Organization is Key
One way to help your caterer and/or event manager make sure reusable items do not get chucked in the trash bin is to give them a list of everything that needs to be packed up at the end of the night. Because we failed to communicate clearly with our caterer, the reusable silver chargers we’d brought to tuck under all the guest plates vanished at the end of the night.
We thought they were so obviously something we would want (we had reused them from my brother’s wedding, and they were rather expensive) that we did not tell anyone about our desire to keep them or make plans to pick them up the next day. The same thing happened to the antique keys we used at the reception.
Unless every person cleaning up knows what you want done, it isn’t going to happen the way you hope. So help them out with lists, with labeled containers, and by making sure someone is in charge of overseeing setup and cleanup activities. Organization is also important if you have recruited friends to help out with different parts of your wedding.
The best way to make sure the event flows smoothly is to designate a point person or “director” that your helpers can talk to if they have any questions. The director should have complete lists (with phone numbers) of who is doing what and should know where all the supplies are. For our wedding, with three venues and several days of events, we hired our friend Jordana, a professional theater director turned medical student, to play this role.
She was amazing, and I literally do not think we could have pulled our wedding off without her. If you take nothing else from this book, remember to find yourself a Jordana. Consider a Co-op I don’t know who thought of the wedding co-op first, but it was immortalized in the Offbeat Bride by Ariel Meadow Stallings, and I love the idea. In a wedding co-op, like -minded brides pool their resources to buy generic items that can be reused at each of
their weddings. Participating in a wedding co-op (no matter how informal) decreases your costs and your ecological footprint in one fell swoop.
It is probably easiest to do a co-op if you are getting married the same year as a number of your friends, but with the internet, you can establish or join one in almost any community. Good co-op items include glasses, vases, folding chairs, tablecloths, and napkins. When the last wedding is over, the co-op can resell the stuff and split
the money evenly. You can also use the co-op to save on labor expenses, if all of the brides pitch in and help set up/break down each others’ weddings. Genius, I tell you — genius.
Green for All
Finally, I want to note the original title of this book was The Green Wedding Guide. Despite the name change, my goal to provide a comprehensive resource for couples looking to plan a green wedding remains the same. Many men, including my husband, are actively involved in the wedding-planning process these days (which is great!). Also, I honor and respect same-sex couples looking to consecrate their love with a green wedding.
For the purpose of this book I use the words bride, fiancé, and husband — I hope you will substitute the terms appropriate for your gender and situation.
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