Handmade Wedding Series: Eat Greener Food with Emily of Eco-Chic Weddings

2008-03-26T10:00:00Z

Emily Anderson of eco-chic weddings is here to school us on better food alternatives for your Handmade Wedding. She knows what she's talking about; she used to work planning events and weddings for Martha Stewart's operation before deciding to focus on sustainabililty. Emily has been co-blogging the Indie Wedding Guide at Vintage Indie, which we wrote about here. Etsy will be joining her at the Down 2 Earth sustainable living expo at the Boston Hynes Convention Center this weekend (www.d2eboston.com).

I’m (Kinda) Sweet on You
Sugar, coffee and chocolate are very important. Okay, you’re probably nodding your head “oh, I agree…” But I’m not talking about the pleasure of its taste. When I say important, I am talking about the incredible global impact our world-wide love of sugar, coffee and chocolate has on virtually every corner of the planet. For centuries, these three items have led to the rise and fall of empires and individuals. They have also been at the top of the list of things having a negative impact on our environment.

But simply choosing organic is only part of it. It’s equally important to buy products with the Fair Trade label. Amazing, I know, but a choice as simple as the sugar you use in your wedding cake can mean the difference between survival and destruction for small communities in Africa and South America. It takes a tremendous amount of natural resources to produce the 2.8 million weddings per year in the U.S. If each wedding has just one wedding cake, that would still mean 30 million pounds of sugar for the cakes alone.

When I started writing my book over four years ago, it was a different marketplace. Not many people were having the “buy green” or “buy local” conversation. It was also before Etsy and the amazing connection it gives the consumer to the individual producer. I used to recommend that couples seek out local people who would be willing to bake them an organic, fair trade cake, and to look online for Fair Trade coffee suppliers and chocolate producers…Now, even if you can’t find someone in your local community, you can possibly find someone in your Etsy community who will be happy to help you make your wedding fair and delicious.

Take the Cake…
pattycakesbakeshop will make you a cake, but do the frosting yourself; it’ll travel better…

ThePeach has these cute cupcake toppers for just $3.85 per dozen, upcycled from vintage fabric.

Or, maybe you’re from the Midwest (Moline, anyone, anyone?), in which case your guests will get a kick out of ThePeach's farm-centric John Deere toppers…

Cookie, Cookie Cookie
Edibles make the perfect usable wedding favor — just say no to the wedding frames engraved with your wedding date…Good for you, not so much for your guests. Instead, order some organically yummylicious cookies from bearsbakedgoods…personally, I favor (ahem) these sugary snowballs — I could just eat them all up.

Coffee Talk…
Linda Richman probably didn’t care, but Brainscan makes it easy to be good with fair trade organic coffee; their beans come from Costa Rica and Sumatra. Each bag is available in caf, half-caf and decaf and will makes one pot of coffee…It would make a perfect favor to give your guests. ($1.50 per bag)

If you want to personalize you can buy custom stickers from LittlebeaneBoutique for $5.75 per 20.

Hi, My Name is Emily, and I’m a Chocoholic…
Really? You too? Okay, another fantastic way to really add some flavor to your wedding: handmade chocolate treats from Eurodelicious…Purple white chocolate!

For more information about fair trade and green agricultural practices, go to ecoworldly.com.

Eco-friendly is the More Savory Option
Chicken, beef, or salmon — sound dreadfully familiar? Hey, I served salmon and chicken at my wedding, so no judgment here. But, knowing what I know today I certainly would make quite a different choice, and I hope you will consider doing the same.

Something’s Fishy
Salmon may be an easy choice for your wedding menu, but it's not so easy on the environment. Most supermarkets and restaurants serve farmed salmon, which is associated with water pollution, chemical use, parasites and diseases that further deplete the endangered wild Atlantic Salmon. Make a better choice by going to OceansAlive.org for the most comprehensive information about the eco-best — and the eco-worst — seafood.

Go Local
When Alisa Smith and J.B. MacKinnon began writing their book, Plenty, they discovered that most ingredients in an average meal travel a distance that is the same as between Boulder, Colorado and New York City. Thus, the transportation of food across the country from farm to plate is a major contributing factor in the high-levels of greenhouse gas emissions. Smith and MacKinnon spent an entire year eating food produced within 100 miles of their Vancouver home, and it wasn't easy. You're not writing a book, so you probably don't want to make that much of a commitment. But you can find simple ways to eat local — get more information and ideas that might work for you, and for your wedding, of course, at localharvest.org.

Eat Your Vegetables
Go vegan — for your wedding. A daily vegetarian diet requires only 300 gallons of water, while a meat-eating diet requires more than 4,000 gallons of water. According to GoVeg.com, raising animals for food causes more water pollution in the U.S. than any other industry. And if that wasn't enough, each vegetarian saves an acre of trees every year! So, if you are going to make one small change for your wedding, serve a delicious vegetarian meal, there are great — and tasty — options. For some yummy ideas, check out: VegetarianTimes.com.

Comment below if you have ideas for fresher, tastier and more eco-friendly food. And it doesn't have to be for a wedding. These ideas are even more powerful when incorporated into your day-to-day meals!

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Handmade Wedding Series: Eat Greener Food with Emily of Eco-Chic Weddings