Ideal Bite

There is probably not a single other life event that creates as much one-time-use stuff as a wedding does. Invitations, dresses, decorations, placecards, shoes, ring pillows, garters, disposable cameras…

Wanna throw a green wedding? You don't have to find a dress made of hemp. You don't need to forgo flowers. You certainly don't have to serve vegan cupcakes.

You can throw one heck of a green wedding simply by minimizing "Single Use Stuff." Buy an awesome pair of gold slingback sandals instead of dyed satin shoes. (Then remember your vows every time you wear them.) Put your guests' hotel, activity and map information on a free wedding website instead of making printouts for every hotel room. Bypass the menu card in favor of French restaurant-style chalkboards that outline what's for dinner. Ask your bridesmaid(s) to buy a dress of their choice Read the full post... 

How on EARTH do all those people manage to get in shape before their weddings? Seems like everyone I know is this fantabulous, amazing, fit (and by "fit," we really mean "thin," let’s face it) version of herself when she walks down that aisle.

Seriously, tell me - how does that happen? From what I can tell, all I'm going to be doing for the next five months is working like a fiend so I can take some vacation time, planning the wedding during my personal hours (instead of going to yoga), and eating and drinking my face off at the multiple engagement parties we are going to be attending.

Every time I turn around, it seems I need to celebrate with a new friend who hasn't seen me since I got engaged. (Clearly, "need" is the right word here.) Of course, this necessitates bubbles. And bubbles necessitate Read the full post... 

Why, oh why, isn't there a simple website that has what flowers are in season, where, here in the U.S.?  Why?

If someone would like to start up that website, brides the world over would be much obliged (and more easily eco-fied).

-Heather…off to talk to a florist…

Read the full post... 

Narrowing down wedding dresses was complicated, but in the end, I got it down to two designers, each doing eco work in different ways:

Adele Wechsler  - South African born and raised, Wechsler moved to Toronto, where she manages her bridal business with a focus on fair-trade and eco design.

Amy Kuschel - San Francisco-based Kuschel hits the eco bullseye by doing all her work locally (no sending off for a dress to be made abroad and shipped here) and repurposing leftover fabrics into sweet, sassy wedding dresses that are perfect for beach weddings.

I gotta be honest, people: I really wanted to get two dresses - the Misty by Wechsler (vegetable-dyed Read the full post... 

After a few more forays out to try to find vintage dresses, I determined that it was going to be impossible to get JUST the right dress that way, unless I happened upon it nearly accidentally. See, just as these dresses have required time and seasoning to reach their vintage juicy-ness, in order to squeeze the best out of your vintage shopping experience, you need to give yourself some time and space to find the PERFECT dress for you.

There are amazing finds online, but you need to order them, try them, and send back the rejects. Likewise, there are amazing finds in little shops all over, but again, you need time to search in an unhurried manner, find the perfect alterations expert and cleaner, and then craft the ideal look and feel to complement the dress.

If you - like me - are planning an entire wedding in 5 months, the leisurely pace that vintage requires Read the full post... 

Yup. 36 bucks. That is what I spent on bridal mags a couple weeks ago. Oof.

% of post-consumer recycled content in the paper in those mags?

Zero.

If I keep this up, I’m going to eco-hell. Thus, I have decided, from here on out, to get my whole bridal mag fix electronically, at The Knot. Or, check out a whole host of green online wedding planning links at: http://www.idealbite.com/guides/wedding/missing-links-found. (Shameless, shameless self-promotion…)

-Heather… off to figure out which offsetter to use to carbon offset the wedding…

Read the full post... 

When you start a green business – even if you never use that business to be preachy or pedantic – people start to act a little strange around you. They look shifty-eyed and apologize if they order a steak while you are out to dinner. They sheepishly gesture to the MiracleGro stashed in the corner of their abundant gardens. They try not to make eye contact as they grab the disposable diaper from their baby bag. And as I sit there drinking my glass of wine from halfway around the world, sneaking another slice of proscuitto (“but hey - the persimmon is totally local!”), I wonder why they think I’m any better than they are, any less prone to the difficulty of getting the results you want while trying to tread more lightly on the earth.

You also see this strange mood overtake everyone who works in a service capacity – from Read the full post... 

Vintage dress shopping is an exercise in humility. See, I'm not a little girl. Oh sure - I go up and down in weight, sport varying levels of fitness, feel puffy or lean, depending on the time of day/week/month/year… But by and large, my set point is a size 8, and I'm not going to deviate from that by much, even if I never eat a starch again between now and October 17th.

But all those women who wore wedding dresses years ago? Apparently they were all a whole lot more Gwyneth Paltrow than Jane Russell.

So thus far, vintage wedding dress shopping is feeling a lot like losing my luggage in Singapore in 2002…go to Singapore and try to buy a bra and shoes and clothes sometime if you are 5'8" and a 34D. It’s a REALLY solid check on your ego.

I DID find an amazing couture site called Read the full post... 

No one ever told me that being engaged would be so much fun. Everyone is excited and congratulatory. Something that you think is highly personal and only between two people suddenly becomes a spark of joy for your family and friends. All in all - the stress of planning aside - I highly recommend getting engaged as soon as possible. It’s a good gig.

Being a blogger is also an interesting gig - you never really know how much of your own life to put on display, and when it comes to involving your friends and family in your stories, you have to tread lightly. But The Boyfriancé and I had a little chat the other night, and he agreed to let me write about this whole wedding planning process, in the name of greening the greater good.

So here goes - stay tuned for the good, the bad, and the ugly in the process of designing my very own Big, Fat, Read the full post... 

Here in the Bay Area, we are nearing the end of chard/kale/spinach season, but elsewhere in the country, you're probably just coming into the time of year when your CSA box starts showing up, chock-full of leeks and spinach and dark, dark (healthy) greens.

So – while you got 'em…here’s my current favorite single-dish meal, made up from stuff I already had in the fridge and cupboard (forego the sausage and add more olive oil instead and it's even vegan):

Pasta with Sausage and Red Chard
Serves 4

INGREDIENTS
(all amounts are approximate, and of course go for organic, free-range, yadda yadda, on ingredients whenever you can)

•    3/4 cup pine nuts Read the full post...