Something Green: An Earth-Friendly Wedding

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YOU KNOW THE WORDS to "An Inconvenient Truth" by heart, you'd recycle your grandma if you could, and you really respect the plight of polar bears. But at your wedding, you don't want to treat friends and family to granola and a "Kumbaya" sing-along. Now, thanks in part to couples' raised awareness of environmental issues and to wedding vendors' efforts to meet this rising demand, there's a happy medium at which you can do your part without feeling uncomfortably crunchy.

"I would consider us environmentalists," says recently married Cheryl Mackay, 33, above, "but not the Greenpeacers on street corners and all that. We wanted to minimize the waste in a mainstream way — we weren't interested in making a political statement." Mackay wed Corey Norton, also 33, this past October at Woodend Sanctuary in Chevy Chase, where part of their rental fee doubled as a donation to the estate's environmental programs.

Similarly, 27-year-old Trish Nowoslawski, who will marry Justin Kenlon, 27, in June, said she wanted their event to be as eco-friendly as possible ("within reason"). Sustainability "is a big part of my life, and I've done a lot of reading about how easy it is to do," she says. "Just little, tiny changes that make a difference."

It's true — it doesn't take much to add a tinge of green. Hire a digital rather than a traditional photographer, or a DJ like Evan Reitmeyer (Mydeejay.com), whose company offsets its carbon emissions and runs a paperless office. Maybe you'll choose a green hotel for your out-of-town guests, or, instead of buying new, look on Craigslist.com or rent what you know you'll use only once. "It's the type of stuff I don't think anyone even noticed," says Mackay.

In that spirit, we've gathered some easy wedding tweaks ranging from mini to medium to major.

» INVITES
» GREEN: Calligraphy is expensive, but it eliminates the inks and chemicals that might be used in a commercial printing process.
» GREENER: Look for locally sourced paper, either recycled or made from cotton, a renewable resource. Logan Circle's the Written Word (1427 P St. NW; 202-223-1400), for instance, sells soy-based inks printed on U.S.-made cotton paper.
» GREENEST: Skip the paper invites and e-mail/call your guests. Build a Web site with the pertinent details and send guests to it for info. Or do as Mackay did: She and her fiance sent invitations but included only one extra slip of paper. "We put a little bird on it that said, 'To support our conservation efforts, go to our Web site to RSVP.' That's as aggressive as my husband was willing to go," she laughs.

» FLOWERS
» GREEN: Reuse ceremony flowers as reception centerpieces. Planner Laura Auer of Soiree Special Events (Soireespecialevents.com) says it's as simple as checking with your florist, who may be heading back in your direction anyway.
» GREENER: Buy pesticide-free flowers, so their area of origin stays clean and/or less-polluted.
» GREENEST: Harvest seasonal posies from a friend or neighbor, or buy from a local farmer. This is tougher for a winter wedding, but still possible: Cindy Brown, assistant director of Greenspan Gardens in Fairfax County, suggests using brightly colored berries or dogwoods, which have red, pink or gold branches. If you don't want to give up flowers entirely, talk to Barbara Von Elm (Growingwildfloral.com), who combines imported and homegrown blooms, right, (from her Delaplane, Va., farm) for her clients.

» FOOD
» GREEN: Donate your extra edibles to a local food bank. Some don't have the staff to pick up food from an evening reception, but for a lunchtime meal, brides shouldn't run into problems.
» GREENER: Locally grown, in-season organic food has much less of an impact on the earth than pears flown in from China.
» GREENEST: Ban meat. The folks at PETA are right: Vegetarianism and veganism really are better. For the environment, at least. According to a 2006 UN Food and Agriculture Organization study, the international meat industry is responsible for 18 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions — even more than transportation.

» DRESS
» GREEN: Borrow accessories instead of buying, and ask bridesmaids to buy a dress they'll wear again. Or, if you must have it all match, ask your entourage to donate their dresses to the Glass Slipper Project (Glassslipperproject.org) or Fairy Godmothers Inc. (Fairygodmothersinc.com), organizations that give dresses to underprivileged teens come prom time.
» GREENER: Buy a vintage wedding dress. Poshgirlvintage.com has a wide selection that varies weekly. And Brides Against Breast Cancer's sales of donated dresses benefit Making Memories, a non-profit that grants the wishes of breast cancer patients.
» GREENEST: Consider a gown made from sustainable materials, such as hemp, above. Rawganique.com and others sell organic hemp wedding dresses; hemp's a renewable, quick-growing resource that requires few to no chemicals to grow.

» VENUE/TRANSPORTATION
» GREEN: Consider a reception spot that supports the environment, like a museum, garden or arboretum. At the Philip Merrill Environmental Center in Annapolis, one can admire views of the Chesapeake Bay from inside a LEED-certified building.
» GREENER: Use shuttles or hybrid vehicles to move guests from the ceremony to the reception. Bonus points if you arrange for group transportation to get your out-of-town guests to and from the airport.
» GREENEST: Hold the ceremony and reception at the same venue, or within walking distance of each other. Nowoslawski is doing this at the Decatur House, and the hotel is five blocks away.

» HAIR/MAKEUP
» GREEN: Cargo Cosmetics' PlantLove lipsticks, ($20 each, Sephora) right, come in a compostable tube made out of corn. Plant the box and it'll sprout a patch of wildflowers.
» GREENER: Look for the USDA National Organic Program seal, which signifies at least 70 percent organic goodness inside. Or, set a natural tone with non-product-shellacked hair. Go "more relaxed, with loose, natural-looking waves — something any hair type can accomplish with a great stylist and a good blow-dryer," says Fred Hawck, event-styling specialist at one80 Salon on K Street.
» GREENEST: Skip the nail salon. Several chemicals in polish have been designated by the EPA as potentially harmful.

» HONEYMOON
» GREEN: Calculate the CO2 your airplane trip will emit, using a calculator like the one at Terrapass.com, then buy offsets — money that funds the development of wind, solar or other renewable energy products. Warning: Carbon offsets are a controversial topic right now, with many debating the pros and cons.
» GREENER: Select a hotel at Greenhotels.com. They're responsible for many of the changes occurring in the hotel industry — notably, those little cards in the room that ask you to reuse your towels.
» GREENEST: It's official: Being green shows good taste! Anna Post, great-great-granddaughter of etiquette maven Emily Post, suggests: "Look locally for a cozy little B&B to hole up in — it cuts down on your carbon footprint and keeps your dollars in your local community."

Written by Express contributor Rachel Kaufman