Virginia is for Lovers

Melina Ann Vissat and Brian Christopher Hannon were married on October 11, 2008 in Haymarket, Virginia. They both live and work in the Washington D.C. area. Brian is a financial analyst with a government contractor, and Melina is a marketing writer with a strategic management consulting firm. They met on Match.com, "which proves that normal people use internet dating!"

Location Melina and Brian were married at The Regency at Dominion Valley country club. "We chose the place because it had a beautiful outdoor patio. We considered doing the wedding in downtown DC, but we couldn't find a place that had a sufficient outdoor area and a rain contingency plan. The Regency had both - a beautiful outdoor patio overlooking the golf course with fountains and a stone bridge, as well as enough room inside in case poor weather drove us indoors."

The Decision to Go Green Melina has always been an eco-advocate, so going green was an easy choice. "I am involved in my company's sustainability service offering, and in my free time I am a freelance writer who writes for publications in the natural sector, such as the Nutrition Business Journal. We decided to go as green as possible with the wedding, since weddings are typically such wasteful affairs. We just felt guilty!"

Flowers and DIY Embellishments Melina made almost everything for the wedding herself. When it came to the flowers, she "made the men's boutonnieres out of small wooden flowers, fake berries, curly willow, ribbon and feathers. They were more like small pieces of art than traditional boutonnieres!" For the ceremony they used "fake flowers in mason jars for the aisle decor and covered an arch with vines and curly willow that our florist pulled from the woods near her farm."

Her bridesmaids carried red, orange and peach roses and mums accented with berries.

Although they used real flowers for the centerpieces they were rentals! Their florist, Barbara Von Elm from Growing Wild Floral Design in Delaplane VA, does everything she can to keep costs down. To start, "she doesn't have a physical shop, which keeps her overhead down, and she does a lot of rentals because they are less expensive." Barbara created this centerpiece with roses, tiger lilies, mums, dahlias, curly willow, and ferns. "It was a lovely, relaxed mess of flowers! After the wedding, the centerpieces were whisked away and reused by the florist for other displays."

Reusing and Recycling For gifts and non-floral decor items, Melina also reused and recycled. "I made the bridesmaids' jewelry out of materials that I already had on-hand, such as fake pearls, wire and ribbon. I made pillar candles for the tables, by covering empty metal soup cans with wrapping paper and placing pillar candles on top. I also reused foamcore board from presentation boards I had made for work to build a cupcake tower to house our wedding cupcakes."

Melina even made the cake toppers - "a mini-Melina and a mini-Brian" out of Sculpy Clay.

Giving Something Back Each guest's plate had two pieces of Endangered Species Chocolate. The company donates 10% of its net profits to sales to "help support species, habitat, and humanity."

Home-Style Wedding

Cathy and Nick were married on August 16, 2008 in Baltimore, MD.

How They Met Cathy and Nick both work with the mentally ill. Nick is a clinical social worker and Cathy is a psychologist. The two were set up on a blind date by friends and immediately clicked. "Our shared passion for social justice was one of the first things that drew us together."

The Decision to Go Green Although Cathy and Nick had originally planned a larger wedding, they decided it was more important for them to use their resources to buy their first home together. They also wanted to have a "socially responsible wedding that was consistent with our values and minimized excess and waste." To this end, the couple sent out hand written invitations inviting a small list of guests to celebrate with them at their new home. "Our invitations were handwritten by a good friend. Both the invitations and thank you notes were written on recycled paper and we decided to limit waste by not using RSVP cards."

"Our wedding occurred on the front porch and the celebration was set up as a garden party in the side yard and included 15 of our dear friends and family."

Flowers It was important for Cathy and Nick to have locally grown flowers at their wedding. "Imported flowers expend tremendous resources, require preservatives for their journey, and are often the product of deplorable working conditions. In an effort to minimize our wedding’s impact on the environment, we chose to work with Local Color Flowers, a Baltimore based floral design company that values ecological responsibility and supports local growers." Local Color Flowers used an array of brightly colored summer flowers for Cathy and Nick’s wedding including Zinnias, Gomphrena, Asters and Celosia.

