Category: Green Weddings

If I were to make a wish list of 100 decadent indulgences, certainly having my own award-winning French chef would be among them. If you love fine food as much as I do, and wouldn’t think of serving ordinary cuisine at your wedding, then hear this: The Villa Amodei, the newly available country estate in the hills above Camarillo, has hired their own in-house chef to personalize and customize your wedding menu.

From the moment you designed your first toilet paper wedding dress for Barbie (admit it, your doll sported Charmin Couture just like mine did!), you’ve been wanting to walk down the aisle equipped with something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue. The old and new? Easy! Something borrowed? That bracelet you’ve been “borrowing” from your sister for the last 3 years should count. But it’s that “something blue” that stops most brides in their satin Jimmy Choos.

I’ll admit I’m a gardening junkie. My favorite part of any outdoor spring wedding is having the chance to explore a new wedding location with amazing gardens or flowers. If you love gardens as much as I do, you might want to think about celebrating this Earth Day in the Tri-Valley wine country (the other Napa).

IdealBite.com must be pretty enticing and tasty. When I was hitting up our staff for tips on how we can be more green as a company and as individuals, both Jen and Mere thought of this website.

As you begin your own personal makeover in preparation for your wedding day, you can choose products that are both good for the planet and your close-up. That’s why I want to share with you the news about makeup leader Mineralogie. These purveyors of health-conscious beauty products have taken “natural” up a notch by undertaking an ambitious corporate initiative to make their entire company eco-friendly. Steps include switching to eco-chic packaging, changing to a green energy provider, converting to enviro-friendly shipping materials—company owner Mary Van even rides her bike to work.

I love being asked for my opinion—even if the only topic for which my input is being sought is weddings! Recently I was interviewed by journalist Rachel Trachten for The Monthly, which bills itself as “the East Bay’s Premier Magazine of Culture and Commerce.” (Okay, I’m impressed.)

Talk about a green wedding! Has anyone seen these plantable wedding invitations and favors? Guests can actually plant the paper to grow their own wildflowers as a lasting memory of your wedding.

Thank goodness I discovered Dagoba. Fair Trade, Organic and award-winning, Dagoba’s unique “chocolate alchemy” combines flavors in innovative, tantalizing ways. Dagoba chocolate tastes genuine—that is, biting into a small piece, the first taste is chocolate, rather than sugar. Its authentic musky flavor sings of forests and unspoiled wilderness, invariably lifting my spirits. I’ve come to prefer my chocolate dark & spicy, and Dagoba’s Xocolatl, accented with cocoa nibs and chile peppers, satisfies my cravings. My husband isn’t as adventurous and fancies less intense varietals, such as New Moon, the best of bittersweet.