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Something old, something borrowed, something green: how to plan a beautiful eco-friendly wedding

The average cost of a Canadian wedding today is $24,000. $24,000! No wonder so many fathers are angry when their daughters announce they’re getting married. Even though most couples actually pay for their own weddings these days, that is still a huge bill to begin a new marriage with. But if you don’t want to start your honeymoon in debt, what are the options? Well, since this is the UsedEverywhere blog, of course you can throw a beautiful, eco-friendly wedding for a fraction of the usual cost!

My fiance and I had a tiny wedding budget thanks to two years of ongoing renovations on our fixer-upper. Over a year and a half of wedding planning, we found out that when you go green, you save green, even in weddings. We learned where to save big money and where to go green … and that the two usually went hand-in-hand. Elegant does not have to mean expensive, and neither does eco-friendly. We planned a gorgeous, “green” wedding for all our family and friends, and saving the planet was just a bonus.

In planning the wedding, Rolf and I turned to the same resources as we had been using in our ongoing renovations: the knowledge and help of our friends and family; our local Used.ca site for cheap and free materials; and Google. For 1/8th the cost of a standard wedding, $3,000, we got married last summer in a sweet, vintage wedding with one hundred of our closest friends. And partied our asses off.

In upcoming posts in this blog series on throwing a low-budget but beautiful wedding, I’ll go over all the aspects of planning a wedding, showing you where we saved money, what the green options are, and what not to DIY! Over the coming weeks I’ll cover all the wedding planning essentials:

The venue.The venue

The invitations.The invitations

The rings.The rings

The flowers.Wedding flowers

Photography.Photography and services

The dress! And other wedding clothes.Wedding clothes

The food.The food

Centrepieces and wedding favours.Centrepieces and wedding favours

Wedding cakes and cake toppers.edding cakes and cake toppers

If you’re out west this weekend, UsedVancouver.com is proudly sponsoring The Original Bridal SwapBridal Swap connects past brides and brides-to-be in a fun atmosphere so they can buy and sell gently used wedding items.

Saving the planet is a nice side benefit to going green, but I have to admit I'm in it for the money. Why pay more for new when used is better?

4 Responses to “Something old, something borrowed, something green: how to plan a beautiful eco-friendly wedding”

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Crystal - Prenatal Coach

Beautiful! Where did you find the $24,000 stat? I’d like to write a blog post that uses that number in another context but I’m not sure where to find that “stat”. Thanks!!!

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Colin Trethewey

brilliant! Love the BBQ’s, that’s one way to get guys more excited about attending weddings!

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