If you’re looking for a great way to double up wedding products, you can’t lose with these sweet chalkboard placeholders.

Not only do these tiny chalkboards offer an easy way to designate guests to specific tables, but you can change them up in a flash if necessary plus once your wedding is over, guests may take the chalkboard home as a wedding favor. You might want to consider including some colored chalk in pretty little muslin bags too.

Each of these placeholders is 75mm in width and 60mm in height.I like that they come in white – you could paint them to match any wedding color theme. I also like the actual reusable quality of these as favors. Way better than silly little trinkets no one will use again.

+ Chalkboard Placeholders £8.49 for 5

+ Paper Themes

If you’re a U.S. dweller, you’d do well to stick around on your honeymoon. Traveling all over the world may sound like fun, but it does increase your carbon footprint, which isn’t a cool addition to a green wedding.

Now, if you have no idea where to go or how to get started with planning a green U.S. based honeymoon, you can start by looking at some of the more eco-friendly destinations our country has to offer. Most green-friendly travel lists focus on issues such as a city’s air quality, amount of green spaces and extras like organic restaurants.

Portland, OR often makes the top of green city lists - plus PDX rocks (I know, I live here)

Always keep in mind that various sites and studies use very different information to calculate how green a city is, plus some take residential issues into account. It’s smart to do some of your own research and to bypass most residential facts – because frankly, it’s unlikely you’ll be recycling your entire honeymoon or purchasing a home there.

First, create a list of all the typical vacation activities you enjoy – or would like to enjoy on your honeymoon. For example, hiking, shopping, sunshine (or rain), a beach, eco-spas, organic food availability and so on. Once you’ve got a basic list of activities, compare it to green city lists you find. This will help you narrow down where to go.

Visit the city’s official tourist / visitor site to see what sort of perks the city offers. Type into Google, “[insert city name] visitors center” to find one.

Links and lists to help you choose a green American city for your honeymoon: 

• Best Green Cities in America – this is mainly a starting point only as cities are just ranked.
• Top 10 green U.S. cities.
• Cities with the cleanest air – why go on a smoggy vacation?
• America’s 50 Greenest Cities – this list is older, but still one of the best because it covers various perspective in its ranking criteria.
• Travel & Leisure has the MOST awesome list of 10 green itineraries. You will love this list.
• America’s best and worst green cities.

Image by Jennifer Chait

According to Wedding News, one extremely brave girl just proposed and married her sweetheart all in the same day. Talk about gutsy. Tracy Davis from Derbyshire apparently took advantage of a unique tradition where women propose to their partner every four years. Luckily, her partner of eight years, Paul accepted, though he notes the proposal was less of a request and more of a command.

Tracy woke Paul up on the morning of February 29th and told Paul today’s the day. The groom noted that he was “overjoyed” and a few hours later the happy couple was married at a ceremony that Tracy had been planning in secret. The couple exchanged vows at the famous Blacksmith’s Shop in Gretna Green.

I don’t know about you, but girl or fella, I think this was a pretty bold act. I’d be super concerned about doing all that planning without one or the other knowing about it.

Would you plan a wedding in secret than pop the question and get married on the same day?

+ Source

If you’re down with a darker engagement ring this Rosewood & Blue Topaz Engagement Ring is a beautiful and nicely affordable choice.

This engagement ring consists of a Blue Topaz set into a solid tapered Rosewood band with a 6-prong, white gold setting. Like other rings at Simply Wood Rings makes this pretty ring custom to order in your size and with sustainable wood. The company works with various wood types, such as wood from ancient woods (some dated back as much as 50,000 years), urban grown wood,  and wood rich in history, previously used as part of a musical instrument, a family heirloom, or someone’s home. Jewelry can even be made for people out of precious family heirlooms or other woods from your personal history that carry special significance. This ring in particular is made with salvaged Rosewood from no longer used xylophone keys.

Obviously, keep in mind that due to the nature of the materials used, there’s likely to be some variability in the color and grain of the wood, as well as the width and profile of your wedding ring. If you have a specific color, width or profile preference, you can let the shop know.

