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.

You’ve got plenty of flower choices for a green wedding, but some pack a bigger eco-punch than others. Luckily it’s easy to break down.

First some general eco-friendly flower buying tips:

• Going local is almost always more eco-friendly than not. With carbon transport issues, packaging, and weird non-fair trade practices buying local flowers is a good way to keep your flower footprint small. Even if a local grower is not certified organic, you may want to check them out. Not being certified doesn’t always mean that a grower doesn’t use sustainable growing practices. You can search Local Harvest for flower growers near you.
• Try to choose seasonal flowers, although if you have a specific theme or color in mind this is not always possible.
• Aim for a less is more approach. Simple bouquets and less flowery decor means your wedding has fewer flower waste and a smaller footprint. To flush out your flower decor you can always make some awesome wedding flowers with recycled paper. You can also use gift-worthy live plants and bulbs in pots as decor which doubles up (decor/favors) and doesn’t contribute to a large waste issue.
• Grow your own – if you’ve got the time you can grow all your own wedding flowers or even force bulbs for table settings if you’re short on time. This costs less (except for the time commitment) and ensures you get VERY local, pesticide free flowers.
• Pay attention to the containers and wraps. Eco-friendly flowers loose some points if you place them in icky plastic containers or floral foam (which is not biodegradable). Your florist or you can create bouquets using eco-friendly alternative such as glass vases (mason jars look amazing actually for vases and serve more than one purpose), bamboo vases and pots, and paper plus instead of foam to keep flowers steady use rocks, beans, or reusable and recyclable glass marbles.
• If you have your garden in the spring or summer in a natural setting – say a community garden or park, you may not need as many cut flowers because of the natural appeal of growing flowers.

Flower labels and campaigns to watch for and support…

USDA Certified Organic: Flowers with this label are free from toxic or synthetic pesticides and fertilizers. Organic flowers are a great choice, but hard to come by in the flower world right now.

Fair Trade and VeriFlora both impose strict environmental and labor standards on farms, such as pesticide use is limited and workers must be paid fairly. However, neither label requires that flowers be fully organic. If you can buy flowers that are both USDA certified organic and either Fair Trade or VeriFlora certified. NOTE: it is very important to recognize the distinction between “Fair Trade” and an organizational term such as TransFair USA. The difference is that “Fair Trade” does not guarantee fair wages for coffee harvesters while “TransFair USA” does.

ILRF’s Fairness in Flowers Campaign has promoted the occupational health and safety and the labor rights of workers in the cut flower industries of Colombia and Ecuador since 2003. According to this group, “Most of the roses and carnations produced in these countries are exported to the United States where they are sold in florist shops, supermarkets, and on online retail sites. There are 40,000 flower workers in Ecuador and over 100,000 in Colombia, working to grow, harvest, and package these flowers” and workers aren’t always treated fairly. Learn how you can support flower growers.

Just for fun - check out the most popular wedding flowers requested by NYC brides and another top ten wedding blooms list from the wedding experts at The Knot.

What sort of flowers do you want at your green wedding?

If you’re looking for a green wedding favor that leaves a very tiny footprint take a look at the adorable and useful Heart Organic Bird Seed Favors from 2 Birds In Love.

Each pretty little favor is handmade to order with locally grown organic wild bird seed and personalized with hemp or satin ribbon color of your choice. There are also some amazing new graphic design tags available for FREE with an order of 100+ favors. Orders under 100 may purchase tags for $.08/each.

Favors are reasonably priced and since the birds will gobble them up these favors leave almost no waste. Favors are also available in a cute monogram design, but I like the hearts best I think. Very sweet. Visit 2 Birds In Love to see all the great favor options.

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

The super talented and crafty Jeanne Winters made this sweet little pyramid box for her hubs on Valentine’s day, but it would also make a fantastic small wedding favor box, wedding card, or wedding table place marker.

Winters’ notes that it was really easy to make with a simple template. You could hand write the words or a phrase of your choosing on the box or use the computer to print out some text. These are also made so that you can tuck a little gift or other treasure neatly away inside.

A beautiful idea and one you could easily use recycled paper and scrap paper for. In fact this would be a cool project to do with leftover wall paper samples you can get at places like Home Depot.