For the reception, the flowers were displayed in mason jars, decorative tin buckets, antique headlights, and glass tumblers. Instead of having favors, the flower arrangements from the ceremony and celebration were sent home with guests at the end of the night.

Creating a Space The couple asked their friends to pitch in with the table decor. They were able borrow everything they needed, including silverware, pitchers, candelabras, place card holders, and folding tables and chairs.

They strung white lights around the table to create an intimate outdoor space.

They used their iPod to play a "funky mix including everything from Brazilian music, traditional Irish music, Tribe Called Quest, Wilco, and Stevie Wonder."

Dessert On their wedding day, a good friend surprised the couple (who had chosen not to have a wedding cake) with a homemade cake made with local ingredients from Trickling Springs Creamery. The cake was adorned with a Mexican good luck charm (a figurine of a skeletal bride & groom) "bringing additional humor to the day."

Going Digital Cathy and Nick’s photographer, Tristan Spinski provided the couple with the digital negatives instead of prints. "We were able to create our own wedding album without printing pictures unnecessarily. Since we chose to have a small, intimate wedding, many of our loved ones were not physically present. It was important to us to be able to easily send family and friends electronic copies of our photos."

All in all, Cathy and Nick felt that "a socially conscious wedding with minimal impact on the environment was the ideal way for us to begin our marriage." As Cathy said, “The day just felt like us.”

Daisy Decor

Soo and Glyn Swift were married on August 22nd in the Seiners Arms Hotel in Perranporth, Cornwall, UK. As Soo wrote on TripAdvisor, "The hotel is lucky enough to be perfectly situated practically on Perranporth beach, and was the perfect location for our wedding. The staff was fantastic, extremely friendly and nothing was too much to ask."

To decrease the footprint of their wedding, the couple "decided to hold the ceremony and reception in the same venue, and organised car sharing in order to reduce fuel emissions. Our guests were kept informed via email of arrangements for the day."

Soo and Glyn are a very laid back couple. "On the day of the ceremony, we had beautiful sunshine and both Glyn and I enjoyed a surf in the morning."

Invitations The couple made their own invitations on recycled paper and decreased waste by asking their guests to RSVP via e-mail.

Rings Their rings were simple rose gold bands from an independent jeweler in Devon. "We had them inscribed with our names and the date by a local engraver."

Flowers Soo and Glyn merged the beach theme with white daisies to create a beautiful summer affair. "We decided to have a daisy theme running through the wedding."

They used ivory gerbera daisies from the local florist for all of the arrangements and Soo's bouquet.

"We used flower petals and locally collected shells to decorate the ceremony room, which over looked Perranporth beach."

Accessories Soo wore a daisy applique dress with a matching necklace and flip flops.

For the ceremony, she wore a daisy in her hair and Glyn used a single daily stem for his boutonnière.

Food Their guests enjoyed fresh ocean fare and local meat, "One of the Seiners most outstanding features is it's food, so I'd strongly recommend the Seiners barbeque buffet for anyone who wants a casual, sophisticated wedding.The wedding buffet consisted of barbequed localled caught fish and localled reared meat." After dinner guests enjoyed individual cakes.

Registry Soo and Glyn set up a registry of eco-frendly gifts, which I wrote about in June. Click here to read more!

And if you were wondering what the guests thought of the event - "All of our wedding guests said they had a fantastic time and we honoured to be a part of our day."

Grandparents' Garden - A Family Wedding

Dustin Ohlman and Ashley Place Ohlman were married on July 26, 2008 in Plano, Illinois.

How they met: "I was born and raised in the midwest- Aurora, Illinois, to be exact, and Dustin is a Chattanooga boy through-and-through. We met at an arcade and miniature golf place when I traveled to Chattanooga to visit my cousin at college, and we got along really well. We hung out the rest of the weekend I was there, then stayed in contact for the next year. The following summer, I decided to move down to Chattanooga for a change of scene, and Dustin asked me out soon after I got here! We were married 3 years from the same weekend we met!"

