Making your special day green: How to plan an eco-friendly wedding
Vintage blue glass votives and stainless steel are mixed with air plants, succulents and orchids atop organic, cotton table linens. An old, stainless steel ice bucket completes Pur Luxe’s signature wedding design.
When Princess Diana and Prince Charles were married in 1981, Manhattan Beach resident Lisa May threw a party.
She wore a special dress, invited over all her best girlfriends and watched the fairytale spectacle over and over again all night.
“That, to me as a young person, was a defining moment of what the whole wedding thing is all about,” May recalled.
Today, May is just as obsessive about planning perfect weddings. But she’s equally passionate about making them eco-friendly.
Edible table center pieces. Wedding invitations that grow into plants. Photos printed on recycled paper. Décor that’s not only bright and bold, but also organic.
Three years ago, May founded Pur Luxe, an event planning company that specializes in environmentally-friendly events and weddings, offering a full range of services for the bride and groom who want to go green.
The Minneapolis native moved to Manhattan Beach nearly 20 years ago and spent almost the same amount of time in consumer products and retail. For a brief period, she moved to Bend, Oregon, which she described as being at the forefront of eco-friendly living.
Bright yellow Billy Balls and smooth stones offer natural décor for wedding guests to take home. A mix of crystal, china and vintage silver on organic table linens gives an eclectic touch, while cutting down on product waste by using “upcycled” and rented pieces.
“It was there I got the most exposure to what’s happening in the environmental movement,” May said. “When I came back, I saw that there was a shift in L.A. too.”
May is not off the grid and readily confesses to wearing leather boots. Nor does she only plan weddings that are super-environmentally conscious. She said, however, that making clients aware of choices is half the battle in making less of an impact.
May’s clients are often clueless that every aspect of their big day can be made more eco-friendly, so she starts by finding where they are in the process of being green and introduces options along the way.
“We can make better choices and still be luxurious without compromising the vision you have,” she said. “In a wedding, with every single component, you have a choice. I explain that these are concepts and they can be modified.”
Making a wedding’s greenery even greener is a good starting place, May said. To cut down on carbon footprints, she suggested using organic, locally-grown flowers, instead of plants that must be imported from other parts of the world. May works closely with Lily Pad Floral Design in Hermosa Beach to create bridal floral arrangements made of succulents and other drought-tolerant, native species.
A gold leaf tray that was a thrift store-find and peacock feathers adorn a reclaimed wood door that serves as a table. A soy candle atop sand in a vintage glass candle holder adds to the décor’s natural appeal.
She also recommends hiring caterers who serve organic and locally-grown food.
The use of “edible gardens” as table centerpieces – May’s used lemons, strawberries, apples and herbs – can add a green touch to a wedding and give guests tasty, healthy treats to go home with. May also suggested using naturally-dyed, organic table linens, on top of which she likes to layer “upcycled” materials — such as old, gold-plated silverware and vintage crystal and dishes – with natural décor, such as shells, rocks and hollowed out logs stuffed with live plants.
For clients who really want to green, May suggested spending cash on charitable contributions instead of wedding favors for guests.
“People take so much time picking out little boxes and chocolates to put on the tables,” she said. “I can’t tell you how many weddings I walk away from and all the boxes and favors are left over.”
May also recommended the website www.idofoundation.com for couples who encourage charitable donations in lieu of gifts.
Pur Luxe recently partnered with a Portland Maine photographer, who began using green practices after noticing a lot of waste in the industry. Instead of burning photos and video to CDs and DVDs – which don’t break down in landfills — Russell provides clients with biodegradable USB drives and also encourages the use of free, digital downloads. For prints, he uses archival-quality, recycled photo paper.
Russell also partners with local vendors who make custom picture frames from recycled lumber and high-quality handcrafted photo albums made from 100 percent organic silks and cottons.
A birch log is stuffed with locally-grown lambs ear and garden roses to give this extra-green décor a romantic feel.
“Five years ago, these types of products were not readily available or they were very expensive,” Russell said. “But my prices haven’t increased due to these new practices.”
Russell also suggested sending wedding invitations and save-the-date cards electronically to cut down on paper waste. He builds customized websites for some clients, who send invitations and information to their guests in one, virtual space. Some of his clients have opted for invitations made out of seed paper, which guests can plant and watch grow.
“If you send 300 invitations via the snail mail using paper, people are probably just going to throw them away,” Russell said. “That’s not just paper waste. It’s also the gas for the postal cars and planes that ship them.”
As for the most important feature of any wedding – the dress — May recommends clients consider going pre-owned. A Hermosa client visited the upscale Kleinfeld Bridal store in New York, where she found the perfect designer dress that was perfectly out of her price range. She found the same dress at a largely reduced cost on a website specializing in pre-owned wedding dresses that are often samples or have been sent back by a bride who bride changed her mind, got the wrong size or wants to recycle a dress she will likely never wear again. Brides looking for one-of-a-kind dresses can find wedding designers who use organic silks and cottons to handcraft gowns.
Vintage pink glass goblets, silver and crystal complement used violet china dishware that belonged to Lisa May’s grandmother. Succulents and orchids in wooden planters serve as centerpieces atop organic, vintage linens.
May often partners with local “green DJ” Jeff Murrell, who uses a fully sustainable, solar-powered sound system that doesn’t require an electrical outlet. Murrell said he can power a wedding and reception with his “green power boxes,” which use solar energy and act as no-impact generators into which equipment can be plugged in.
Travel can often leave the largest carbon footprint after any wedding, as guests drive and fly from all over. May suggested considering keeping the guest list small, arranging carpools and cutting back elsewhere to help offset the environmental impact.
She also recommended researching hotels and venues that recycle, build with LEED-certified practices, use biodegradable detergents and donate to local charities food leftover after a wedding.
“It starts with choices,” May said. “It’s about being aware of how you can consciously make different choices and realizing that you could pick something that will have a better impact.”
Pur Luxe will be an exhibitor at The London Salon Bridal Show at The London West Hollywood Hotel, 1020 N. San Vicente Blvd. in Los Angeles from 4 to 9 p.m. on March 21. For more information, visit www.purluxe.com and wwwjohndrussell.com.
Photos by John Russell | John D. Russell Photography