Visit Jeanne Winters for many more awesome DIY projects – you won’t believe your eyes.

Sorry I’ve been absent. Some freaks broke into my car during the last week of November, which put me behind being as I had to fix my windows (they broke two) get a new cell phone (they took it) and more. And right now the holidays have been throwing me for a loop. But I’m back now and have a nice review for you.

I first tried a Vanilla Pear Silky Soy Moisture Bar this summer, then later got the chance to try some new scents and pretty much love them all. I think these eco-friendly bars would make a wonderful and unique green wedding favor.

PRODUCT: Silky Soy Moisture Bar from Evergreen Candleworks

USE: You use these bars as a wonderful moisturizing treatment. Rub the bar into your skin to help moisturize dry areas.

INGREDIENTS: The wax is 100% vegetable, guaranteed! There are no beeswax or petroleum products hidden in it. The wax is FREE of pesticides, herbicides and Genetically Modified Material. Linda, Evergreen owner notes that the soy wax they use is made from organically grown soy beans and the fragrances are all natural plant oils.

COST: $12.00 for one 3 fluid oz bar.

ECO PERKS:

• 100% natural soybeans used in products and then enhanced with botanical oils.
• Soy biodegradable and 100% vegetable; no beeswax or petroleum products hidden in it.
• Their soy is free of pesticides, herbicides and Genetically Modified Material.
• The company uses 100 % wind power to make their candles, so I’m guessing the same for these lotion bars.
• Company recycling program in place.
• Recyclable packaging used for products.
• Containers for soy candles and soy lotion bars are washable (soy wax cleans out easily, unlike paraffin wax) and totally reusable.

Scents I’ve tried:

• Soft Amber
• Vanilla Pear
• Citrus Basil
• Brown Sugar & Fig
• Wildflower

The company sent me a special sample of a Patchouli, Sandlewood, & Amber bar, that’s not yet available for retail, but it smelled divine – not all hippish but sexy and clean. They also have a Vanilla scented bar which I haven’t tried in the soy lotion bar, but I did have a vanilla candle from the company and it smells delicious.

WHAT I THINK:

I love, love, love these silky soy bars. I rarely like lotion bars because they’re time consuming to use, don’t seep into your skin, and can leave a mark on your clothing. These bars rock though. You rub the bar over your body – or better break off a small piece, warm it in your hand then rub that on your body. Easy. The lotion bar melts into your skin and soothes the even the most dry skin.

The scents are amazing. Citrus Basil is so great. It smells clean and fresh and natural. The Vanilla Pear smells juicy and fresh, and the Amber and Brown Sugar scents are subtle but sensual. Wildflower, to me, smells like roses, which normally I hate. Rose scented stuff is ALWAYS too strong and “rosy” but the Wildflower bar is softly scented and clean like fresh cut roses, not fake perfume flowers. I test drove Wildflower on another friend who also hates rose scented stuff and she loved it too.

The scents linger but do not overpower at all. My boyfriend thinks they all smell yummy and sniffs me all day when I use these bars. He especially likes the Amber and Vanilla Pear.

I also like that these bars work on wet or dry skin and that you don’t need to reapply. Unlike lotion, these bars make your skin feel soft all day long – clear to your next shower. Lastly, the bars are long lasting. One bar should be enough for a month or so if you use it daily. This bar is not sticky doesn’t leave any residue on your skin or clothing.

I also like the fact that the container is reusable and pretty. It’s basic (silver colored) and the labels come off easily with some water, so you can reuse it. It’s the perfect size for beads, rings, or other small items. If you gave these as wedding favors it’s a perfectly reusable gift. When I got a solo bar from the company, the packaging it came in was beautiful – a nice little bag – (prefect for gift giving) and recyclable.

Any cons?

• This bar picks up lint like a fiend. All lotion bars do this. In this case it still works great, but just doesn’t look as pretty.
• The scents are strong at first. I actually don’t think these bars are overly scented, but I also really like scented items. If you’re the type who likes very lightly scented items, these bars may not be for you. T wouldn’t say this is a con, but a preference issue.
• The packaging and website don’t share full ingredients. Also the first time I reviewed these I had no idea that the soy was organic, because the packaging and website don’t make this clear. The owner emailed me later and noted that yup they do use organically grown soy, but it’d be nice to see some info about this elsewhere for consumers.

