I picked up a little book at the Denver library while I was there visiting my family. It caught my eye that it was an unusual book on weddings. With time to kill I expected the book to be stories about how some couples planned and arranged their big day to be Earth conscience. But it wasn’t arranged that way, it was more about reference to specific aspects of the event itself. For instance, using florists that get their flowers and plants from growers that don’t use pesticides. I thought… that’s cool! We’ve all heard about re-gifting, they suggest giving practical and beautiful favors at the reception that can actually be used and reused. However, the best idea I remember seeing there is to have the guests give to a choice of charities listed in the invitation then display the gifts as the table favors. Take bicycles to the Ceremony? I don’t think many people are going to go for that. But, doesn’t that sound romantic and imagine those beautiful portraits. On the other hand I read that the cruise line ships account for a very large amount of waste dumped at sea. Now that can’t be good.

Immediately I thought, okay what can I do to contribute? How can I offer a “green photography?” Truth is, it made me think back in the 80s when I started photography at a studio in Tampa , Florida . I learned from the instructions on the bottles how to process my own film and make my own prints. I hand colored portraits like you used to see from the old times, and into the Warhol era. Now that we are in the time of digital processing, fortunately very little of the chemicals are used and the photo with eyes closed are simply deleted. Nothing falls into the waste basket. With that in mind I decided to offer proofs in multi-print pages as opposed to hundreds of 3”x5” single prints. Of course viewing images online is got to be the “greenest” way to go. Truth is though, they aren’t as easy to see, and you can’t circle them. If anything is difficult to give up in a paper form…it’s got to be photographs. I imagine with my SciFi brain that in time we’ll move to other forms of imagery and the wedding albums and photographs will be some sort of holograph. Still the albums we print nowadays will last decades if not a hundred years. With that sort of longevity who can argue from waste?

Mostly, I thought the best thing I can offer at this point is the awareness of the green wedding. To go into the planning with reuse, recycle terms in mind. As I go forward I hope to begin to have a suggested “green vendors list” that can offer suggestions in products and services.

Comments and suggestions are welcome. I hope you enjoyed reading my blog-o-thoughts.