Many women spend their childhood and teen years dreaming
about their weddings. From the moment
we’re old enough to take our mom’s curtains from the linen closet and bobby pin
them in our hair for a makeshift veil, weddings are at the forefront of our
thoughts. As we get older, we start to
realize just how expensive weddings are.
The average wedding in the United States is roughly $27,000. Most of us have also realized that the
lavish, extravagant dream wedding we’ve imagined will also be wasteful and
excessive as well as expensive. The
average wedding produces 400-600 pounds of trash. With over 2.5 million weddings each year,
that’s a lot of full landfills.
Thankfully, recycling is more popular than ever right now,
especially in the wedding industry. Eco-chic
seems to be the new trend. New websites
are popping up every day with listings from newly married couples hoping to
sell items from their weddings. In some
instances, wedding items can even be found on freecycling sites, too. This is a wonderful step in the right
direction toward helping our environment.
One of the most important steps in the wedding planning
process for a bride-to-be is finding the perfect wedding gown. Wedding gowns can range in prices, from $400
all the way up to $10,000 or more for designer dresses or custom
creations. In the past, eco-conscious
brides found it difficult to find affordable wedding gowns made of recycled
materials that were as stylish and beautiful as other wedding dresses. Now, designers are creating gowns from
eco-friendly or organic materials such as hemp, organic cotton and wild silks
that are both beautiful and more affordable than the recycled gowns in previous
years. Here are a few organic/eco-friendly
dress options:
Tamman Bridal
is a London-based ethical and eco-conscious couture bridal salon. Tamman uses a variety of organic and
eco-friendly ethical materials for their gowns, including organic wild eri
silk, organic fair trade cotton, bamboo, banana yarn, jute, nettle, hemp and
linen. Tamman uses natural dyes and
water recycling methods. If chemical
dyes are needed, they are free from heavy metal and AZO.
Threadhead
Creations is an online retailer offering ready to ship and made to order
dresses. Threadhead Creations strives to
make sustainable choices when purchasing and selecting fabric for their
dresses. They use natural fibers such as
organic cotton, hemp and wild peace silk in their designs.
If organic fabrics aren’t really your style, you can still
help out the environment and actually recycle a gown by purchasing a
previously-worn wedding gown. Encore Bridal is a consignment and
resale shop offering “nearly new” couture wedding gowns at discounted
prices. When you purchase a previously
worn dress from Encore Bridal, you’re not only helping the environment. A portion from every sale is donated to
various charities that support cervical cancer research, so you’re helping out
a good cause as well.
Another wonderful charity, Brides Against Breast Cancer accepts
donations of previously worn wedding gowns.
The gowns are then offered for sale and proceeds benefit programs and
services that offer support, education and hope to women and men who are
affected by breast cancer.
If you can’t find what you like there, there are many other
websites offering previously worn wedding gowns. Once Wed also offers
previously worn wedding gowns for sale.
Additionally, you can search websites such as Ebay and Craigslist
for wedding gowns for sale.
Everyone deserves their dream wedding, but we must be
conscious of the cost. The monetary cost
is always an important factor, but the cost to the environment is one that will
not only affect us, but all future generations.
Yvone Kon is a previous event coordinator and bridal
consultant. Now she’s a blogger,
freelance writer and a mom. She
frequently writes about “green” weddings and recycling for Environmental
Data Resources, Inc. She is the
author of the blog EventSpiration,
providing inspiration and ideas for weddings, parties and holidays. For information on freelance writing
projects, please contact her via her blog.
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