Eco-Chick · The modern girl's guide to living green & fabulous.

Housingworks Green Weddings Event with Leanne Marshall, Mary Cleaver, Danielle Venokur and Mireya Navarro

Project Runway designer Leanne Marshall (Season 5) shows us the gorgeous ecofriendly wedding dress she whipped up for the event!

I had lots of fun at last week’s Green Weddings event put on by Housingworks in Manhattan. A lively panel discussion was moderated by author Mireya Navarro (who wrote the gorgeous new book, Green Wedding). Mireya was joined by Mary Cleaver of The Cleaver Company organic catering, Project Runway designer Leanne Marshall, and Danielle Venokur, of dvGreen sustainable events.

Old friends and new! Brenna McLoughlin of Elegant Bride magazine, Gloria Dawson of The Daily Green, Jessica Mischener of Portovert and Inhabitat and Rene Ebersole of Audubon Magazine.

Attendees included magazine editors, bloggers, ecofashionistas, fashion and graphic designers, brides-to-be, green enthusiasts and random passers-by, as well as the generous Housing Works staff and volunteers. Housing Works provides medical care, housing and legal assistance to people with HIV/AIDS who need help.

The panel, l to r: Mireya, Leanne, Mary and Danielle

Food was a hot topic for the panel, with Mary Cleaver telling the audience about how when she got her start, it was hard to find local food in NYC. “Food came from California, even in the summer. There’s been a tremendous growth in growing locally in the last 3-5 years. It’s not just the impact of shipping the food, it’s the flavor that’s so much better with local,” she said. She recommended Alice Water’s “The Delicious Revolution” to those who were new to the local/organic/seasonal food table. All the panelists agreed that local, seasonal food was the way to go for a wedding dinner.

Local, seasonal food was also served by the Housing Works Catering Company, who provided yum hors doeuvres

Danielle Venokur of dvGreen agreed that for some parts of a wedding, going green means it will cost more, but there are ways to integrate sustainability for a lower price tag. “You might have to be a bit more creative, or do more legwork, but sometimes it will actually cost you less–photography for example. Going digital and only printing the images you really want will save money and paper waste. A wedding website will cut down on paper and shipping,” said Danielle. Then you can use those savings towards more ecofriendly transportation options.

“For anything that’s a part of your wedding, you should be asking ‘Where did this come from? Where does it go when I’m done with it?’ If I can’t get to the bottom of these questions,” Danielle said, “I don’t want to get involved with it.”

When it comes to the dress, Leanne suggested borrowing was an ecofriendly and economical way to go, in keeping with the ‘something borrowed’ theme of the old bridal advice quartet. “A lot of brides want new dresses though, and there are some great ecofabrics out there to design with,” she said.

The panelists came together to give a list of the three most important “To Do’s” for greening a wedding:
1. Food (local, seasonal, organic, veggie/vegan)
2. Flowers (local, seasonal)
3. Invites (recycled paper, websites, soy or nontoxic ink)

In addition to the panel, there were a number of NYC-based vendors who showed their wedding-appropriate wares:

Maryanne Loverme of Wabisabi Jewelry

Wabisabi Jewelry up close- this necklace is made from upcycled pennies with recycled images adhered to them.

I loved Lovely Day Designs’ soy candles that are poured in vintage teacups- they make perfect party favors and are upcycled to boot!

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Dose of Reality: Engagements

To produce that single ounce, miners have to quarry hundreds of tons of rock, which are then doused in a liquid cyanide solution to separate the gold. Payal Sampat, the campaign director for Earthworks, the mining watchdog, told The Independent: “Gold mining is arguably the world’s dirtiest and most polluting industry.”

My boyfriend proposed not too long ago (so I guess he’s not my boyfriend anymore) and he said the hardest thing wasn’t worrying about if I’d say yes or no…or getting the mood right…or doing it at the right time…or any of those small things. He said the hardest part, by far, was finding a ring that wouldn’t make me go into a rant about mining and health or cry because of child soldiers.

Recently National Geographic put up a slide show about gold – its effects on people and the environment.

A wedding ring which costs around $2000 (CND) which is about 1 ounce of gold creates up to 30 tons of toxic waste. This toxic waste effects us all here in North America as our lakes are not only threatened to be turned into dump sites, but already are in some cases.

