Making your daily habits more sustainable can require a lot of effort. It is important to get help whenever and wherever you can, because most people are willing to make the effort if they can find the right guidance. Lets assume somebody is interested in having a green wedding. That person could use potted plants or bulb flowers in their decorative arrangements? This means the plants will survive to beautify the day of another person or could even be considered an enduring symbol of the couple’s love, since it will last a long time after the marriage. Then when they have dinner parties, they can describe the flower arrangement as their “love plant.”

Speaking of flowers and gardens, did you know that if you water your garden before 8 AM you can save as much as 25 gallons a day? If you want to find out more easy tips and routines for creating your sustainable corner of the world, check out the Guide To Greener Living [www.sundancechannel.com].

As we noted yesterday [www.sundancechannel.com], green weddings are hot and hip these days, and, as we’ll note below, becoming easier than ever to source and implement while keeping each couples’ ideas, budget and aesthetic in mind. As with other green lifestyle choices and behaviors like what you eat [www.sundancechannel.com] and what you wear [www.sundancechannel.com], there are long lists (that are getting longer) of ways to implement greener choices at your wedding for the happy couple-to-be, guests and everyone involved. Here are some of TreeHugger’s favorites, including proof that it can actually be done.

1) Perhaps the item that demands the most attention and causes the most trepidation, the dress, deserves some special attention; we looked to Faernyn’s Grove [www.treehugger.com] for stylish, eco-considerate couture that’ll make brides feel as good as they look walking down the aisle.
2) For a comprehensive how-to guide, check out our How to Green Your Wedding [www.treehugger.com] guide, written by TreeHugger Sami Grover, who was in the midst of planning his own green wedding as he compiled the guide; we also organized a few handy tips [www.treehugger.com] for a quick-hitting, lighter-weight guide to getting greener.
3) To prove that it’s possible, Sami wrote a really sweet follow-up [www.treehugger.com] to the guide, including some pics and personal reflection on his big day.
4) You know that an idea’s time has come when it makes on TV, and on a soap opera, no less: “Days of Our Lives [www.treehugger.com] featured Sami and Lucas getting hitched, green-style not long ago; though there are no guarantees about commitment in TV-land (and certainly not on a soap), eco-chic weddings never look better than on TV. No word on whether a “green divorce” (God-forbid) is a possibility.
5) The idea has caught on in Hollywood, too, though not in a movie (just yet, at least); A Soolip Wedding [www.treehugger.com] organized an event where socially conscious brides will find organic cuisine, tree-free/reclaimed material paper, tips for d écor and party favors that’ll have a life beyond the celebratory day.
6) Everybody has their own style; check out this Waiheke Island, New Zealand-style green wedding [www.treehugger.com] to see how to green a wedding in a pretty remote, sometimes hard-to-get-to (at least for North Americans) locale.
7) Portovert magazine, mentioned yesterday, teamed up with the carbon offsetters at NativeEnergy to create a really functional, unique feature: the first U.S. wedding carbon calculator [www.treehugger.com] to help offset guest travel, lodging, venue power and heat and other carbon-related expenses for the activities surrounding a wedding.

Tomorrow: more green wedding tips, including ideas for how to stay green on the big day and beyond…

Now that summer is officially here, unofficial “wedding season” also cranks into high gear. For TreeHuggers, the notion of a “green” wedding can be a tough contradiction to tackle; it’s perhaps the biggest day of your life, and you want to share it with your friends and family, and have a really good time doing so. Yet, with each additional invitation, out of town guest, plate of food, glass of champagne, and piece of cake, the eco-impact goes up. Thankfully, there are more and more options for green-conscious couples to have a beautiful, meaningful, fun wedding and not trash the planet in the process. Today, we’ll look at some of the options available to couples before the big day arrives.

Before the question even gets popped, you can be a little greener with GreenKarat [www.greenkarat.com] engagement and wedding rings. Unfortunately, industrial and manual methods of extracting precious metals and gems can damage land and ecosystems. Small scale miners often use excavation and extraction techniques which are harmful both to themselves and to the environment. Thankfully, GreenKarat offers recycled gold and absolutely won’t touch “conflict diamonds” — that is, those that raise questions about smuggling, chain of custody compliance, and doubtful monitoring and verification in regards to financing the activities of various rebel groups. They also offer synthetic gems (no mining required) for those who have, shall we say, less traditional expectations about the ring. Once fingers are properly adorned, it may be time to start planning the big day. Services and sites like Green Elegance Weddings [www.greeneleganceweddings.com] and Organic Weddings [www.organicweddings.com] offer tips, info and services for couples who want their big day to be a green day. With eco-friendly wedding apparel, invitations, gifts, flowers, food and beverages, honeymoons and do-it-yourself projects, there isn’t much that can’t be made greener. There’s even a whole magazine devoted to the subject now; Portovert [portovert.com] focuses on content that empowers engaged couples with inspiring, eco-chic ideas for engagement parties, bridal showers, weddings and other related events. But “don’t expect to find inspiration for wheat bundled arrangements and DIY hemp dresses here,” they say; it’s a “more hip, less hippie” way to go green, and that’s what we like to see.

Perhaps the biggest decision before the big day involves the dress: something so important to most brides that they’ll wear it just once and keep it forever. For something so special and individual TreeHugger thinks it’s good to know where your dress came from, how is was made and what is it made of. London-based Wholly Jo’s [www.wholly-jo.co.uk] make gowns from organic, fair trade and cruelty-free products. They use Peace Silks (a vegetarian option), and organic cotton and hemp fabrics and also take opportunities to recycle old dresses. Of course, if a trip to London isn’t in the cards, we also approve of the increasing popularity of vintage dresses. Of course, if using someone else’s wedding dress is too much, there’s always the paper wedding dress [www.treehugger.com]. We’re just saying…

Stay tuned for more green wedding tips throughout the rest of the week!