13 September 2007

Invites On My Mind

We need to be thinking of invites pretty soon and of course I want to recycle some of our junk mail (a.k.a. credit card offers) and make the paper, use kind ink, and attach to migratory birds to drop off at their intended recipients. O.k. maybe not the last one, that is a little over the top. It would be best if we lived in the same town with everyone and just had the town cryer announce the wedding in the town square on market day, but that is going to happen in south Florida as surely as imaginary migratory birds traveling north for the winter with our invites strapped to them.

So I intend to make our invites but am looking at invite sources for inspiration and a plan B.

The greenest invites I can find are evites. However as one commenter has mentioned, I am "simply shallow." Therefore in admitting how shallow I am, I want paper products to go out in the mail to our guests. If you want to make life easy on yourself take one of my recommendations or go to the TreeHugger Guide to Green Weddings. I could have saved myself a lot of time if I went there in the first place, but this is the stuff I saw and liked in my process.

First off I love the "grow-a-note" stationary where wildflower seeds are embedded in the paper and invite recipients can plant the invitations when they are done with them. I think some of the more chic invites I have seen in this style come from Green Field Paper Company.

Another company doing grow-a-note paper I was introduced to thanks to a knottie friend is Twisted Limb Paperworks. They use recycled junk mail, use water from their humidifier and AC unit to make paper, send samples on recycled paper, send your order with shredded recycled paper, offset their business with Native Energy shares, and also have decent social responsible programs as well as being a co-op.

I was also introduced to Of the Earth where a knottie only bought the paper and made the grow-a-note invites herself. They do make invitations though.

Invite Site has come really cute designs and uses a lot of recycled materials.

Shindig has some very creative paper products and here is their policy statement:
Where ever possible, Shindig is committed to using
materials that are either recycled, recycleable or biodegradeable. Using papers that meet FSC standards, and working with printers that use soy or vegetable based inks.

There are a lot of vendors looking to get into the eco-friendly wedding market since this is tagged as a huge trend right now. Try to see if their values line up with yours as you decide if you want to support their business. And for goodness sake, look at the etsy store and other small outlets where the designer will customize an order for you.

2 comments:

Christy said...

I love your invite ideas--very eco-friendly.

Becky said...

Loves your comment on weddingbee so just came by to say hi! The invites are gorgeous- we're also looking for ways to make less of an environmental impact with our wedding.