How to Make Flowers with Dennison Crepe Paper - Manufacturing Dennison Manufacturing Co.

This is the book the remarkable artist Jude Miller (see image on right) claims to have taught herself with. As far as I am concerned there is no higher recommendation for aspiring paper flower artists. You can use recycled paper to create beautiful designs you and your guests will enjoy long after your wedding! (For another example of Jude's work and other faux flower embellishments see the Accessories page of the Interactive Look Book)

An Inconvenient Truth: The Crisis of Global Warming - Al Gore

If you have not read this book or seen the movie yet it is really worth taking a look. The statistics are so compelling and Al Gore does a greta job of explaining the science and projected consequences of global warming.



I also recommend Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth website which offers useful information about global waring and climate change along with a carbon calculator to help you assess the impact of your daily life on the planet.

Offbeat Bride: Taffeta-Free Alternatives for Independent Brides - Ariel Meadow Stallings

Ariel's book is somewhat of a rant but a good read for anyone feeling like an odd ball in the wedding world seeking validation that they are not alone. She does a good job of explaining the process of being strangely drawn to and repulsed by convention at the same time and leads the reader down the path of her experience in finding a wedding that worked for her. Here is Amazon.com's take:

"Unenthused by a white wedding gown and bored by the hoopla of the Hollywood-style reception, Ariel Meadow Stallings found herself absolutely exhausted with the nuances of traditional nuptials. So, she chose to take a walk off the beaten aisle and embrace the non-traditional bride within. Through trial and error, Ariel and her fiancée managed to crank out a budget wedding with all-night dancing, guests toasting champagne in mismatched mugs, gorgeous gardens, no monogrammed napkins, no garter, no bridesmaids, and lots of lesbians...Offbeat Bride serves as an inspiration for those who are interested in a vegan buffet, avoiding bouquet tossing, doing away with the elitist guest list and being a control freak without becoming a Bridezilla. Filled with sidebars, tips, tricks and planner encouragement (all taffeta-free) to help you figure out your special day, this book sees couples through the wedding process from ideas on how to announce their engagement to answering the question, “So, how’s married life?” and everything in between."

Forcing, Etc.: The Indoor Gardener's Guide to Bringing Bulbs, Branches & Houseplants into Bloom - Katherine Whiteside

If you are planning a late fall or winter wedding forcing is a clever way to create colorful blooms with minimal environmental impact.

"It's not difficult, but it does take some planning and foresight. If you want to force bulbs to flower in February, for instance, you have to order them in late summer so that you can pot them up in the fall. Twigs, on the other hand, are much easier to force: just cut them after six weeks of cold weather, put them in some water, and watch the virtual spring of your warm rooms transform them into leggy, flowering spirea, corylopsis, forsythia, or catkins, for instance. Author Katherine Whiteside explores associated topics such as choosing the best container and presentation within the home, as well as topics only an expert could love ("the narcissus question")." - Amazon.com

Forcing, Etc.: The Indoor Gardener's Guide to Bringing Bulbs, Branches & Houseplants into Bloom is a good book for anyone interested in giving forcing a go.

Simply Green - Danny Seo

Danny Seo (picture above taken from his blog Daily Danny), has often been compared to Martha Stewart. He is a clever, creative and stylish and takes DIY to the next level. He has been featured on CBS News and was named as one of the top five eco-celebs on Tree Hugger. Wherever green is becoming vogue Danny is probably afoot. Now he has two "Simply Green" books available - each with wonderful pictures and ideas that could enhance any wedding. Definitely worth picking up if you like the Anthropologie woodsy-chic look.



He also has a number of inspirational green living books:


And finally - for those who like to have a thing to do a day in calender form:

Gorgeously Green

This book is a good read for brides as they prep for the big day. It offers advice on how to green your beauty regime, adopt of home fitness routine and prepare eco-tasty treats. Plus - the title is pretty fabulous.

Have a green wedding - The Global Warming Survival Guide - TIME

This article came out a few months ago but I think it is quite monumental and deserves a space in the reading room. TIME Magazine listed "Have a Green Wedding" as number 28 in the article "51 Things We Can Do to Save the Environment." Making this list shows that green weddings are truly in vogue and also acknowledges what a significant difference having an eco-conscious can make. Plus - that cake is so cute!

iGo Green Tip of The Day

iVillage now offers the iGo Green Tip of The Day. I like the idea of the Tip of The Day because sometimes it is easy to get overwhelmed and it gives you something to focus on. Click Here to see today's tip.

Organic Foods: Top 10 Reasons to Go Organic

This is a quick top 10 reasons list put out by Prevention magazine. A fast answer to the big question of "why organic?" Click here to read the article.

If you are interested in learning more about our food system I recommend Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals.

Here are some raves about the book:
The New York Times Book Review
Thoughtful, engrossing . . . You’re not likely to get a better explanation of exactly where your food comes from.

Los Angeles Times
Michael Pollan has perfected a tone—one of gleeful irony and barely suppressed outrage—and a way of inserting himself into a narrative so that a subject comes alive through what he’s feeling and thinking. He is a master at drawing back to reveal the greater issues.

