Stamps for a Cause

Even though I'd rather not, in an effort to save face for the lack of traditional "etiquette" in this wedding, I've decided to send formal invitations and thank-you notes via snail mail. Here are my saving graces:

• As I've posted before, the paper for my invitations are eco-friendly. I had to compromise on the soy ink issue so the budget would not be blown, but I got to more fully support a local business, Open House, in the process so not all is lost. Plus, I love the way they turned out!


• My thank-yous are written on recycled and soy ink note cards (and are pretty).


• My mom, future mother-in-law, and aunts were surprisingly receptive to my event e-vites, online RSVPs, and no inner-evelopes requests. This saved us plenty of paper waste and mailing energy, never mind expenses!


• And my favorite part.....my stamps! Adam and I decided in lieu of the traditional "Love" stamp option, we'd use the Adopt a Shelter Pet stamps. These stamps were designed to help feed and raise awareness for shelter pets in needs of adoption.

Everyone, PLEASE forgive me for the slowness as I attempt to get my thank-yous out. I'm EXTREMELY grateful for all the wonderful gifts we've received, but I am also an EXTREMELY bad speller and hand writer making the process a long one.

Invites will be delivered shortly, so I better get crackin' on the website! Where does the time go!?

Creative Gift Wrap

I'm back in Charleston after back-to-back shower weekends in Madison. Had a great time at both and Adam and I got a ton of awesome loot! I've since logged some serious hours in the kitchen arranging the cabinets and admiring the fiesta wonderfulness!

I've suggested on our website that when someone gives us a gift, they attempt to wrap it in an eco-friendly way. From our website: "If wrapping a gift, please try to reuse materials such as newspaper, grocery bags, pre-used gift wrap, magazine pages...let your imagination run wild! If shipping something, there's no need to have it wrapped at all."

A surprising amount of gift-givers complied and some came up with great ideas I never thought of! Mrs. D used the original shipping box and decorated with the letters "RE" cut out next to a drawing of a bike. (get it - re-cycle! picture above). My mom used a Rubbermaid tub to hold a couple bulky gifts. (She was hoping I'd then reuse that tub to take more of my stuff out of her house...we'll see.) I'm also proud to share that Macy's gives the option to all registers to request no gift wrap on shipments - we happily complied.

I have to say, though, Adam's family definitely took the cake! His sister used old Purdue and Fire Recruit t-shirts to wrap boxes. His parents used a trash bag (which we later used to collect trash), tied with scrap fabric from the rehearsal dinner table runners, and finished with sunflowers left over from the rehearsal dinner centerpiece trial run to cover our new hedge trimmer. His uncles presented us with a well-used, slightly rusty, old grill in which a picture of our shiny NEW grill was housed. Mad props to the Suiter/Jones families!

Even with the efforts to reduce, we still managed to create a ton of waste. Unfortunately, Madison is running into some supply and demand issues with their recycling plant, so some of our waste ended up in the trash. (Good thing a large portion was second hand to begin with!) In better news, Charleston has recently EXPANDED their recycling program to include all numbered plastics, wrapping paper, and corrugated cardboard for curbside pick up. Their goal is to have 40% of county's waste recycled. I have to brag - Adam and I are running about 85% recycled/15% trash at the moment. :)

Everything that has made it's way to Charleston is being put to another use. Good boxes/tissue paper are being saved for future gifts and storage, packing peanuts were given to Qwik Pack and Ship on Daniel Island, and the rest was flattened, sorted, and set out to be recycled.

I'm going to get back to dish gazing now...

Bachelorette Party

So much has been going on lately, I haven't had time to post (never mind do all the planning I'm supposed to be doing!) Mom is trying to be patient, but if I don't get on the ball soon, she might explode!

I've moved into our new house and am loving it. Even though the a/c leaked all over the carpets and hardwood the first night, and the master bathroom shower is still without hot water, I still love having a place of my own!

The weekend before the big move, was my bachelorette party! My sister hosted the bridesmaids and me at her house in Nashville. We had a great weekend!

