April 30, 2008

Did you pay for your wedding day on a shoestring?

We've just had a challenging request from The Press Association who're looking for anyone who's wed on an extremely tight budget.

They're looking for women aged between 20 to 50 who celebrated their big day in style despite being restricted by a tight budget of £500 or less. If you managed this I think everyone in the world will want to know how!

If this sounds like you and you'd like to share your story with a national newspaper or women's magazine, do get in touch with Tanya, giving her a brief idea of how you threw your stylish wedding on a budget. She'd also like your telephone number and a recent photo. Don't forget to mention GreenUnion.

By the way, if you're chosen you will receive a fee for your time.

Contact:

Tanya Russell
Features writer
The Press Association
Email: tanya.russell@pa-entertainment.co.uk
Tel: 020 7963 7293

Want to know more about managing your wedding budget? Check out how to Get Started.

Posted in Green Wedding News , Press , Wedding Planning

April 28, 2008

Beautiful Tents for Hire

We're really excited to welcome Hooes Yurts to GreenUnion to swell our growing number of fantastic mobile eco wedding venues country wide.

The tents are based on the Mongolian Yurt (or Ger) and are constructed from timber and canvas. They look gorgeous form the outside and, once inside, they feel solid, sumptuous and welcoming, creating a perfect space for a green wedding. Yurts are wonderfully versatile with no central poles or guy ropes to trip up the unsuspecting wedding guest and they can be used individually or linked together for bigger events. Hooes offer 24ft, 18ft and 14ft yurts that can be connected together to create different shaped venues for up to 200 people like this eco chic wedding palace pictured above.

And it doesn't stop there either. Not only do they supply you with the yurts, but their offer is second to none with a choice of other services. Amy is passionate about decorating the yurts with beautiful textiles and furniture and she personally selects all her furnishings with care and love from around the world. Often the pieces are vintage and they have always been purchased fairly. Each yurt has its own individual design and colour theme but all have a uniting style with sumptuous interiors which are exotic and vibrant.

Posted in Green Wedding Decorations & Details , Inspiration , Marquees & Tents

April 24, 2008

Real Food Festival

If you're in London this weekend and you love food, then the Real Food Festival at Earls Court is the place to be.

Raymond Blanc, Chef-Patron of Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons says, "In choosing our food we make a statement as to which consumer were are, whether we are responsible or not, ethical or not. We are now engaged in a process of reconnecting our food with our culture - and ethics will now drive our choice. Whether we are parent, employer, farmer, chef, industrialist etc each of us individually and collectively will have the responsibility to make better choices to create a better food chain. The Real Food Festival will definitely take us one step closer to discovering new and innovative propositions to our produce conundrums."

They promise incredible wines and drinks from small, unique producers, restaurants serving carefully sourced dishes and a comprehensive programme of entertaining and educational workshops where visitors will discover some of the best food and drink in the world…

And not only can you meet the people that reared the pigs, planted the carrots, milked the cows and crushed the grapes, you can taste their produce, learn about it, then buy it to take home.

So if you're wondering what seasonal food to serve your guests on your ethical wedding day, this is the place to start looking.

The Real Food Festival - 24th to 27th April, Earl's Court 1, London
See website for times.

Posted in Green Wedding Caterers, Food & Drink , News

April 23, 2008

Celebrate St. George's Day!

THE TRUE DRAGON

St George was out walking
He met a dragon on a hill,
It was wise and wonderful
Too glorious to kill

It slept amongst the wild thyme
Where the oxlips and violets grow
Its skin was a luminous fire
That made the English landscape glow

Its tears were England’s crystal rivers
Its breath the mist on England’s moors
Its larder was England’s orchards,
Its house was without doors

St George was in awe of it
It was a thing apart
He hid the sleeping dragon
Inside every English heart

So on this day let’s celebrate
England’s valleys full of light,
The green fire of the landscape
Lakes shivering with delight

Let’s celebrate St George’s Day,
The dragon in repose;
The brilliant lark ascending,
The yew, the oak, the rose

Brian Patten - via English Hertitage

Posted in Green Wedding Inspiration

April 22, 2008

7 Green ways to personalise your wedding for Earth Day 22 April 2008

Here is our final suggestion in our series of seven green ways to personalise your eco chic wedding to celebrate Earth Day which is today!

MAKE IT SMALL
Keeping your wedding small will not only create an intimate and personal affair, but also means fewer resources will be used all round, so saving the planet and your purse.

Have a truly earth friendly wedding and just pitch up to the registry office with a bunch of friends then entertain them all to a delicious meal of locally produced food, a barbeque on the beach or a picnic in the woods, very personal and fun for all - no headaches about what to wear, how to get there, where to stay. Go one step further and get your guests to each bring a dish, your wedding breakfast and wedding gifts all in one!

