This personalized tree and sweet pair of lovebirds wedding cake topper are both made out of local sustainable poplar wood and are both equally too cute for words. The set is drawn, sawed, sanded, details burned (on the front and back), sanded again, painted with US made non-toxic water colors and then finished with bees wax and jojoba oil. If you’re having a nature-minded wedding these two birds + tree are the perfect wedding cake topper.

Each set is personalized for the couple by Star House – you choose what should be burned into the heart on the tree. Longer names won’t fit, but if you want it to resemble a real tree heart carving you should use initials anyhow. You also get to choose the colors for the lovebird pair. Choices include: red, orange, yellow, green, teal, blue, lime green, purple, pink, brown, and black.

There’s also a totally adorable owl pair + tree wedding cake topper option and other people-minded toppers too.

+ Wedding Cake Toppers

+ Star House

Green wedding cake toppers aren’t so easy to come by. You’ve got some options though…

Your best bets for green cake toppers include:

• Seek out a company that makes eco toppers (rare) or look for toppers made with easy to recycle, sustainable, or natural materials.
• Buy a topper that does double duty; i.e also acts as an art piece you’ll adore looking at forever not simply pack away. you’ll love to look at forever, not simply store away.
• Make a cool DIY wedding cake topper with eco-friendly or recycled materials.
• Use fresh flowers, herbs, leaves, and branches on your wedding cake. Basically natural items that you can later compost.
• Use candy or another edible topper.
• Be a total rebel and go sans topper.

If you’re looking for one unique eco-friendly wedding cake topper idea, I’d check out the amazing sugar sculptures made by Max Kitano of Sugarworks. After writing about his work at another blog of mine Max sent me one of his Origami Sugar Cranes (shown above) and it was beautiful – it looked just like colored glass and one or two of these cranes would look breathtaking on a wedding cake.

The sugar cranes of course will eventually 100% biodegrade, which makes sugar cranes an ultra green choice. However, you also have a less breakable option -  a custom crane made with casting resin. The resin makes each crane break-proof, and so you won’t be under stress worrying that your crane will arrive broken right before the wedding. These resin cranes last forever, and are perfect for a cake topper and available in all sorts of color choices. After the wedding the crane is pretty enough to sit on a shelf as an art object.

See the gallery below for other lovely sugar art for your wedding…

• Japanese Kanji Letters for favors or cake decor.
• Pretty sugar swan with heart.
• Beautiful crystal-like butterflies for your cake or as lolly pop wedding favors.

There are also some very cool sugar fortune cookies for treats or favors at your green wedding. Bonus; all of Sugarworks’ 100% original wedding creations can be customized them to match your wedding theme and color, as well as matched to custom wedding announcement on labels.If you’re interested in one of these delightful sugar creations visit Sugarworks.

Springerle cookies are just about the prettiest cookies you can have at a wedding with their delicate look and ability to fit any theme. They look great on a table, sweet in treat bags, and can be made organically. My favorite Springerle cookies as of late, are the simple, but oh so delightful Springerle cookies I found at Country Living.

These are pretty simple in design so far as Springerle cookies go but I think that’s part of their charm. I can’t get over how sweet the coloring is. To make these cookies, basic floured rubber stamps were used and then they were colored delicately with luster dust. I love that they look like tiny watercolor paintings. You could easily use this recipe to fit the theme of a nature wedding, sticking to flower and leaf stamps or use your initials. Note, you’ll want to switch out the conventional ingredients for organic.

Springerle have been a traditional Christmas cookie in Bavaria and Austria for centuries. The cookies are made with a simple egg-flour-sugar dough and have designs stamped on with a special rolling pin, mold, or press. Designs can be enhanced after baking with edible food colors. Springerle cookies are typically flavored with anise, but you can also branch out to other flavors (not everyone is a fan of anise). Lemon, raspberry, or almond are all nice flavors for a wedding.

You can buy organic lavender heart token or rose flavored Springerle cookies (shown above – too pretty!) at The Occasional Cake or browse the resources below for more DIY info and other places to find these pretty cookies.

Springerle cookie resources:

• To learn more about the history of Springerle cookies visit What’s Cooking America.
• How to make non-sticky Springerle cookies in the summer.
• House on the Hill has a wide array of Springerle cookie molds, including an entire wedding section.
• Queen City Cookies has some amazingly gorgeous gourmet Springerle cookies available for weddings and use organics when possible.
• Lemon Springerle recipe
• Vignette Springerle Mold
• Floral-Motif Springerle Cookie Mold
• British Isles Springerle Kit

OH MY GOSH – would you look at these adorable cupcakes. Tall, frosty, and lovely next to a full sized organic wedding cake or a cupcake tree.

