The Brayer Family Blog: March 2013

How to Go Green and save Green on your Big Day:

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Restore!

We try our best to live in earth friendly practices on a daily basis.

When it came to our Wedding and Reception, it was very important to stay true to our values and beliefs.

Here are just a few ways that we were able to keep our Wedding Day and Reception Party environmentally friendly and low budget:

LOCATION: Our first big save was to host both the wedding and reception in my parents backyard. We live in Phoenix and were married in February with the reception in April so the weather was perfect. My parents have a beautifully landscaped back yard with lots of green grass, plants, trees, and flowers. They also supplemented more flowers and plants by borrowing some from their local nursery. We bought a white arch at Hobby Lobby and added some flowers, chairs, and ribbons for decor. We kept things very simple as only a few friends and family were going to attend the actual ceremony. I also made a play list with hand picked songs on my ipod and our wireless speakers for "walking down the aisle" and borrowed large speakers for the party.

I walked down the isle to John Denver's, "Annie's Song" (which Aaron hated and we fought about and I threw a pillow at him while planning the wedding...LOL!!!).
However, our song is Ray Charles, "Come Rain or Come Shine."

DECOR: Most all of the decorations we used were hand made, up-cycled or previously owned. We went for a vintage theme which allowed us to use lots of mine and my Mom's vintage silver trays, candelabras, lace, and doilies.

Friends and Family also helped me to collect recycled mason and glass jars to use as candle holders and vases. I filled the jars with sand and added candlesticks, tea lights/electronic tea lights and finished them off with a hemp bow on the outside.

We also opted to use baby's breath and hand made paper flowers (which Aaron even helped me make!) from vintage book pages and eucalyptus instead of flower arrangements as centerpieces.

I hand made "Just Married" and "Sweet Love" banners for our car and above the desert table. I simply used vintage book pages, a sharpie, and hemp string to make the banners. I love how they turned out!

We even found a company called foreverfiances that makes plant-able 100% recycled paper invitations embedded with wildflower seeds. This company was super easy and beautiful to work with.

FOOD & DRINKS: We used a catering company called Santa Barbera to cater all the food and supply tables, chairs, linens, staff, plates, glasses, and silverware. This was a big splurge. We stayed green by ordering lots of vegetarian and vegan dishes and opted to use all reusable cloth and ceramic dishes.

My parents neighbor was kind enough to supply almost all of the alcohol which was a huge save. The bar was one thing we did not want to compromise on so that was an enormous favor :)

We are fortunate to have such wonderful friends and family and asked several favors along the way. We had our good friend be our officiant, hired another friend to be a photographer, and borrowed DJ speakers. All of which we are extremely grateful for. I also have to mention that Aaron and I would never be able to afford half of this wedding and reception without the help of our parents :)

ATTIRE: Aaron and I kept our attire simple and bought several pieces that we could reuse in the future.

I got to wear my dress twice, borrowed my sisters veil, and went for simple jewelry and hand made hair flower accessories. I did my own makeup, and my mom and I did my hair. I bought a separate dress from Buffalo Exchange (a used clothing store) to wear to dinner after our ceremony.

I also plan on selling my wedding gown to be re-used. (update: I recently sold my wedding dress to Almond Tree...a consignment wedding boutique in Phoenix.

We last minute decided against having a wedding party, and instead simply asked those who were supposed to be to just wear anything black and be our guests.

Aaron bought separate black jacket and slacks, suspenders, and tie to mix and match for the ceremony and party and future uses as well.

Events: We skipped the traditional engagement party, bridal shower, bachelor parties and decided to do the ceremony sooner rather than later. We have lived together for the past several years and felt for us, it was better to just be focused on becoming husband and wife. Since we already have our home with everything we need, we decided not to do a registry and instead used money we got for a week long beach honeymoon with our dog, Bubba, in the summer (which i ended up being pregnant during...surprise!).