Overall score:

5 out of 5 pretty little trees! While I don’t like that the company doesn’t list their product ingredients in full at their website, they do disclose if you speak to them, the bars work like magic to sooth dry skin and they smell like a dream, no matter which scent you try. The packaging is beautiful and reusable and ALL my friends who tried these loved them, and seriously wanted to steal them from me.

I almost never give a score of five to anything I review, but these bars are amazing and I highly recommend them. If you did use these as wedding favors the price point is a little higher than some other favors, but in my opinion, they’re worth it. Your guests will walk away with a eco-friendly, reusable product that they’ll adore. See Silky Soy Moisture Bars at Evergreen Candleworks for more info or to buy.

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

Gingerbread Sweets has the most adorable little gingerbread cakes – perfect for a green Christmas wedding.

gingerbread love hearts

These little cakes are baked fresh to order and each one is decorated by hand. Gingerbread Sweets uses high quality natural ingredients like organic pure set honey, organic eggs, flour and spices for their cakes. They can also do custom orders – which is awesome; you could get little initials or any other design that might go well with your chosen green wedding theme.

The best thing about edible wedding gifts and treats is that they’re gone. They leave no footprint or trash. If you’re packing these little cakes up as a wedding favor, you could use compostable containers as well; which aren’t perfect, but better than plastic baggies.

+ Gingerbread Sweets

The WishFrame is a perfectly sweet and memorable way to capture the thoughts, dreams, and wishes of your wedding guests at your green wedding.

The WishFrame made by the always delightful Cardboardesign, is a cardboard frame with tons of tiny honeycomb pockets for holding wishes. Guests can write on the included tiny slips of paper and then slip them into the honeycomb pockets for not only a dazzling affect (very Light Bright like) but a super keen way to capture memories from your special day.

After the wedding the WishFrame is an enchanting eco-friendly home keepsake of your wedding. WishFrame is crafted in the USA with chemical-free, bleach-free, recycled and recyclable fibers. An also eco-friendly WishChest holding 500 colored leafs of paper is included. For a wedding with LOTS of people there’s also a WishWall – much larger than the WishFrame, and very cool.

If you want a unique decor item, are short on cash, or just want to use resources responsibly for your green wedding, one of the best ways to do all three is to do some of your wedding yourself. Here are five DIY decor ideas that aren’t too hard, and all would work well for a green wedding…

If you’re handy with the cutting, this crafty project from Craft Stylish is such a pretty ideas for simple wedding cake decor. Use recycled paper!

Need place card holders that will totally biodegrade after the big event? Try sugar cube place holders! An excellent idea from Weddingbee. I don’t know if it’s possible, because of the softness factor, but I think these would look amazing with Brown European-Style Sugar Cubes too.

A beautiful DIY wheatgrass centerpiece from DIY Wedding. Get some organic flowers and go nuts!

Make adorable little gum paste strawberries with an amazing tutorial from Cake Journal, which really you can use for cakes and cupcakes or as part of a decor effort, say on the wine table. If you got good you could make all sorts of cute stuff with gum paste – other berries, little flowers, leaves, etc.

This cute garden minded project is meant to hold garden seed packets, but I think they’d be cute as food markers – i.e. salad, fruit salad, apple tarts, etc. They project here is from Sculpey, but if you wanted to you could make your own natural play clay for this project or get some organic clay.

Also learn how to make your own sugar crystallized wedding flowers!

These sustainable doilies are anything but old school. Not stale, but fresh and modern and a totally brilliant decor move for your green wedding.

The Doileez from Modern-twist is made with eco-friendly and reusable silicone and fresh minimalist patterns. FDA grade, hand-silk-screened Doileez, are not only easy to clean (no more trying to get stains out of fabric dollies) but can be used again and again, long after your wedding is over. They’re available in a range of Modern-twist’s signature patterns including natural styles and even some perfect for a modern wedding. You could use these in so many different ways at your green wedding, for example…

• Under the wedding cake or wedding cupcakes.
• Under flowers as a minimalist table decor.
• On the buffet table.
• As an accent piece under wedding favors.
• And more.

You can find Doileez at Velocity Art & Design.