Amanda and I drove over from Charleston, Hannah and Cecily came down from Indiana, and Sara flew in from DC. While Amanda and I waited for Sara's flight to get in, we checked out the official Charlie Daniels museum (aka gift shop) and a couple other tourist traps on 2nd Ave. We walked down by the river, but amazingly the riverfront and all the surrounding buildings looked unaffected by the flood. They have done a great job with cleanup - in the tourist parts at least.

We originally planned to do a little flood relief of our own, but turned out everyone my sister knew was in a transition stage: wet things had been hauled away, and they were waiting on permits for remodeling. In any case, the thought was there!

We enjoyed a sunny afternoon by their pond, hanging with Lyle, and avoiding the ticks best we could! Em cooked up an awesome pork tenderloin for dinner and we ate up before our night out.

The whole family: mom's, aunts, sisters, cousins... chipped in their 2 cents for ideas for my gift. The result was a box of goodies including Parmesan cheese (for a breath killer, effective birth control, AND food), pink tool belt (for when I don't want to wait around for Adam to fix something), a notebook made from horse POOP! (for "when shit happens"), a couple of Adam's favorite recipes, a day planner pre-filled out to the tune of "Make Adam breakfast, clean Adam's dishes, make Adam's lunch, work ALL day, do Adam's laundry, talk about Adam's day, watch Adam's favorite TV show...." you get the idea, wrinkle releaser (much needed), pregnancy test (NOT needed!!), a couple nightgowns, and some beano. Yep. Beano. I'm not sure if that's for me or Adam...

After dinner, cake, and gifts - we all headed downtown for music and drinking! Our first stop was a concert benefiting a local girl with breast cancer. We had mixed reviews on the music, but were glad to be a part of the charity. Next we went to a honky tonk on Broadway sporting a light up engagement ring and 100% "recycled" veil lovingly made by my co-workers. I personally LOVED that music - stand up base, fiddles, and a sweet slide guitar. We ended the night at a low key bar with some quality late night food - and a little entertainment from a bachelor party we ran into.

Sunday we slept in, lounged around the pool, played some tennis, and enjoyed the sunshine. We toured around some high class neighborhoods, got caught in a downpour 3 blocks from our car, and finished the night with pizza, beer, a board game, and movie.

Monday morning we stopped by the famed Pancake Pantry (yes, Taylor Swift and Justin Beaver ate there....we were one week late! haha) before dropping Sara off at the airport JUST in the nick of time! Amanda and I have a uneventful (good thing) drive back finishing Shopaholic and Sister on CD and even made it home in time to get some yard work in.

Thanks to my sister for hosting a nice weekend! It was a relief to get away from house, wedding planning, and work for a few days. Now it's back to reality and the clock is ticking. 93 days to go!

uncommongoods.com

Uncommon Goods Website

Another cool registry find: glassware handmade from recycled windshields! I registered for it ALL! Plus, flattened wine bottle platters, wine barrel lid lazy susan, and woven magazine place mats and coasters! THAT was fun!

p.s. as of yesterday, we are officially homeowners! get to move in the first of the month!

Let the Registry Begin!

Call me crazy, but I've been putting off registering. Picking out nice things that I will want to use for the rest of my life and be able to incorporate into my ever-changing style ideas is daunting. But nevertheless, the fact that people WANT to buy me nice stuff is awesome, so I decided to man up and get started.
So far we've found a few ways to green up this process.

1. Adam and I have decided to register mainly at local businesses as they will probably benefit from and appreciate our patronage more than the big box stores. This creates a challenge for out-of-town guests to purchase these items. To combat this, we're going to make a custom combined registry at myregistry.com (don't go there yet, it's not ready!) that allows us to pull items from any store and provide phone numbers if they do not have an online purchase option. Pretty nifty, eh?

2. I found some cool green options in my first outing. Most notably, Cuisinart now has a non-stick "Green Gourmet" line. There list of greeness is awesome including low carbon manufacturing, recycled aluminum, petroleum-free surface, and recycled packaging. Kudos to Cuisinart!

3. Other products I registered for were from the Totally Bamboo line. Bamboo is a great choice for wood as it is super strong, lighter than other hardwoods, and is a very renewable resource. Bamboo grows so quickly and has such an expansive root system, that it does not need replanting to regenerate itself. Plus, the type of bamboo that this company uses is not the same that pandas eat, so they're not taking away a food source. Yay!

