By Sandy Moore, PennsylvaniaEnergy.org

Your wedding day will be the best day of your entire life. It’ll also be one of the most lavish days of your life. From food and travel to décor and drinks, your wedding is sure to be a massively consumptive affair.

You deserve it though! It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and you shouldn’t have to sweat over the reception facility’s decision to use two-ply toilet paper instead of one-ply. But if you’re looking to make a few personal eco-friendly adjustments to your day on the altar, here’s what you can do to be an earth friendly groom:

1. Dress smart. Your wedding day will be the most memorable of your life, so you probably want everything to be just about perfect. But you don’t necessarily need everything to be completely new. Try looking around for used tuxedos that are still in good condition. They’re available in most men’s stores, and they won’t cost you a fortune like a brand new tux.

2. Dress organically. They may not be the easiest items to find, but there are a few viable options for eco-friendly haberdashery. Maybe you avoid the head-to-toe hemp suit, but instead elect to go with a vest or tie made of organic cotton. You can also be sure to research different types of dress shoes and pick a pair that’s made from products which haven’t been manufactured at the expense of animal life.

3. Think about the future. When you’re purchasing clothing, decoration and other wedding accompaniment, remember that you’re about to enter a lifelong bond. Buy things you could envision yourself making use of in the future. The easiest way for anyone to go green is through reuse.

4. Monitor yourself. Your marriage is something worth celebrating – have fun and enjoy yourself to the fullest. That said, you can always be sure to moderate how much you consume, personally. If you’re not going to eat an extra piece of cake at the reception, don’t take it from the tray. You’d be astounded at how much food and drink goes to waste after the big celebration – there’s no need to contribute to it any more than you should.

5. Be specific about the gifts. If you’ve still got some time before the date, make a point to avoid registering for items you’ll have no need for. Doubling up on toasters or TVs can be wasteful; you’re better off requesting a donation in the name of you and your bride-to-be.

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pennsylvaniaenergy.org is a sponsor of groomsadvice

What steps are you taking to ensure an eco-friendly wedding? Tell us in the comment section below.

In early 2011 I came across a new online wedding invitation service, Greenvelope.com, which had recently launched. Founded in his dorm room at Washington University in St. Louis by Sam Franklin, Greenvelope had one mission: to create a formal electronic wedding invitation service that emulated the experience of opening a traditional paper invitation and to help couples “go green” on their big day.

Greenvelope has gained significant traction since early 2011, and they are well on their way to changing people’s view of electronic invitations.” With over ten thousand hosts using the service, Greenvelope has successfully initiated the green shift in the wedding invitation paradigm, providing users with an easy-to-use and highly customizable digital interface to deliver elegant invitations directly to e-mail inboxes around the world. Not only does the service provide a green, stylish and affordable option to wedding invitations, Greenvelope prides itself in providing the best customer service available, which we all know is important during the weeks leading up to the big day.

One of my favorite aspects of this service is the ability for grooms to stay involved in the process. From the design of the card all the way to tracking of the RSVP’s, the invitation experience can truly be shared with the user friendly interface and cloud based technology. When an account is created, all information is stored on the site, allowing you and your partner to check the status of who will be attending, what people will be eating and any comments people are sharing. Of course, all these features are optional, giving you complete control of your invitation destiny.

The service is not only limited to weddings. If you are not ready to go completely digital, the service is also great for bachelor parties, rehearsal dinners or any other events related to the big day.

To help celebrate the launch of their new website, Greenvelope is offering our readers a 15% discount on any purchase by entering the code “themanregistry” at checkout. (Valid through August 31st).

Photo – Shannon Lee Images

The fall issue of Eco-Beautiful Weddings has just been released and we’ve got a fresh article featured on pages 52-55. This time around we tackled the trendy topic of eco-friendly wedding wear for men. If you’re in search of green alternatives to traditional suits, dress shirts and accessories, we highly recommend checking this piece out… along with all of the other great articles and features.

Access the fall 2011 issue here. Cheers!

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photo credit – shannon lee images

Looking for eco-friendly ways to incorporate America’s Pastime into your wedding day? Look no further than the summer issue of Eco-Beautiful Weddings. On pages 67-69, you’ll find an article from yours truly on planning a green, baseball-themed wedding. From venues to cakes to photo shoot locales, you’ll find several options for showcasing your love of the game while staying true to environmentally-friendly practices.

Cheers!

As a serial entrepreneur, I’m a huge supporter of start-up companies. It takes real guts to go out on a limb and start a company in today’s financial climate — especially with no guarantee of stability in the economy. There’s no shortage of innovative companies on the rise in many industries,  — but what really interests me is discovering start-ups in the world of weddings.

This brings me to Greenvelope.com. Greenvelope is the brainchild of Sam Franklin — a student at Washington University in St. Louis that decided a heavy college workload at a prestigious university wasn’t enough. He also wanted to start a company. I dig that outlook on entrepreneurship and I also dig his idea: a personalized approach to paperless wedding invitations.

Introducing Greenvelope.com

Greenvelope provides clients an environmentally-friendly service to easily customize and send formal wedding invitations electronically (via e-mail). They offer three packages — including the free “bronze” package for your Save-the-Date cards.

To help celebrate their launch, Greenvelope is offering our readers a 25% discount on their two most popular packages. Users entering the coupon code “themanregistry” will receive:

• 25% off the Silver or Gold Package
• New Package or Upgrade eligible.
• Good for 3 Months
• Unlimited Use – Can even be used for multiple events within the same account.
• VIP support and guidance.

A sampling of what Greenvelope offers..

Greenvelope is easy to use because it was designed with the user-experience in mind. A few of our favorite features are:

• No ads! – Greenvelope takes electronic invitations to the next level, by introducing an unexplored level of formality: ad-free wedding invitations. Guests do not see pop-ups, ad banners, or receive spam.
• Organization – Your guest list will be easy to keep organized with the simple management tools that Greenvelope provides. Users are instantly notified when a guest RSVP’s, and the guest list updates automatically to show any changes.

For the full list of features, click here.

We hope that you’ll check out Greenvelope.com. For further information, you can follow them on Twitter and “like” them on Facebook.

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Readers – what do you think of Greenvelope? Would you consider going paperless with your wedding invitations and save-the-dates? In what other areas of wedding planning are you going green? Let us know in the comments.