+ “Sky Blue Harmony” Rosewood & Blue Topaz Engagement Ring $345.00

Got a green wedding in the works at some point during the next year? If you have a lull in the planning process, or need to get the creative juice flowing, here’s some help:

Felt Flower Winter Wreath from the Purl bee

DIY wooden place cards via iDiY

An amazing DIY Book Planter with Succulents from Green Wedding Shoes

DIY Rehearsal Dinner Invitation (super cute) from Once Wed

Make beautiful DIY Favor Cones with a free template from Intimate Weddings

Need more help, check out these DIY wedding books…

• Handmade Weddings: More Than 50 Crafts to Personalize Your Big Day
• The DIY Bride: 40 Fun Projects for Your Ultimate One-of-a-Kind Wedding
• Not so much the DIY type? Simple Stunning Weddings: Designing and Creating Your Perfect Celebration

BONUS: A recycled, to-die-for, wedding surprise.

It’s rare that I see something I actually like at traditional wedding favor shops. In many cases, very few items sold at traditional favor shops are actually eco-friendly. Also I don’t like the lack of originality at conventional shops. That said, I was browsing Beau-coup, as I do every once in a while and saw these:

Personalized Wedding Save the Date Ticket Magnet - I love the rock star quality of these cute magnets – perfect for concert loving couples – or for couples who met at a concert (like my fella and me actually).

Also, so far as traditional wedding items go, wedding magnets are one item that’s not green, but that I can rationalize. I like that wedding magnets tend to get used forever, because frankly, who doesn’t need more magnets on the fridge? I also like that these can double as an invite, thus eliminating excess paper.

These personalized save the date ticket magnets look amazingly like real concert tickets and you can even make up fun fake title lines. Available in a rage of colors too. See, just goes to show you that if you skip visiting traditional favor shops, you may miss something cute.

+ Personalized Wedding Save the Date Ticket Magnet – starting at $2.60 each

This hyper cute Guest Book Wishing Tree is perfect for a wedding entryway or you could place various trees on reception tables.

This little wishing tree offers a different take on the ordinary wedding guest book. The tree allows your guests to write down their wish for you and your partner on individual paper ribbons that can be hung on the tree. The tree is made with FSC-certified recycled paper and comes with one wishing tree, one wishing tree base, 40 ready-to-hang paper wishing ribbons and 20 pink flowers with removable sticky dots.

You can also embellish your tree with sweet and tweeting wishing tree birds.

These little birds, made with FSC-certified uncoated recycled paper, come pre-notched for easy placement on your tree or they can be used to embellish a wine glass, table cards and more. Birds are available in blue, silver, red and white. Although red is absolutely my least favorite color, even I have to admit that I’m taken with the cute look of red bird on the white tree (shown below) – especially with the red roses. The red birds on white seem like an awesome Christmas wedding idea too.

Last, but not least, you can get extra flowers for your wishing tree in green, pink or silver. The flowers are also made with FSC-certified uncoated recycled paper.  I’m actually not a huge fan of the flowers. I’d go with just the tree and birds – the flowers seem a little scrap-bookish to me.

+ Guest Book Wishing Tree $39.95

+ Birds for wishing tree $5.95

+ Flowers for wishing tree $5.95

+ Wedding Things

If your goal is a green wedding, then a sustainable wedding dress and other wedding attire is a must have. Below is a rundown of some sustainable fabric choices along with tips about how to choose greener garments for your wedding day.

Green Wedding Fabric Choices

When it comes to sustainable fabrics for greener wedding dresses and other wedding attire, it can get a little confusing. For one thing, eco-friendly wedding attire, while becoming more common, is not THAT common, meaning it can be hard to find what you need or like. Secondly, there are a lot of eco-terms thrown around in the fabric industry, some that mean more than others.

Below is a sustainable fabric primer to help you sort out your fabric choices – bookmark this page to keep up-to-date as I add more links to the list below.

• Organic Cotton
• Organic Wool
• Silk
• Hemp
• Linen
• Bamboo
• Soy
• Muslin
• Cashmere
• Ingeo
• Jute
• Recycled
• Vintage & Reuse

Why there’s no such thing as a sustainable fabric or clothing standard

Realistically, eco-friendly is much more complicated than what can be summed up by a simple fabric or dress choice.

First of all, not all sustainable fabrics and clothing pieces are actually sustainable. In the organic cotton category alone, you’ve got all sorts of choices and issues to address. On top of this, many wedding gowns are made with more than one type of fabric. For example, you may find a dress with a sustainable organic cotton lining but the outer shell may be made with less eco-friendly conventional silk.

Often you’ll find mixed fabrics as well, such as cotton and hemp, mixed soy cotton, cotton and silk and other fabric mixes. To be sure you’re getting a sustainable gown, you have to look at the dress as a whole not just parts of the gown.

What is the clothing’s lifespan? 