Why a Green Wedding: "I grew up being taught to be very environmentally- and economically-conscious, and I still try to live as 'green' as possible. I didn't want to abandon those beliefs for one day, just because it would be easier or fancier." To this end, Ashley and Dustin tried to utilize the resources in their community. "Supporting the local economy was very important to us. We made a conscious effort to hire vendors that were from small, local companies, or to use the talents of family friends. We didn't want to contribute to large companies or imported pieces when we had small business and local products to use that were just as good." They also made a concerted effort to minimize waste. "We tried to rent and resuse as much as possible, because there was no sense in wasting things- for example, we rented china instead of having disposable plastic plates, the potted plants that were bought as tent decorations are now hanging at my grandparents' home, and we had our ceremony and reception during the day so no lights were needed."

The Location: After scrapping plans for "a large, traditional, Southern wedding in Atlanta," Dustin and Ashley decided to have a smaller, family-oriented wedding in her grandparents' backyard.

"We were the second couple to marry there- my aunt and uncle [had their ceremony in] almost the same spot, over 20 years ago. It was wonderful to have it there! I grew up playing in the same spots we got married, and I got ready in my grandmother's bedroom, among all my family's photos, and a photograph of my aunt, Yvonne, who had passed away before I was born and to whom I have always been compared."

Bridal Attire: Dustin and Ashley paired items from their wardrobes with things that could easily be worn again. "I wore shoes I already owned, and borrowed my mother's earrings. Dustin wore a navy suit, white shirt and shoes he already owned, as well. We bought him a tie that he will be able to wear again. My dress for the reception was a Jcrew "final sale" find, and I have since had it shortened and have already worn it again! The bridesmaids bought matching, navy JCrew dresses that can be worn again (although doesn't every bride say that?), and they picked out their own shoes. I gave them individual necklaces as gifts, and told them they can wear the gifts at the wedding if they wanted (only my sister wore the gift necklace- the other two girls wore their own). The groomsmen wore their own navy pants, white shirt, and shoes. Dustin gave them ties as gifts for them to wear (something that, as two of them are college kids going on interviews, they will definately wear again!).

For her 'something blue," Ashley chose a handmade blue and cream mantilla veil- from Etsy seller Honeycombveils. "It was my favourite piece of my ensemble."

Flowers: "The girls and I carried wildflower bouquets from The Wild Rose - a small, local florist shop run by two hilariously fantastic sisters. They also did all the floral arrangements for the wedding, including the centerpieces and the two hanging pieces for the entrance of the tent."

"After the wedding, we donated the centerpieces and hanging pieces to a local nursing home that had taken care of my great-uncle before he passed. My mom and grandmother collected potted flowers in the months before the wedding to decorate around the tent and yard, and along with my family, my grandparents' neighbours Rob, Adrienne and Cindy and their friend Mary worked tirelessly in getting the property ready for the wedding! There aren't words to describe their selflessness and generosity. Mary even brought three beautiful flower arrangements from her own garden to decorate the gift table, the beverage table and the bathroom counter. My parents, Randy and Rhonda, picked up stones from a local gardening center to line each side of the aisle and to serve as paperweights for our escort cards. The stones are now used in my grandparents' landscaping.

Paper Pleasures: "We wanted something unique, and we didn't want to give our business to some large corporation that churns out the same, boring invitations all the time. We ordered our invitations from Etsy seller InkyLivie, who designs and produces custom stationery from her home. I borrowed the design from the invitations for our programs, menu, escort cards, and favour cards, which were all homemade.

Food & Drink: We chose a local catering company called Upper Crust Catering for our meal. It was a little bit more of a headache to deal with a small company like that, but it was worth it in the end because everyone really enjoyed the food. It was more important to us that we give our business to local vendors and have good, homemade-tasting dishes that everyone recognizes, than to go with a bigger, trendier company with artistic, gourmet dishes that our down-home family wouldn't enjoy. The catering company even gave us all the leftover food, rather than throwing it away! For drinks, we borrowed two big beverage jars from my parents' church for our homemade lemonaid and the 8 gallons of sweet tea that Dustin made for all our southern guests.