You can actually do these yourself – the designers of these beautiful little gems, Sugarbloom Cupcakes & Macarons offer an excellent Sugarbloom Tall Cupcakes Tutorial! It looks a little time consuming, but really mainly involves cutting, filling, stacking, fondant, and wrapping in vellum.

These gorgeous cupcakes are the perfect accent to a green wedding if you make them organic. You could even wrap them in plantable paper for a natural look. These would even make fab take-home favors. The tutorial is picture heavy and easy to follow so check it out – Sugarbloom Tall Cupcakes Tutorial.

I’ve been a fan of candied flowers since the third grade when my teacher (who btw was never nice) did one nice thing – she held a candied flower workshop. We made candied lilacs, and ever since I’ve been into them. Candied flowers are perfect for a green wedding too; with many uses and eco-perks…

Crystallized Roses by Meadowsweets

• Edible candied flowers can be used as toppers for cakes, pies, sorbet, ice cream, truffles, and cupcakes.
• Bag them up and give as sweet wedding guest gifts.
• Add them atop beverages.
• Decor for many dishes such as fruit salad or around a holiday wedding table.
• They’re an inexpensive decor item and edible treat.
• They don’t create waste – they vanish into bellies and if not eaten of course they completely biodegrade.
• They taste fabulous.

Excellent flowers to crystallize for green weddings: Lilacs, violets, rose petals, cowslip, angelica, rosemary, sage, pinks, borage, primroses, and lavender. Leaves such as lemon balm, lemon verbena, mint, and bergmot can also be coated with sugar. Really, any edible plant can be crystallized. Just make sure you research which flowers and leaves are safe to eat before using them to make candied flowers.

Health matters: Flowers used for candied flowers need to be home grown or purchased from a reliable organic flower source. Flowers laced with sugar are cool – flowers laced with pesticides don’t belong at your green wedding.

My favorite flower for candied flowers.

How to make candied flowers and candied leaves:

1. Pick flowers on a sunny dry day – you don’t want wet petals.
2. Remove all stalks and white bases from petals, also remove any sharp edges, thorns, and petals that look icky. Once you coat a flower with sugar it’ll make any problems stand out.
3. Lightly beat an egg white until just foamy.
4. Dip each flower into the egg white to coat. Make sure to use plastic tweezers if holding by the petals (metal will bruise petals).
5. Dip into organic caster sugar.
6. Place on wax paper atop a wire cooling rack.
7. Place in your extremely low heated oven with the door slightly open. You can also dry flowers in a well enclosed solar oven or a hot greenhouse but note, small flowers are delicate and will blow away.
8. Once your flowers are nicely dry in the oven (not sticky or dusty to the touch) they’re done.

Candied flower storage and handling:

• If you store your candied flowers in a moisture-free, air-tight containers, at room temperature (no direct sunlight) they should last a good long while. If you’re making these for a wedding, I’d make them no more than a month in advance.
• Place your candied flowers your cake or other food item about 24-48 hours prior to the event; note – you can store these in the fridge or freezer once on a cake but store your cake uncovered. Placing a cover over may create too much moisture for the flowers.
• To attach flowers to a wedding cake use a tiny drop of icing and be careful, as your flowers are delicate.

Carrot Cake with Crystallized Pansies - for a birthday, not wedding but would be oh so cute for little wedding cakes!

More resources:

• Meadowsweets sells a Flower Crystallization Kit which includes directions, sample crystallized flower, plus the ingredients and tools needed to crystallize approximately 75 flowers.
• Edible Flowers: Desserts & Drinks
• Edible Flowers: From garden to kitchen: growing flowers you can eat, with a directory of 40 edible varieties and 25 recipes, with 350 glorious colour photographs.

Buy ready made crystallized flowers & organic edible flowers:

• Meadowsweets – offers Pansy, Viola, Johnny-jump-up, Lavender, Daisy, Cornflower, Roses and Scented Geranium Blossom.
• India Tree Candied Rose Petals
• Edible Dried Flower Petals and Fresh Edible Flowers from Langford Foods.
• India Tree Candied Violets
• Organic Edible Flower Mix – to make your candied flowers with.
• Crystallized Flower Company
• Search at Local Harvest for a nearby organic flower retailer – it’s much better and fresher to purchase local organic flowers when possible.

Pretty recipe ideas:

• Tea Cake with Candied Flowers
• A Spring Trifle – with candied lilacs
• Orange Blossom Cake with Candied Orchids
• White Cake, Orange Zest, & Crystallized Flowers

[Carrot Cake image via: http://www.flickr.com/photos/probonobaker/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0]