One might consider that the most sustainable fabric is not just eco-friendly from the start (i.e. growing process) but also a fabric that leaves the least impact throughout its lifespan. A fabric’s lifespan includes issues such as the creation (or growing process), the fabric’s carbon footprint, manufacturing processes, waste created, shipping, reuse qualities and biodegradability at the end of life.

Is the clothing company eco-friendly?

Some clothing companies engage in many green and ethical practices while others use none. For example, some companies use wind or solar power to manufacture, some practice paperless office techniques, some companies use Fair Trade practices (both certified Fair Trade and not certified), others use all recycled packaging and so on. So, in this way, sometimes a company making basic cotton clothing but who does use green practices may be greener than a company making organic clothing who engages in zero green practices. It’s tricky business.

You may be able to find a wonderful wedding dress made with sustainable fabric, but does that mean the dress is perfectly eco-friendly and ethical? Not really. You have to look at how the company is run, where they get their fabric, how they treat workers and so on, to get a full idea of the ethics and sustainability of a piece of clothing.

Image by Flickr User heyjohngreen

Looking for a greener wedding gown and other eco-friendly wedding attire?

• Look for clothing made with fibers certified by USDA’s National Organic Program and then also look for secondary certification from GOTS or another ethical textile certifier.

• Check if the clothing is made with fabric fibers that follow the FSC chain of custody certification. FSC chain of custody (CoC) tracks FSC certified material through the entire production process – from forest to consumer and includes manufacturing and distribution.

• Look for suppliers who are members of and approved by Green America.

• Look for clothing made with both sustainable fabrics and eco-friendly low-impact dyes.

• Although clothing companies, eco-friendly or not, will try to up their prices, note that real eco-friendly goods do cost more. If a price for an “eco-friendly” dress seems too good to be true, in many cases, it likely is. It really does cost more to create sustainable clothing. Learn more: why eco-friendly fashions and body care products are more expensive.

• Read up on clothing company backgrounds. Do they have green practices in place? Where do they source their fabric from? Do they add harmful dyes and finishes? Do they pay workers a fair wage?

Lead image by arki via sxc.

It’s link love time…

• Eco-friendly wedding venue idea – the zoo. Blogger Jennifer points out that the scents may not be so swell, but if you station your wedding away from the monkeys and elephants and near the cotton candy and caramel corn, you’d be a-okay.

• The most adorable DIY baby jar reuse project for a wedding ever. Actually, I think they’re meant for a baby shower, but I love this plan for a wedding anyhow. Hint tiny bouquets rock.

• I hate shopping in actual brick & mortar stores and I hate spending money. Luckily one blogging girl out there has a great suggestion about how to avoid both.

• Well, now I LOVE lemon and mint for a wedding palette. I’m also digging rose and seafoam in a vintage sort of way.

• Glorious, lovely wedding succulents.

• Beautiful DIY paper vases – use recycled paper and you’re all set.

• I adore everything about this earthy-minded wedding, but I love the wild looking flower arrangements best of all!

• Plan your own tiny and sweet wedding cakes with help from some ultra-chic pastry shops.

• LOVE these – don’t even know, nor do I care if they’re eco-friendly (sorry green warriors).

Image by Flickr User AForestFrolic

Bamboo is a highly debated fabric. Bamboo plant fibers can be made into fabric for just about anything and this fabric is naturally resistant to bacteria and insects. Bamboo also wicks away wetness and odor, which of course may matter on your wedding day. Bamboo can be grown well without the use of chemical fertilizers or pesticides, but not all bamboo out there is organic.

That said, bamboo has cons. Some believe that as bamboo becomes more popular, it will become less sustainable in that it will eat away at natural habitats – most likely impacting Panda habitat. Another con is that many so called bamboo clothing companies use rayon, a synthetic fiber that requires caustic chemical treatments. In fact, bamboo fibers are under so much scrutiny that they aren’t allowed in most GOTS-certified clothes.

If you’re looking into bamboo dresses, be sure to check out the company’s certification. Bamboo can be certified organic by the USDA. Bamboo can also be certified by Oeko-Tex, which means the product has passed testing limiting chemicals and by the more stringent Oeko-Tex® Standard 1000, which also certifies above and beyond chemicals in fabrics, looking for environmentally-friendly production throughout the textile processing chain.

• Environmental impact of bamboo fabric
• An in-depth primer on bamboo certification
• Is bamboo fabric eco-friendly?

Dress shown above - White organic cotton and bamboo lace dress by MoonEuphoria