Casual Charm

Hillary Rosner and Philip Higgs were married on June 24, 2006.

How They Met HIllary and Phil are both journalists. The couple met in 1997 while working for The Nation magazine. Phil is now a contributing editor for SKI Magazine and Hillary worked on An Inconvenient Truth, The Live Earth Global Warming Survival Handbook, and Go Green, Live Rich.

When it came time to plan their wedding, going green was an easy choice. "I've got an MS in environmental studies and write about environmental issues, and Phil has written about green building and is in fact now building a straw bale studio behind our house in Boulder. So having green elements at our wedding was a no-brainer."

Invitations "My father and his business partner made the invitations, which featured a print from a linoleum block I made when I was around 7. They were printed on recycled paper, of course! And the reply cards were old postcards--each one different--that I bought at a used bookstore."

The Location HIllary and Phil were married at Full Moon Central in Big Indian, New York - in the Catskill Mountains. "We chose our wedding site partly so that most people could stay on site, thereby minimizing the driving once the guests were there. And we also liked that they offered menu options that were largely organic and/or locally grown."

The Ceremony The ceremony was held outside on the grass. "We wrote the ceremony ourselves and were married by my cousin, who's a minister. There was nothing religious in the ceremony, except for the Jewish tradition of breaking the glass."

Attire "I went barefoot at the ceremony, which was in a big grassy meadow, but the shoes I wore later were made by Terra Plana, which uses nontoxic glue and recycled materials in its shoes. My wedding dress wasn't green in any way except that it was just a regular dress--it cost around $250--that happened to be white. I couldn't stomach spending all that money on something I'd wear once."

Rings "Our rings were designed by Jennifer Leitzes, a friend in LA who's a jewelry designer--she also did my engagement ring, which has diamonds taken from old earrings of my mother's and a ring that belonged to a great aunt. And the gold was recycled."

Flowers For the ceremony, the couple used simple bouquets of wildflowers from Full Moon. "I wasn't going to have a bouquet at all, but at the last minute a friend presented me with a bouquet of wildflowers she'd collected on the property while she was out collecting flowers for the flower girls' baskets."

For the reception, Hillary and Phil opted for live plants (which can be used again and do not have to be shipped in from overseas). "We used potted plants instead of cut flowers as centerpieces. My friends went to work transferring the potted plants into painted terracotta pots my father bought. We decorated the tables with fabric we bought, which my cousin spent hours cutting into squares the day before."

Activities "Much of the wedding was DIY. My best friend from high school taught a yoga class on Saturday morning before the ceremony. We did all the music on an ipod (my husband programmed it all) except for a local trio we hired for the cocktail hour. On Friday night we had a big bonfire with s'mores."

Favors "For party favors, a friend of mine from Boulder (who ended up getting sick and missing the wedding!) lovingly made these beautiful soaps, which she individually wrapped in scraps of fabric."

Pictures "My sister and two friends are all photographers, so we put them in charge of taking pictures. One of the friends has a photo booth business, so as a wedding gift she set up the booth at the reception, which was really great.

Registry HIllary and Phil used their charity registry to raise money for The Humane Society, Doctors Without Borders, Trees For Life, and Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America. "My mother insisted we register for some actual, tangible items, even though we didn't need anything. So we registered for a very small number of items, and then did a charity registry and a honeymoon registry. Lots of people used the charity registry, which was cool."

Honeymoon Even their honeymoon was green! "We went to an eco-friendly hotel in Costa Rica and then an eco-resort in Nicaragua (which I wrote about for a green issue that Town & Country did [Etiquette: Planning a Green Wedding, T&C Weddings Spring/Summer 2008]).

"We then traveled to a remote part of the country and went down river by boat, visiting various rainforests and other wildlife-rich areas."

"Nicaragua is an incredible country - I've been back once since then and hope to make it back again soon. There is so much intact rainforest, and they're developing so quickly now that there's a unqiue opportunity to protect it - or lose it forever."

Photo Credit: Drew Fellman