Review summary: There aren’t too many green wedding books on the market. Eco-Chic Weddings is one of the better green wedding books though. There are many pros and very few cons packed into this small, but very useful green wedding manual – although the cover of this book managed to hurl me and my significant other into a massive debate (and by debate I mean argument)… keep reading to learn more.

Product: Eco-Chic Weddings: Simple Tips to Plan an Earth-Friendly, Socially Responsible, Affordable Green Wedding by Emily Elizabeth Anderson; published by Hatherleigh Press, 2007.

Publishers synopsis: “Planning your wedding can be the best time to be eco-friendly. The wedding industry has a huge impact on the global economy and the environment, as wedding parties spend over $125 billion a year in the U.S. alone. Eco-Chic Weddings presents the quick, simple, and easy-to-follow tips you need to make your wedding socially responsible. This indispensable guide gives you the choice, comfort, and chance to share your own unique style for a truly memorable wedding.

Going green doesn’t mean you need to spend the green. Eco-Chic Weddings provides all the resources you need to create your environmentally friendly and fun celebration on a budget. From the location to the dress to the menu, there are dozens of easy ways to make your wedding beautiful and still reflect your personal beliefs in sustainable living. Eco-Chic Weddings will show you how to craft your perfect day.”

Cost: Eco-Chic Weddings will only set you back $10.36 – a bargain compared to the wedding costs

What’s covered in Eco-Chic Weddings:

I’d say the author covers just about everything you need to know in order to have a greener and less expensive wedding. Anderson goes through wedding basics, wedding rings, attire, the registry, wedding invitation and favors, flower choices, transportation, the wedding menu and honeymoon. She also has some excellent extra-type chapters covering health and beauty and married life.

There’s an excellent jam packed eco-resources appendix at the end of the book, and although this book is now 4 years old, most of the resources are still handy and relevant.

Perks of Eco-Chic Weddings:

• Printed on 100% recycled paper and with vegetable-based inks.
• Excellent take on the three Rs. I love how every topic covered has a reduce, reuse and recycle slant. This three Rs slant makes it easy to focus on how you might make the best eco-friendly wedding plans just by asking yourself three questions – can I reduce, can I reuse and can I recycle. It’s a good way to live and plan a wedding.
• I like the cost saving aspects of the book. Not only does the author explain why a choice is greener but also how that choice can save you some cash.
• Flexibility is stressed throughout, which I think is awesome because it makes the planning process more chill.
• Interesting facts pepper this book. For instance, I wouldn’t have guessed that October is the most popular wedding month and there are other cool facts as well such as wedding flowers by season.
• Focus on the little things. Not every choice is huge. For example, the author points out that white is not so eco-chic in a gown (due to chemical processes to make the dress so white). Little and big choices a plenty are offered.
• Easy to skim. Nicely placed headers and top-o-page text make this book an easy read and you can browse it in chunks.
• Affordable and slim so it’s a go-anywhere book – and since it tells you all you need to know, you won’t need other books. There are a few other green wedding books I like, but there’s no need to own them all. This is a good one to get if you’d like to plan a budget green wedding.

The BIG debate:

So, when I first got this book about a year ago, Dave, my significant other and me got into this huge flipping argument about it. He walked past my desk when I was working, saw it, and said, “Hey are you reviewing that?” I said yes, I’m planning to eventually. He picked it up, looked at it and said, “I’d NEVER buy this book!”

I was a little stumped and asked why not. He said, “Anderson took all the fun out of the wedding with the cover!” When asked to explain Dave says, “She’s got too many words on there.” Huh? Let’s see what Dave’s talking about…

Um… ok. Dave launched into a long explanation about how weddings should be fun and all those words makes it seem like a green wedding will be entirely too much work. I disagreed, noting that most wedding books have wording as such on the cover, it’s just that this book has eco-wording. He’s like, “Yeah, it’s too much responsibility and not enough fun.”

He was adamant about this. Dave likes weddings and according to him, this book’s cover was sucking the fun and joy out of weddings.  When I asked what he’d like to see on the cover he said, “How to have an easy and fun green wedding – period.” Being me, I don’t think being socially responsible or eco-friendly sucks the fun out of anything. I don’t get the reasoning. In any case we went 40 rounds of I’m right, you’re wrong and finally agreed to disagree.

But in case you, for whatever reason, have the same thoughts as Dave, you should know that being socially responsible and eco-friendly will not take away but add to your wedding day. ALL weddings can be stressful, but honestly by committing to a greener wedding, I think you lower the stress level considerably. Eco-friendly is less in the simplest of terms and less is almost always easier than more.

Dave’s on board with green weddings by the way – I guess he’ll just need another book. Sigh.

Were there any negatives?