Cake: Our cake was made by a very talented family friend, Sue Hipple. Oh my goodness, it was wonderful! One tier was a coconut cake, to represent Dustin's southern heritage, and the other tier was a cinnamon-vanilla cake with a Mexican chocolate buttercream filling that tasted like Mexican hot chocolate, to represent where I grew up. The cake was iced in white buttercream and decorated with conceptual fondant papeles picados, which mimicked the papel picado banners that fluttered under the reception tent. Sue even made us a small cake to act as a cake topper, because she knew we were staying for a few days in Illinois and then traveling to Chattanooga, so we wouldn't be freezing a top layer. We enjoyed that cake with my family on the last two nights we were in Illinois.

Favors: For favors, Dustin and Ashley paired a small gift with a charitable donation. "I am a childhood cancer survivor, so as favors, we chose to make a donation to the Children's Cancer Research Fund. We handed out butterflies made from natural resources (the butterfly is the symbol for the Children's Cancer Research Fund) in small organza bags, with cards explaining the donation."

Photography: "Our photographer was Stephanie Clark of Louis Joy Photography. She is amazing. She was so much fun to work with, and she was so laid back and easy going that it was wonderful to have her there. My gratitude goes out to her for not only capturing our personalities so well, but for so fearlessly putting up with our friends and family."

DIY Paperbloomster Wedding

Lisa Yuen and Kevin Rhoads were married August 4, 2007 in The Green Room in the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center - across from San Francisco City Hall (pictured below).

Kevin is a golf professional at The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts and coaches the Harvard womens' golf team. Lisa is an actress (who has performed both on Broadway and in several movies). For entertainment, Lisa asked some of her colleagues to share their talents. "I asked 4 of my friends from Miss Saigon, Annie and The King and I to sing at the ceremony and cocktail hour. For the recessional, my friend Derek Isetti sang "Orange Colored Sky". Richard Rockage, a musical arranger for The Rodgers and Hammerstein Organization created a new arrangement of "I'm in Love with a Wonderful Guy". We started the reception with our first dance - some fun choreography by a Miss Saigon alumnus (Alan Ariano) that incorporated ballroom waltz, lifts, the Robot and moves stolen from the movie, Napoleon Dynamite. Another friend, Peilin Chou, of Lifefilm Productions made a documentary about our courtship and our families that was shown during the reception."

In addition to calling upon friends from the entertainment industry, Lisa personalized her wedding by incorporating designs from the business she runs with her sister Janice Yoshihara called Paperbloomsters. Janice made the flowers for Lisa's wedding, including "peonies, roses and cherry blossoms - about 200 of them!!!" Each flower was made by cutting petals from sheets of dried recycled paper. You can watch Lisa demonstrate the process on Martha Stewart by clicking here.

For the ceremony, Janice decorated the flower girl basket with paper flowers and the ringbearer presented the rings on a giant paper peony.

At the reception, paper flowers lined the walls and perfectly complimented the (live) centerpieces.

The live flower arrangements were designed by a good friend of Kevin's, Karen Burling of Huckleberry Designs and the bouquets (shown in image above) were done by Matika Angkatavanich of Simply Blooms.

Invitations, Seating Cards + Favors In addition to all of the flowers above, Lisa used her paper craft talent throughout the wedding. As Karen Burling wrote on her blog, Lisa's guests received "not just a piece of paper....but a handmade book! I was told that Lisa had spent precious hours making these for her guests. Talk about a personal touch!"

She also made matching seating cards!

Favors And that is not all...Lisa used the leftover paper from her invitations to make individual favor boxes for her guests.

And what was in the boxes? "The outside of the box represented me and inside was all Kevin." Because Kevin is a golf pro, that meant each guest received a Titleist golf ball reading "Kevin hit a hole in one! August 4, 2007.'"

Photo Credit: Gene Higa Photography

To read Lisa and Kevin's green wedding planning tip click here.