CBC News has learned that 16 Canadian lakes are slated to be officially but quietly “reclassified” as toxic dump sites for mines. The lakes include prime wilderness fishing lakes from B.C. to Newfoundland.

Environmentalists say the process amounts to a “hidden subsidy” to mining companies, allowing them to get around laws against the destruction of fish habitat.

And really…The real cost of gold is a dirty one that could be with us for centuries as shown be previous studies.

Environmental Fate of Mercury

* “Hot spots” at mine sites
* Contaminated sediments
* Transport to downstream areas
* Bioaccumulation and biomagnification in food chain

Risks to Human Health

* Consumption of contaminated fish
* Improper handling of contaminated sediments
* Inhalation of mercury vapors
* Low risk in municipal drinking water
* Some mine waters unsafe for consumption

And although there are attempts to make it cleaner, you can do your part to make sure your bling is ethical. My engagement ring is from Brilliant earth, which was his final choice after checking out blue nile, polar bear diamonds and greenKarat.

Beautiful Eco-Friendly Invitations made Easy: Bella Figura

 

There are certain cultural traditions that are hard to let go of, especially when it comes to weddings and event planning, and the invitation is one of them. No matter how much of an eco-chick you are, sending out wedding invites via email might just not cut it for you. Fortunately, more and more, environmentally conscious printers and artisans are creating some gorgeous options (that are tasteful enough so they won’t piss off your mother-in-law).

Thankfully Bella Figura, an artisan letterpress shop based in Syracuse, NY, has stepped up to make sustainable event planning a bit easier and a whole lot of fun.

Debbie Urbanski and Harold Kyle are the masterminds ( and cute couple) behind this beautiful work. Together they saved letterpresses from scrap yards throughout the Midwest and the Northeast to weld together their eclectic shop upstate. Now with over 50 tons of equipment – presses, board shears, paper cutters – the Bella Figura shop has produced many fabulous invitations, announcements, and collateral pieces.

Their work has been featured in Modern Bride, Martha Stewart Weddings, and Bride’s magazines, and some of their clients include Barnes and Noble, Little, Brown and Company Publishers and NBC.

The Bella Figuera shop is entirely wind-powered through Native Energy and they purchase bus passes for their employees to encourage public transportation use. As a member of  1% for the planet, they  donate 1% of their sales to The Conservation Fund, Conservation International, and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Bella Figura’s other green business practices include: recycling their photo chemistry, film, paper offcuts, and photopolymer printing plates, keeping empty ink cans and old rags out of the landfills, and recycling and composting their waste. Once a year they donate surplus paper and envelopes to Syracuse Public Schools and they use 100% post-consumer recycled materials in their shipping.

As for the materials used to make the beautiful pieces, they only use vegetable-oil based and low-VOC inks and environmental papers. How great is that! Have fun planning away.

Wedding Transportation Alternative: Would You Do This?

As HippyShopper and EcoStreet (two of my fave blogs) report, this gorgeous British couple (Robert Gray and Stefanie Schmiedel) and their whole wedding party, took the Tube to their wedding! They wanted to save on carbon emissions, and they def. succeeded. I must admit that London’s Underground is superclean and pretty darn fast, but to your wedding?

I like it. My aunt and uncle (plus all the guests) walked from their house to Wave Hill in the Bronx when they got married. Why not make your wedding a reflection of who you truly are? If you are cheesy, over-the-top traditional types, take a gas-guzzling limo (something tells me I’m going to get in trouble with some friends here), but real style is about being true to oneself and bucking the trends. Kudos to Robert and Stefanie!

Sweet and Super Green Wedding Gifts

Summer is wedding time, and if you’re like me, you might be running out of ideas for great, eco-friendly gifts. I try to give native trees or bushes from my local nursery (a great gift because they add value to a home, are not too expensive, are pretty, and they suck up CO2 to boot!) But some friends are not into planting and landscaping, or live in apartments in New York City, which is why I’m so excited about Uncommon Goods. Seriously, not only is their stuff ‘not the usual gift crap’, to quote myself, but they also have a whole recycled section (10 pages of it!). Check out some of my favorite picks below.

Lamps Made of Old Circuit Boards, $220-$280

Basket Made from Wine Barrels, $215

Recycled Glass Plates, $72

And if you’re feeling particularly generous…..

Chair Made from Old NYC Street Signs (really lights up!), $3,700

Recycled Pinball Machine, Now a Table, $2,800