Posted in Green Wedding Inspiration

April 21, 2008

Seven green ways to personalise your wedding day - Day 6

EDIBLE FAVOURS
Will always be a hit, so give your guests a taste of the region. For instance make your own Devon clotted cream fudge and pack in little boxes with personalized labels. Or preserve your own jam in recycled jam jars with fruit from your family garden (or a pick your own farm nearby) and give everyone a little jar to take home. Buy local and regional tasty goodies like Scottish shortbread and repackage in recycled paper boxes to suit your own green wedding style.

The possibilities are endless so let your creative juices flow and produce a really personal and eco friendly thank you gift for all your wedding guests to take away. If you don't feel quite so creative you can find some charming ethical wedding gifts and favours here.

Posted in Green Wedding Gifts & Favours , Inspiration

April 20, 2008

Seven green ways to personalise your wedding day - Day 5

CREATE
Your own cocktail as a post-ceremony drink. With the tastiest fruits being grown here in the UK, there's no excuse not to find one that suits your eco friendly wedding day. Combined with fruit juices from the countryside you should be able to design a sublime cocktail of your own. Seek out locally produced drinks like ginger beer, elderflower bubbly, pressed organic apple juice, raspberry lemonade and pear juices.

And just to get you going here are a couple of delicious cocktail recipes from Luscombes Organic Drinks who make the best drinks in Devon using only the freshest ingredients and leaving out all the nasties:

Elderflower Spritzer
Pop some ice and 75ml of white wine in a glass and top up with Luscombe Wild Elderflower Bubbly. Deliciously divine!

Countryside
In a glass, muddle together 12 sprigs of mint, 2 lime wedges and 12.5ml Sirop de Gomme. Top with crushed ice and pour over 50ml of Hendricks Gin. Top it all up with Luscombe Apple & Elderflower juice and stir. Cool and crisp.

Posted in Green Wedding Caterers, Food & Drink , Inspiration

April 19, 2008

Seven green ways to personalise your wedding day - Day 4

Only a few days to go before the Spring Equinox and Earth Day on April 22nd, so we thought it an appropriate time to highlight seven green ways to personalise your wedding day. On day four we suggest you:

CELEBRATE
Your love for one another by choosing a personalised ceremony, in line with your own beliefs. This can mean heaps more to most couples than the 'standard' one conducted by the registrar. The ceremony could be as simple as standing amongst family and friends to proclaim your committment to one another. You could use symbolic elements from traditional ceremonies like the Handfasting, an old English marriage ceremony where your hands are symbolically tied together with ribbons. Or you could choose a ceremony from the country of your origin somewhere else in the world, combining your different backgrounds.

However you choose to conduct your eco wedding ceremony, whether it's in a beautiful wood, under a special tree, a spot on the beach, in your favourite room or even the place in the city that means the most to you, it will be meaningful and personal to you both.

Our directory of wedding venues has some fantastic places where you could choose to hold your earth friendly wedding ceremony. And they are all run by beautiful people too!

Posted in Green Wedding Inspiration , Natural Nuptials

April 18, 2008

International Downshifting Week

InterNational Downshifting Week starts tomorrow so "If you are looking for a little help to slow down your pace and enjoy life more, this is the place for you!" says Tracey Smith, Creator "Everybody can get involved and form a united and global movement that supports living and working more sustainably and strives for a proper work/life balance! "

Our ethos here at GreenUnion is very much in line with the Downshifting ethos, encouraging couples to re examine what they are doing and why and to always remember that the wedding day is more about celebrating their Union than about competing to throw the best party in the neighbourhood (of course there's no denying that a good party always goes down well too!).

So check in to the Downshifting website and find out what it's all about, how to take part and get Top 10 Tips for success.

You'll find that a lot of the information, when read and acted upon, in the context of planning your ethical wedding, will make a lot of sense. So if you think the whole idea of trying to 'green' your wedding is all too much, take a down shift in gear, a long walk in the park, have a cuddle with your loved one and remind yourselves why it is that you're getting married...

Posted in Green Wedding News

Seven green ways to personalise your wedding day - Day 3

The Spring Equinox and Earth Day on April 22nd are getting closer day by day, so we thought it an appropriate time to highlight seven green ways to personalise your wedding day. On day three we suggest you:

SAVE ON PAPER
Save on paper by setting up a personal green wedding website which has every single bit of information about the wedding - the venue, transport, timeline, menu, wedding list details, accommodation, things to do in the area, and how to get there. Ask your guests to RSVP by email.

Make it really personal and find a designer from our list of incredibly talented stationary designers here and commission one to create your own eco-chic wedding stationery design, then have it hand printed on recycled paper.

