Green Bridal Shower
By tinychoices | July 17, 2008
Special Green Wedding Correspondent, Christie, with her first Tiny Choices Guest Post!
So, a few months ago my bridesmaids (or “my girls” as I like to call them) hosted a bridal shower for me. Knowing my love of all things green, they did a fantastic job of incorporating some great tiny choices into the party.
The theme was wine tasting … a fun twist to keep all the ladies entertained. The wine glasses were rented from a local rental company - no plastic wine glasses for my girls! The next TC step would be to choose all local and/or organic wines (our current favorite: Frey Wines or check out The Budget Ecoist’s 5 Great Organic Wines for Summer . This choosing local or organic idea could be applied to all kinds of “tasting” themes – depending on “your thing” and where you live.
The food served was all vegetarian (in my honor). Even if you are not vegetarian, those options can be easier to deal with than some of the meat counterparts. Leftovers will generally keep longer, your impact on the earth won’t be as great (check this Vegetarian Times article site for some more info), and the food choices can (but not always) be healthier for your guests. We had bruschetta, pastry puffs stuffed with goat cheese, olive tapenade, homemade spinach “meat” balls, fruit salad and lots of cheeses with organic crackers.
Organic coffee was served at the end of the event – we buy our coffee beans in bulk from a company that has an organic/sustainable line of coffees: Organic Coffee Co. . To add a bit of class to the event, the girls asked a few family members to bring their china and silverware sets. It was really cute to see several sets of china coffee cups set out. Plus no stacks of used disposable cups, forks and spoons to send to the landfill!
My girls did not go crazy buying all those bridal shower decorations. They purchased flowers from the local garden store and created several displays. The flowers decorated our house for weeks after the party! I’m not sure if we have an organic flower source around here yet … but local flowers are always great!
Guests were encouraged to use “creative” wrapping techniques to avoid all that wrapping paper. Gifts arrived wrapped in dish towels secured with bungee cords, newspaper, reusable shopping bags, a picnic basket, a garbage bag that was reused later, and even old print jobs from the office. There were approximately 35 guests and we only created one bag of garbage … not too bad!
Are you having a party this summer? Going to incorporate any Tiny Choices? Tell us all about them!
[Image courtesy of Michelle Arlotta]
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Hey Christie! Congrats on the big day!
thanks Sangu!!! :)
We always keep a recycle bin next to the trash can at parties, and our guests are really great about separating their stuff. We still use paper plates and disposable utensils most of the time, but one of these days I’m going to get around to sewing a gazillion sturdy cloth napkins. Then we can keep a little laundry bin next to the other two bins.
Also, this is a great time of year to buy reusable party plates, which you can just toss in the dishwasher.
Another important thing that’s often overlooked is, if you’re using plastic cups, keep a Sharpie next to the cups so people can write their names and not have to keep getting fresh cups. Or you can get the cool new cups that have a little nameplate you can draw on. They’re recyclable, too, so even though it’s not ideal, it’s not worst case scenario.
Hey Katie!
We always have the recycle bin next to garbage bin for parties, too. And our guests are really starting to get the idea. I’ve purchased many washable (albeit plastic) plates, cups & utensils so we also have a bin for those. I still have to pull out some utensils from the garbage bin but not everyone gets our tiny choices. ;)
Future platic purchases for me will be from the Goodwill store that I just realized is on my way home from work - score!
However, I haven’t made the jump get to cloth napkins … gotta get on that. Anyone have a sewing machine they want to put to use for me? hee hee :)
I can’t sew to save my life, so I went to Etsy for my napkins. When I couldn’t find a style I liked, I posted a request on Alchemy with the number of napkins I wanted and how much I would pay for them. I’m actually glad I did that instead, since I was able to pick my own fabric–some of it was vintage!
I love the idea of asking people to wrap creatively! That is awesome… i will be passing the idea along. :)
It was really super cute … I wish I had photos of the wrapped gifts! Oops!! But, seriously, so little waste because of the creative wrapping. :)