The Seattle Times
If you ever thought ‘what’s for dinner’ was a simple question, you’ll change your mind after reading Pollan’s searing indictment of today’s food industry—and his glimpse of some inspiring alternatives. . . . I just loved this book so much I didn’t want it to end.

Michael Pollan also wrote The Botany of Desire: A Plant's-Eye View of the World, and most recently In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto.

The Everything Wedding Vows Book: Anything and Everything You Could Possibly Say at the Altar - And Then Some

This book has some great templates and ideas. I agreed with this review from a reader at Amazon:

If you are writing your own vows, or trying to come up with a toast, or need a reading for the ceremony...or just feel like telling your significant other how much you love him/her, this book is for you: tons and tons of sample vows, everything from poetry excerpts to "cookie cutter" vows where all you have to do is fill in the blank with the right name. It has vows for every occasion, quotes and sayings about love and marriage, and a whole lot more. This book is a great buy and should be passed on to friends!

The Knot Guide to Wedding Vows and Traditions: Readings, Rituals, Music, Dances, and Toasts

My husband and I used this book to help us think about what we did and did not want to do for our ceremony. I found it a down-to-earth and helpful resource.

From Publishers Weekly:
Without letting a lot of fluff get in the way of the facts, wedding expert Carley Roney makes available "readings, rituals, music, dances, speeches and toasts" in The Knot Guide to Wedding Vows and Traditions. Third in her wedding guide series, and culled from her online experience as founder of theknot.com, this guide is a resource for classy concepts ranging from the conventional to the hip, and drawing on a broad array of cultural traditions.

Blood Diamonds

Although the movie Blood Diamondreceived more attention, the book "Blood Diamonds" is written by a journalist and offers a detailed portrait of the the price of diamonds. Not for the light hearted (or light stomached) reader.

"Freelance journalist Campbell here writes about the cost of diamonds not in dollars to the consumer but in blood, torture, and death for the unfortunate residents of contested mining areas in Sierra Leone. He explains that "conflict diamonds," or "blood diamonds," which account for only three to four percent of all diamonds sold, are mined in war zones, smuggled out of the country, and sold to legitimate companies, financing ruinous civil wars and the plots of international terrorists, including the al Qaeda network. The gems' value and portability have made controlling the diamond mines important to guerrilla fighters, who maim and kill innocent villagers to secure their territory. Campbell has spoken with individuals all along the pipeline, from miners to soldiers to smugglers, and the grim portrait he paints will make many people think twice about buying another diamond. While Matthew Hart's Diamond: A Journey to the Heart of an Obsession covered the international diamond trade more widely, this focused study of the catastrophic effect of blood diamonds on Sierra Leone belongs in all libraries."

Deirdre Bray Root, Middletown P.L., OH
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

The DIY Bride

If you are crafty or are looking to save money, taking on projects for your wedding is a great way to create green elements for your wedding. While not a green book per se, the DIY encourages recycling and reducing monetary waste. Most of the project ideas can also be adapted to fit your needs:

Khris Cochran’s The DIY Bride: 40 Fun Projects for Your Ultimate One-of-a-Kind Wedding provides inspiration and projects for save-the-date cards, invitations, jewelry and accessories, ceremony decorations, programs, favors and more. Cochran, who founded the website DIYBride.com, also provides a cost comparison to show how much a similar item would cost if purchased in a store, allowing busy couples to decide whether it would be better to buy or make certain projects. A hair ornament for a flower girl, for example, costs about $5 to make but would cost about $40 to buy. The DIY Bride provides clear instructions and suggests whether a project could be completed by the couple themselves, with the help of the wedding party or with members of the family, offering clever ideas and the potential for fun invitation-building parties with friends. --Bookpage

Hey Mr. Green: Sierra Magazine's Answer Guy Tackles Your Toughest Green Living Questions

When is the right time to replace an old refrigerator? Is it more environmentally correct to buy your beer in bottles or cans? Is there any oil company that's really "greener" than the others? And how much paper do you actually need to recycle in order to save a whole tree?

For several years, Bob Schildgen (aka "Mr. Green") has been answering real-world questions like these in his Sierra magazine column.

Now the Sierra Club has distilled the best of "Mr. Green" into an enormously useful and entertaining book, Hey Mr. Green: Sierra Magazine's Answer Guy Tackles Your Toughest Green Living Questions. The book is organized in helpful sections- At Home offers tips on staying cool, cleaning up, and other domestic details; Food for Thought focuses on how to eat and drink better while spending less; Out and About covers getting around, fueling up, and enjoying the great outdoors; The Three Rs shows you how (and why) to reduce, reuse, and recycle almost everything; and The Big Picture considers how the environment, politics, religion, and other issues intersect--often at the dinner table.