4. In instances where a eco-friendly product was not available or the best option for us, I chose super durable, high-quality products. I'm hoping to reduce our carbon footprint with these options by never having to throw them away and buy new. (or at least not for a LONG time)

That's as far as I got in the first 2 hours (and about 20 items). I'll keep you posted on other cool finds!

Bridesmaid dresses are in!

Designer's Website
After a brief hiatus for some intense house hunting (we have an offer in on a short sale and hope to have word by then end of this week), wedding planning is back in motion.
Since the last post I have picked up my wedding dress (yay!) and have picked out the bridesmaid dresses! Thanks to two lovely, patient models/bridesmaids, Sara and Amanda Suiter, we found a dress that I really like. (and hope everyone else does too!)
My green effort in this case was reusability... Let's pause for the 27 dresses scene where the bride thinks her hideous dress choice can "totally be cut short and worn again!" I hope I'm not so blind! ...Good-looking, affordable dresses are difficult enough to find. Adding organic hemp fabric from a fair trade company was asking a bit much. Instead, we found an "ink" colored cocktail dress, by Donna Ricco, at a local shop in downtown Charleston that can double for bridesmaid apparel. I'm hoping the girls can rewear these dresses to future events or at least consign or donate them after the wedding.
I'm hoping to find some great jewelery and shoes to complete the ensemble with equal reusable potential.
Here's a pic! (My unbiased opinion: MY bridesmaids look WAY better in this dress than this model...)

Waste Not Paper

Links: Out of Hand, Waste Not Paper

Met with Maggie from Out of Hand on Pitt St in the Old Village today. We went over my options for invitations. She's totally on board with the green theme (which is refreshing) and had some great ideas and actual knowledge on the subject. She's working on the design portion for me, but here's what we've semi decided so far.

- The paper is from Waste Not Paper of Chicago, IL, 100% recycled and 30% post consumer waste
- The ink is soy based and will be printed locally
- We're ditching the traditional RSVP, directions, and other event cards (doing all that online instead)to reduce our paper waste

We discussed using organic cotton paper instead of traditional fibers but the thickness requires imprinted lettering. While I loved the way this looked, the process to make this happen requires personalized copper plates, big machines, and lots of shipping. After talking it out...the environmental costs to get this look are just not worth it to me. Maggie seems very creative and is a engineer/computer graphics person in addition to an artist. I think she'll do a great job helping me get what I want. Local brides...give her a call!

About Waste Not Paper (from their website):
The foundation for all of our great products is paper. Our paper - the base for wrap, notes, stickers and more - is created domestically, which means it didn't travel the world to get to you!

Our paper comes from mills that practice responsible, sustainable forestry as certified by objective 3rd parties. Much of our product is created using renewable energy sources, such as hydro power or wind power.

Our entire line of solid cards, envelopes and paper is produced without elemental chlorine (PCF). Our printers operate with reduced volatile organic compound (VOC) emission and recycle their ink waste. Many of our note sets are handmade from renewable content, usually cotton or bark fiber.

Eco-White, made of 100% recycled content with 30% PCW, is the base for our printed notes, wrap and bags. We also donate, reuse, and recycle all of our scrap paper. In addition, we have added new labels to our note sets and wrap which feature information about their recycled content.

Waste Not from Start to Finish Poster (PDF)
We have nearly completed the bulk transition, offering our line of exclusive solid colors with recycled content containing at least 30% PCW (post-consumer waste). Beginning this year, our luxe papers are also made in the USA and contain recycled content.
We have swapped out all of our packing materials to reduce waste (and peanuts), and continue to look for creative ways to reuse packing materials.

Encouraging our employees to follow eco-friendly practices is an important part of our business. We recently moved into a "rehabbed," 12,000 square foot warehouse in the Chicago's northwest loop. Our location makes it easy for and encourages employees to use public transportation. For three years, we have been a top participating company of our size in the Chicago Bike-to-Work Week Challenge. We have a successful recycling program at our headquarters and try to find creative, beautiful uses for our scrap.

Watch for more environmental practices in the future as we find new and innovative ways to incorporate eco-friendliness into our business. We are confident that beauty and environmental responsibility can go hand-in-hand.