Weddings That Change the World

Photo Credit: Robert Garey (Me in the Dominican Republic)

Your wedding is perhaps the foremost opportunity to express your uniqueness to the world, and for many, this uniqueness includes a passion for justice, sustainability, and humanitarianism.  Defying much of the culturally-accepted self-indulgence that saturates most weddings, increasingly couples are choosing to use their wedding to change the world; after all, anytime you get a large group of people together, there is inherently an opportunity to bring increased awareness, fundraising potential, and a moment to demonstrate sustainability.  Consider your wedding as an opportunity to change the world!

Photo Credit: Natalie Maynor

Food

Accessibility to local, organic, and even vegan or kosher menus for your wedding is practically universal today regardless of where you might be having your wedding.  In fact, the degree at which you want to bring organic anything into your wedding often depends simply upon how deep your pocketbook is.  Currently, the ability to have virtually everything in your wedding as local and organic is fully possible– everything from food, to makeup, to fabrics.

Invitations

WeddingWindow’s RSVP feature makes it easy to send eco-friendly, electronic wedding invitations via email to your wedding attendees, thus eliminating the need for elaborate paper invitations as well as return RSVP notes and postage.  It’s a simple, affordable, and efficient way to save some trees and still have a reliable invitation list from which to plan from.

Reduce, Recycle, & Reuse

New doesn’t necessarily mean better!    Resist the temptation to buy that new designer dress and liven up your grandma’s classic gown or purchase a (slightly) used dress from sites such as smartbride.com and oncewed.com.  Search Craigslist or Ebay for used wedding decor rather than purchasing new.  Also, place recycle bins adjacent to the garbage cans at your reception and get your wedding guests in on making your wedding green.

Photo Credit: NeatoRama.com

Diamonds & Rings

Purchasing a diamond and other jewelry and knowing that some poor soul wasn’t exploited for the sake of it’s discovery is increasingly becoming of the utmost importance to socially-aware brides and grooms.  Awareness of such injustices has been made mainstream by Hollywood (see Blood Diamond), but manufacturers and vendors are taking action to ensure that diamonds and precious metals are being brought to market in ethical and humane ways.  Some of these committed jewelers include:

• Green Karat
• Aid Through Trade
• Fair Trade Gems
• Costello International
• Global Handcrafters
• Junk to Jewels
• Kazuri America
• Leber Jeweler
• Make Piece/Peace Inc.
• Peter Stone Co.
• WorldFinds

Favors & Gifts

This is where you can get as creative as your humanitarian ambitions lies.  For example, my bride and I decided that instead of giving out party favors to our guests, we invited everyone to “Help Us Start Our Family” by helping us sponsor four orphans in India.  Other ideas that we considered were building a well through Charity:Water and funding International Justice Mission’s ongoing work to fight human trafficking.  The opportunities for creative awareness and fundraising are endless!

How will your wedding change the world?