• No digital version available from what I can gather.
• Needs images. Eco-friendly books, in my experience, unless about houses and decor, tend to contain few to zero images. What’s up with that? I like images in tip-style books and wish this one in particular had some.
• A little checklist would be useful. I’m a list person, so having a checklist about weddings set up for me would be handy. I didn’t see one in here – although I’ve been known to miss stuff.

Overall score:

4.5 out of 5 little trees. An excellent score for a great little green wedding planner. I’d highly suggest this book if you want to plan an affordable and eco-friendly wedding.

Learn more:

• Buy Eco-Chic Weddings: Simple Tips to Plan an Earth-Friendly, Socially Responsible, Affordable Green Wedding.
• Visit Emily Anderson at her Etsy shop – oh yeah, author and Etsy artist. You can’t beat that!
• Read the Good With Style blog and learn about Anderson’s sweet new book (from the looks of things) Eco-Chic Home.
• Follow Emily Anderson on Twitter.

See my green product rating system and green product rating criteria or read more green product reviews.

Today a product review of Scandle Candles for you – this could make a great wedding shower favor and it’d be excellent as a honeymoon gift.

PRODUCT: Scandle Essentials 4oz Travel Tin in Uplifting Blend – Pink grapefruit & spearmint essential oils create the uplifting blend – this Scandle comes in a square lightweight travel tin for easy application.

INGREDIENTS: According to Scandle, these candles are “Made from 100% natural ingredients” – the label on the candle says “This product contains soy and other nut products, if you are allergic to these products, please do not use. (May contain soy butter, shea butter, aloe vera, jojoba oil, and fragrance or essential oils).”

USE: The Scandle Candle burns at 2 degrees above body temperature to produce a soothing oil for massage, manicures, pedicures, or as a daily moisturizer. Or of course, you can use it as purely a candle to light up your space. (including soy), The Scandle emits less soot and toxins into the environment than traditional paraffin candles. Scandles feature refillable/reusable canisters and sustainable packaging options. Burn time 15-30 hours.

COST: $12.95

ECO-PERKS & OTHER GOOD STUFF:

• Soy is an eco-friendly candle option when compared to paraffin candles, emitting less soot and toxins. They’re not 100% safer if you have allergies or are sick, but way better than wax candles. Soy is also biodegradable.
• I think they’re made with fairly natural ingredients, but if you look below in cons, you’ll see that I can’t 100% guarantee it. They don’t smell fake though, they smell as if they were scented with essential oils vs a fake fragrance.
• Feel great on your body. You can pour or dip into the candle and use it for massage, cuticle rub, or to smooth dry skin. Not oily or too hot on your skin, and the scent is subtle, not obnoxious. I also like the scent that fills your room when you burn this candle – very nice and yes, uplifting as the product notes.
• VERY long lasting. I’ve burned and burned this candle and it just keeps going and going.
• The candles are multi-use and long lasting.
• Candles come in great little reusable tins that can be used for any number of small objects; rings, beads, etc. If you buy their larger candles they offer refills which is excellent and saves on packaging.
• 100% Vegan.
• Cruelty free – member of PETA’s Caring Consumer Program.
• Zero petroleum or mineral oils added.

PRODUCT CONS:

The ingredient listings are sketchy. The website does not list a full ingredient list and neither does the packaging. Some terms used to explain the ingredients at the website include…

• Scandles are made with FDA approved ingredients.
• Hypo-Allergenic.
• Cosmetic grade soy oil.
• Those allergic to nut based products should not use Scandle, because the Scandle contains soy, jojoba, and shea oils.
• And as noted above my packaging says, “May contain soy butter, shea butter, aloe vera, jojoba oil, and fragrance or essential oils.”

So basically, I’m not sure what exactly is in this candle. It’d be easy to include an actual ingredient list and I wish the company  would have. I was able to find more info when I looked up the fragrance mixes, because it noted that my blend is pink grapefruit & spearmint essential oils.

According to Skin Deep, this company has not signed the Compact for Safe Cosmetics and there’s no info on their product ingredients listed there.

Not made with organic soy or organic essential oils as far as I can tell.

OVERALL SCORE:

Three out of five little trees. Because I can’t find a full ingredient list anywhere and because this product is not organic so far as I can tell, it loses some point. The cost is fairly comparable to other soy candle companies; maybe a little less on some products, and I’m guessing you might be able to work out a bulk buy situation with them if you wanted these for a green wedding favor. Overall, I’d recommend Scandle Candles because they smell great and work well as both candles and a moisturizing + massage tool. Plus they have nice reusable containers – a great green choice.

However, if you want a totally green candle, I’d suggest Evergreen Candleworks – an organic soy candle company who also makes a soy massage candle but they use organic soy.

Visit Scandle Candles to learn more.

See my green product rating system and green product rating criteria.