Lisa MacLean doesn't have to wear a gown made from burlap sacks to have an eco-friendly wedding.
When she walks down the aisle in July to say her vows with Terry Fraser, the wedding party will have arrived in hybrid cars, the tables will glow with soy candles and their guests will eat organic, locally sourced food.
The Winnipeg pair is joining a growing trend: Couples across Canada are planning eco-friendly weddings to lighten their footprints on the environment.
"A wedding does have a big environmental impact, but there are little changes that a bride can make to help lessen her impact," MacLean says.
"It's a big day and an important day, and you want to feel good about what you're doing and not be wasteful."
That doesn't mean they have to scrimp on the celebrations.
"You can show people that it's possible, and it can still be really chic and nice," says MacLean, 27, a stay-at-home mom of a four-year-old daughter.
"It's going to look just like any other wedding. It's not going to seem like some hippie, granola-ish wedding. Every little decision we make as consumers makes a difference."
Her "green" choices include having wedding invitations made from paper that's manufactured from 100 per cent recycled material and printed with vegetable and soy dyes. Her RSVPs will come by e-mail instead of regular mail.
The wedding is being held at FortWhyte Alive, a nature centre with geo-thermal heating and cooling and organic, locally sourced food.
The 100 guests will drink organic wine -- she's trying to convince her pharmacist fianc © to also serve organic beer -- and take home favours of small jars of locally produced honey.
The extra cost of going green is "marginal," MacLean says, noting that one of the bigger expenses was using cleaner-burning soy candles that cost about four times more than ones made of paraffin.
"I think, as consumers, the more we demand green products, the more options we'll have," MacLean says. "Currently, there's not much out there in Winnipeg if you want to do a green wedding."
Considering there were 5,785 weddings in Manitoba last year, a group of five Winnipeg businesswomen decided it makes sense to respond to the demand to go green.
In April, Bonny Fraser, Yoko Chapman, Lindsay Rakowski, Krista Robertson and Patty Boge joined forces and launched Eco Luxe Event Design Group (www.ecoluxewinnipeg.com).
The joint venture promotes their four environmentally conscious online companies and highlights other like-minded businesses that supply products and services for weddings, parties and corporate events.
Fraser, who owns My Secret Garden, is providing the flowers for MacLean's wedding. Her company tries to use flowers that are local and seasonal or from accredited growers producing flowers in an environmentally and socially responsible manner.
She uses biodegradable packaging, such as cellophane sleeves made from eucalyptus leaves and organic ribbons that are just as compostable as her flowers.
Chapman owns a stationary business called Pulp and Circumstance. For years, she made invitations and cards using numerous pieces and layers of paper with embellishments like wire and ribbon.
"It seemed kind of, at some point, that it was such a shame that I would be making 500 menus for a corporate function and I knew they'd sit on a table for two hours and then end up in the garbage and I would charge a lot for them," Chapman says.
After much research, she found paper that is Forestry Stewardship Council-certified, which means the process used to make it meets certain criteria for the way ink, chemicals and printing plates are used and how waste is disposed.
She now has a stationery line made from 100 per cent post-consumer waste that uses vegetable-based ink. She also provides local weddings and other events with a recycling box so she can reuse parts of old cards.
It was through her business that she met her other Eco Luxe partners and they started talking about how they could promote each other's eco-friendly products.
In 2004, Rakowski and Robertson started an online cookie and cupcake business called Sweet Impressions. They came up with such products as organic cookies and cupcakes and vegan cookies, which don't use eggs, dairy or meat products.
For weddings, they can make cookie place cards inscribed with each guest's name or with designs similar to the wedding invitations.
Digital photography also plays into eco-friendly weddings.
Boge's Off the Page Photography provides clients with online proofs and movie DVDs to cut down on chemicals and paper. She also packages the DVDs in biodegradable cases and puts them in reusable bags.
Developing a company like Eco Luxe is a win-win situation, she says.
"It's an opportunity to really, really, really make a huge impact," Boge says. "Weddings account for a huge carbon footprint because there's so much waste."
A 2008 readership survey by Weddingbells Magazine estimated Manitobans spend an average of $15,000 to $20,000 on their weddings, and 57 per cent of brides plan to make their special day greener.
Eco Luxe also has a resource list of companies it calls its "friends" that are highlighted on its website. Those businesses have to supply Eco Luxe with a green mission statement.
Winnipeg event planner Emma Singh is considering becoming an Eco Luxe friend.
Her company, Events by Emma, specializes in eco-friendly, outdoor and ethnic weddings. She's planned 12 eco-friendly weddings in the last year and a half.
She says couples can do things such as choosing gems other than diamonds for their wedding rings if they're concerned about the mining of "blood diamonds" that fund wars to holding weddings outdoors to conserve energy.
She predicts eco-friendly weddings are here to stay.
"I don't think it's a fad," Singh says. "I think people are realizing that we all need to make important choices for our life now and forever.
"I always tell my clients to treat every day like Earth Day."
How to have a more eco-friendly wedding
Choose a park or nature centre for the wedding and reception site.
Buy invitations made from 100 per cent recycled materials or use e-mail.
Have the wedding party use hybrid cars or horses and buggies. Carpool guests.
In lieu of wedding gifts, ask guests to make a donation to an eco-friendly charity.
Choose a wedding gown made from organic silk, linen, bamboo or hemp or update a used dress.
Try to use organic, seasonal or locally grown flowers .
Carry a fancy purse or fan instead of a flower bouquet.
Consider using potted flowers or small trees for centrepieces.
Choose a sit-down dinner rather than a buffet. Send leftovers to a soup kitchen, if possible.
Serve organic food and organic wine, beer, champagne, tea and coffee.
Give guests wedding favours such as tree seedlings, jars of honey, cookies or cupcakes, flower pots or botanical paper with flower seeds inside that you can plant.
Throw wild birdseed instead of confetti.
Choose a digital photographer who has online proofs instead of paper ones. Only print your favourite pictures and have others in a DVD movie.
Have an eco-friendly honeymoon, such as going camping.
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