GU HQ hosted a tea party

We had a lovely afternoon here at GU HQ last Thursday when Rosie Parsons, a very talented wedding photographer, and Vicky of Vintage Teasets braved the deep Devon lanes to come and visit us right here at headquarters.

Its not often we get visitors here, we usually have to trek out to the big city to find our friends, so there was definitely a celebratory atmosphere. The GU kitchen produced a delicious polenta cake which went down a treat with fair trade tea.

Rosie snapped away for posterity, even insisting on recording a new portrait of me! Then after tea, we showed them around; they inspected the cutting garden, woods and veg patch and talked to the chickens before driving off into the early dusk making their way back to the big cities.

Posted in Green Wedding Cakes , Decorations & Details , News , Photographers

Vintage wedding in Wales

Vicky and Ads got married on 15th August 2009. They threw a vintage 1920s style wedding at Treowen House, Monmouthshire. Thanks to Rosie Parsons photos, we can see what a brilliant time they had!

Vicky is a hopeless collector of vintage china, wedding stylist and lover of all things 1920's, so it was a given that the wedding had to be decorated with her lovely china and locally grown seasonal flowers. The bride wore an original 1920's flapper dress and she made her own jewellery from recycled vintage jewels.

Posted in Green Wedding Blogger Brides , Natural Nuptials , Photographers

Fabulous farm wedding

When Lisa Dawn, a West Country photographer sent in these photos of the recent wedding she shot in Somerset in England, we just had to post them here. The photography is great and, of course, Huntstile Organic Farm where the wedding was held this summer, is one of our favourite wedding venues.

Posted in Green Wedding Natural Nuptials , Photographers , Venues

Professional wedding video offered for no cost

Want a video momento of your green wedding but can't afford it? Read on for this generous offer.

Two creative young film graduates are looking to break into the wedding video industry and they are offering to come and film your wedding for free! All footage will be shot on High Definition and the sound will be professionally recorded. They are a discreet two man crew (sound man and camera man).

The service will provide you with:

Their professional service
Natural, creative and unobtrusive filming
A tasteful and creatively edited version of your special day on DVD
If you wish, they can also supply you with the unedited footage too

All this completely FREE OF CHARGE!

REQUIREMENTS
The wedding must be taking place before the end of March this year (2009).
You agree to let us use the video as an example of our work on our website.
We will require you to sign a release form allowing us to do this.

LOCATION
The location of the wedding is quite important to us.
Ideally they would like picturesque surroundings such as an interesting older style building with plenty of character etc.
They want to capture as much of your day as possible, before the wedding, during the ceremony and the reception too.

CONTACT THEM
If this sound like it might be good for you please can you send the details of your wedding to:
richardridout@yahoo.co.uk

Posted in Green Wedding Giveaways , Photographers

Carbon neutral photography

Modern photography, by its very nature is pretty eco friendly - there are no chemicals used in the processing, you only use as much paper as you need for your official printed photographs and if you insist, you can have all your wedding photographs in digital form rather than choosing a wedding album, thus canceling out the printing process altogether.

So its hard to see how a wedding photographer would stand out from the crowd as having a more ethical business than others. But some go that extra mile and MyWeddingStory.co.uk is one of those. Having already committed to going carbon neutral when he joined GreenUnion in 2007, Jonathan achieved his goal and gained his certificate in January 2008.

Here's how they did it...

Posted in Green Wedding Photographers

How do you choose an eco friendly wedding photographer?

By its very nature, modern photography is really quite eco friendly. Most wedding photographers use state of the art digital photographic equipment which does away with chemical printing techniques and masses of photographic papers. While this means they're already halfway there, there are other things you could ask a photographer to satisfy yourselves that he or she meets the overall ethos of your wedding day.

A lot of photographers offer fixed packages which include a set number of images printed and mounted into hand bound books, which are gorgeous, but most of these books come all the way from Australia and are usually air freighted. Instead, ask them if they could find an alternative closer to home. Now, whilst we've got nothing against Australia, and the books will definitely have been made by people who are paid a fair wage, there are skilled hand made paper makers and book binders in every country worldwide, so asking your photographer to go that extra mile will open their horizons and keep skills in your own country.

Make sure your photographer can supply you with a preview CD, instead of printed preview pages, or better still, choose a wedding photographer who has a password protected website where you, and your family and friends, can view all the images and order them online.

If you want them to go that extra mile, then check out your photographer's personal eco credentials. For instance Jonathan Ryan at MyWeddingStory, who we've just welcomed as a new partner, offsets his own carbon emissions and supports the protection of woodland near where his lives.

All our photographers do their own bit for the planet. See if we have one near you by checking out the Photographers' partner pages.

Posted in Green Wedding Photographers

Green wedding photography offer

Wedding photographer, Beth Beljon is looking for an environmentally conscious couple planning to throw and eco-friendly wedding. “We are looking for the most creative, authentic, green and organic wedding. It's simply beautiful to see more couples not only making a commitment of love to each but to the earth." says Beth who wants an opportunity to record such a happy occasion.

Beth will waive her shooting fee and donate six hours of photography time to the couple chosen from anywhere in the US or elsewhere (she has a secret hankering to shoot an English eco wedding!)

She stipulates that eco chic couples should be environmentally mindful in all aspects and details of their wedding including invitations, attire, location, flowers and food - no problems for all you GreenUnion regulars.

Beth Beljon is an established and published photographer who has covered weddings around the globe for nearly a decade. She provides stunning photography for modern and mindful couples and her photo journalistic style is elegant and graceful, capturing each event in a visually organic documentary.

The deadline for entries is 15 December 2007. The couple chosen will be announced through her website on 1 January 2008.

Contact Beth at beth@bethbeljon.com for more information.

Posted in Green Wedding News , Photographers

Trash the dress ... or not

Image by Hollye Schumacher Photography from Trash the Dress

Ever thought what you'd do with your dress after the big day?

I have a confession to make, my gorgeous hand made dress is in the attic. Because it's not a typical wedding dress, I thought I'd dye it and my shoes an interesting colour and wear them to parties and balls in the future or, at least, my daughter would want to dress up in them and dream of her marriage to a handsome prince.

Sadly, the parties didn't call for such a frock and we weren't blessed with children so my beautiful wedding dress still languishes in the attic, and now I've grown out of it. But I'm still not sure I can give away this very tangible memory of one of the happiest days of my life.

So what will you do with yours?

Posted in Green Wedding Dresses & Gowns , Photographers