an amazing older, but perfect for the season series at Telegraph.co.uk about growing your own wedding. From the flowers to the food, if you’ve already got a small plot of land, you can grow it all organically and save BIG bucks while keeping your wedding eco-friendly.

The series from start to finish looks at how to plan and manage growing your own DIY green wedding.

Some of the many wonderful ideas offered include:

• Peach or raspberry Bellinis for guests, made with some fruit picked from the garden.
• For canapés with the early drinks, lots of different bruschettas made with garden tomatoes, garlic, and plenty of home-grown basil and a minty bean humus as well.
• Plates of just-picked baby vegetables – radish, mini carrots, peas, purple-podded mange touts, and the late, mini broad bean ‘Stereo’ – on plates covered in ice.
• Crisp courgette wedges with anchovy mayonnaise and stuffed courgette flowers with goat’s cheese and honey.
• Fresh salads and new potatoes served with dinner.
• Lebanese tahini salad, home-made mint jelly and platters of salad scattered with blue borage and orange marigold flowers included with the main wedding meal.
• Flowers such as, Cosmos ‘Purity’ and dill flowers for decor, table centres of potted acidanthera, and a bouquet of roses, alchemilla and sweet peas.

I LOVE this great green DIY wedding idea!

Read the series:

• Grow your own wedding: part 1
• Grow your own wedding: part 2

See more DIY green wedding ideas.

Most folks have cake for their actual wedding sweet, but the parties leading up to the event are edible flexible. If you’re looking for an easy green treat idea for your green wedding, take a look at the yummy offerings from Beautiful Sweets Organic Bakery such as the Cherry Blossom Trees below…

Beautiful Sweets is an all green bakery – perfect for eco-festivities. They bake their treats fresh then ship them right to you. They use organic ingredients from small sustainable family farms and organic coops that support living wages. They use gorgeous, eco-friendly recyclable gift packaging including post-consumer recycled boxes and organic cotton ribbon. They also guarantee that their cookies will arrive well protected and unbroken.

As for design, they don’t have a specific wedding category of treats but they do have plenty of cookie styles that will fit any wedding shower occasion or you could even have these as an extra treat at the reception OR give them as wedding favors. Some designs that could work for a wedding include…

1. Bride Groom Heart
2. Heart with Names
3. Bridal Dress
4. Bridesmaid Dresses
5. Swans

They also offer a huge array of wedding cake shaped cookies, a cute wedding set, and plenty of leaves and flowers for a more natural green wedding. Cookies come in vanilla, chocolate, or a mix. Visit Beautiful Sweets Organic Bakery to learn more.