Posted in Green Wedding Inspiration , Stationery & Invitations

April 17, 2008

Seven green ways to personalise your wedding day - Day 2

Not long 'till the Spring Equinox and Earth Day on April 22nd, so we thought it an appropriate time to highlight seven green ways to personalise your wedding day. On day two we suggest you:

GO SEASONAL
As well as choosing seasonal food, which is a no brainer when you're planning an ethical wedding, seasonal flowers will give your decorations an 'of the moment' feel. Talk to your florist about what's available locally and seasonally, or ask someone to grow flowers for you. You'll end up with blooms that that are completely unusual and look absolutely stunning.

We often hear from couples planning a green wedding who are worried about the ethics of using cut flowers. You shouldn't be, flowers are a natural process in the lifecycle of a plant. Most cultivated plants are 'deadheaded' (where blooms are removed) in order to allow the plant to grow strong and encourage more blooms during its flowering season. Just make sure you arrange to have all your flowers composted once they're past their best. Recycling the material back into the soil will encourage more blooming marvelous displays season after season.

Wild flowers, on the other hand should never be picked. They must be left in their natural habitat to do what they do best.

Find out more about locally grown, seasonal, fairtrade and organic flowers from our experts.

Posted in Green Wedding Flowers , Inspiration

April 16, 2008

Enter our prize draw to win Organic Places to Stay...

Sign up for our newsletter today and we will enter you into a prize draw to win one of these five Organic Places to Stay books which we have to give away.

Organic Places to Stay, by Linda Moss, lists hundreds of wonderful places which have their own restaurants or offer delicious home cooked meals to guests. A few are certified organic, and others may have a certified organic kitchen garden, orchard or vineyard. Quite a few of them grow their own produce, some use wild or natural foods, and most will aim to use fresh local produce rather than imported food. At these places you'll find information about the availability of organic food - for example whether you can buy the farm's own organic produce, have an organic vegetable box delivered, or find organic produce in the local area. Fresh produce, local specialities, slow food, home baking, homemade products such as jam, juice, ice cream, yogurt, cheese, pasta, pasta sauce, olive oil, wine - you'll find all these and more ......

The book is a 'must have' bible for anyone planning a green wedding and looking for places to stay in the UK on their eco friendly honeymoon.

Our newsletter - GreenUnion Gossip, is packed, every month, full of news and ideas for great green weddings, so don't delay sign up to our e-newsletter now!

Offer ends 30 April 2008. We will notify the lucky winner after this date.

Posted in Green Wedding Gifts & Favours , News

Seven green ways to personalise your wedding day - Day 1

With a week to go before the Spring Equinox and Earth Day on April 22nd we thought it an appropriate time to highlight seven green ways to personalise your wedding day. So here goes for day one:

GO LOCAL
And order hand made, bespoke wedding outfits. A unique gown or suit made by a local designer/dressmaker or tailor can make your outfits really personal. Admittedly it's a more expensive option than off-the-peg or hiring, but you will want to look really gorgeous and more importantly you can make sure it's something you will both want to wear again.

There will be a talented dress maker living close to you who can create a beautiful made-to-measure wedding gown tailored especially for you using organic and natural fabrics. Some may offer a couture collection to choose from, others will work to your own design. Find talented and affordable wedding dress designers and makers in our directory.

Posted in Green Wedding Dresses & Gowns , Inspiration

April 10, 2008

GreenUnion goes handmade with Etsy

Photo by Esther Ling

Yesterday we were delighted to help out over at Etsy's Handmade Wedding series when they were looking for someone to advise on natural beauty tips for eco chic brides and grooms planning a green wedding. The result - Handmade Weddings: Natural Grooming Tips from GreenUnion.

Check out the whole article on Etsy's blog - The Storque

Posted in Green Wedding Beauty, Hair & Makeup

April 08, 2008

West Country wonder

More good news from our partners...

The shortlist of the West Country Wedding awards has just been announced and we're not surprised to learn that Geodesum have been shortlisted in the Marquees category.

Based in North Cornwall, Geodesum is a relative newcomer to the marquee hire industry but they're already making inroads into that traditional area of the wedding industry. They specialise in creating unique spaces using geodesic domes and the cathedral like structure of the domes along with the quality canvas covers definitely offers an elegant solution for a green celebration in a field or garden.

They have been chosen on the basis of the individuality of their product and the quality of their service - their clients have voted for them.

Awards will be announced on 30th April and we wish Geodesum the lots of luck for the final judging.

Posted in Green Wedding Marquees & Tents

April 01, 2008

Floral accolades

We're always banging on about how talented and dedicated all our partners are, so here's proof... Snapdragon Garden was named at the weekend by The Independent newspaper as one of its Top 50 UK Florists.

Jane at Snapdragon says "We're working on being able to provide mail order delivery of flowers by June". So if you are interested in her mail order flowers do let her know and she will send you a note and a voucher when deliveries begin. Six lucky people on her list will become guinea pigs for her test deliveries in April, qualifying for a bunch of free flowers! So get in touch today...

Posted in Green Wedding Flowers