Green Travel: The World's Best Eco-Lodges & Earth-Friendly Hotels

This book is not out yet, but I have heard great things about it. Here is the product description from Amazon:

Green Travel is the must-have guide to eco-lodges & green hotels around the world. Featuring 100 clean, green accommodations that are not only environmentally friendly, but work to support local communities as well, Choosing Eco-Travel celebrates the growing availability of green travel experiences. It also tackles some the more difficult issues that ethical travelers’ face--- questions about poverty, the politics of boycotting certain destinations, and the environmental impact of travel.

Divided into six chapters (North America & the Caribbean, Central & South America, Europe, Africa & the Middle East, Asia and Australasia), the book includes:
·100 independent reviews of green accommodations that have a minimum impact on the environment and benefit the local community in measurable ways.
·A full description of the green credentials of each hotel and lodge
·A range of choices from around the world: budget beds to luxury accommodations, solar-powered yurt camps to eco-chic city hotels.
·First-hand accounts of green travel experiences on each continent — from bear-watching in Alaska to wine and cheese trails in Britain
·Ethical travel dilemmas that tap into the key issues facing the responsible traveler
·Practical information about the greenest ways to get to your destination, social and environmental ratings for each listing, the best time to visit, and room rates.
·Clear locator maps and full-color images throughout

Lonely Planet Code Green: Experiences of a Lifetime

I was going to write my own review - but I think Wanderlust on Amazon summed it up well:

"This book is fantastic. If you love to travel but worry about the impact on the environment, culture, and economics of where you are visiting, or if you are looking for unique vacation ideas that are completely off any tourist track, this is the guide for you. It gives practical ideas and recommendations on a host of travel experiences from rebuilding temples in Mongolia and Nepal to observing lemurs for the National Parks in Madagascar. These aren't just ethereal ideas either-- the author gives you the web site for each project, the best times to go, how to get there, the costs, etc. And not all are about "volunteering"; there are suggestions for isolated islands in Micronesia (where all the money you spend goes directly to the locals who live there), hiking wildflower fields in Switzerland, and other more "luxury" vacation plans. Plus, there are explorations of some of the questions we all face when traveling: Should I give to beggars? Are indigenous tours and sites exploitative or appreciated? I recommend this book to anyone who wants to tread lightly, immerse themselves in culture, and make a positive economical impact while on vacation."

Living Green - Hartford Currant

When Barry and Kate Harrison Muchnick, students at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, married last year, they held the wedding in the Hudson River Valley, between the two families, to minimize carbon emissions. (MARK MIRKO / March 14, 2008)

By STEVE GRANT ■ Courant Staff Writer
March 30, 2008
Living Green

Steve grant was kind enough to include us in an article about green living at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies. My husband Barry's biodiesel truck also made it into the picture. :)

To see another picture of that handsome dog click here.

Going Green on Your Wedding Day - MSNBC Video

See MSNBC's coverage of green weddings "Going Green on Your Wedding Day"-featuring Joshua Houdek and Kristi Papenfuss!

With This Offset, I Thee Wed - Waste News

With This Offset, I Thee Wed is an article by Joe Truinl that ran in Waste News and featured Joshua Houdek and Kristi Papenfuss. One way to be green on your big day is to minimize your impact on climate change by reducing and offsetting the carbon emissions of your event.

Green Weddings and a Funeral - Five

In Issue Fifteen of Five Magazine (the one with Pearl Jam on the cover pictured above), Debbie Mack featured our wedding in an article called Green Weddings and a Funeral. While this article also has a few inaccuracies (I wore a refashioned dress made of regular silk and donated it Brides Against Breast Cancer after the wedding), it has a rather - well - unique perspective on the issue.

How Green Was My Wedding - NY Times

CLICK HERE


Organic wedding bells will ring out in a scenic trail area for Kate Harrison and Barry Muchnick.
Photo credit: C. M. Glover for The New York Time

Last year my husband and I were featured in the New York Times article How Green Was My Wedding. This was one of the first large articles on green weddings and made quite a splash. With the exception of a few minor inaccuracies (e.g. we were married at Catrock - not Castle Rock) Mia Navarro did a very good job of covering the why and how of green weddings. It was great to be able to contribute to her piece.

Green Weddings That Don't Cost the Earth

Green Weddings That Don’t Cost the Earth By Carol Reed-Jones (1996) is a small volume printed on rough recycled paper with soy-based ink. This book was one of the first of its kind and is very DIY die-hard - sporting tips on where to get pens for handwriting invitations and good recipes for baking your own vegan wedding cake. Certainly not for everyone, but a great read for "the barefoot hippy nut berries," as my mother would say.

Eco-Chic

Eco-Chic by Emily Elizabeth Anderson (2007) is the most current book on the market and offers number of options that were not available just a few years ago, like bamboo fiber clothing. It is organized by the "Three R" categories: reduce, reuse and recycle and offers many good green wedding planning ideas and resources.

Organic Weddings

 As the title implies, Organic Weddings: Balancing Ecology, Style, and Tradition focuses on the atmosphere of a green wedding. It has a lot of good information, but is most interesting because it offers a multitude of expect interviews, couples’ stories, and issue sidebars.