Hello, Friends! This post was sponsored by and wasn’t written by me it was written by Sarah from the Wedding Favors Unlimited blog where she enjoys writing about wedding planning and unique party favors. Thank you for supporting the companies that help to run Sweet Greens!
I love weddings – especially weddings where the bride and groom make every effort to make it eco-friendly. It can be easy to book a green location for the big day, serve an organic vegan or vegetarian menu, choose local flora for decorations and even purchase sustainable wedding rings. Choosing wedding favors is no different, you can choose from a large selection of eco-friendly wedding favors that your guests will love that will still have a huge impact. To get started, here are a few options to consider.
#1: Organic Flower Seeds Give your guests an organic seed packet before they leave your wedding. These often come in many different shapes and sizes, and there are companies out there that do nothing but produce customized seed packets for weddings just like yours. Shop around for great ideas, then spread a little flower love with your seeds for guests.
#2: Non-Toxic Candles
Candles are one of the most popular favors, even when youâre not talking about the world of eco-friendly choices. If you do decide to go this route, though, make certain that you choose soy or beeswax candles.
#3: Organic Herb Plants:
Herbs are a wonderful plant to consider any time of year, and these might just be the cutest eco-friendly favors on the list. You can find organic herbs almost year round at any green house, and itâs fairly simple to split them into cute, reclaimed containers. Look high and low for old mason jars, adorable vintage glass containers, or even reuse those baby food jars. You will likely want to go with a variety of different herbs, but rosemary, basil, and oregano are the most popular ones to grow in a jar. You could even include a recipe on recycled paper so your guests know exactly how to use their new gift.
#4: Organic + Edible Anything
Guests will love a great little treat, and food is often low impact, especially when you go organic. If you donât want to handle any baking or preparation on your own, consider fair trade chocolate that contains only organic ingredients.
5: Organic Live Trees
There are few things more important in this world than planting a tree, and whether you want to go with the National Arbor Day Foundation or the Green World Project, you can get live tree seedlings to give to your guests in place of the more traditional favors. Most of these foundations have a lot of options, so even if youâre having a winter wedding, you can still give trees that will be ideal for your guests to plant in their local area.
#6: A Donation
Do your guests actually need a trinket on your big day? Instead, figure up what youâd spend, then contact your favorite charity. Many organizations have a donation program in place and can provide you with documents that a donation was made in honor of your special day.
#7: DIY
Have something you do well? Consider giving that as a wedding favor. For example, if one of you happens to do wonderful watercolor paintings, consider making a small, eco-friendly painting for each of your guests. You want to go with something that has a very low impact here, though, because if you donât, youâre going to defeat the purpose entirely.Think of everyday items that you could upcycle into something fabulous to give to your guests.
How about you lovely readers – what are your favorite eco-friendly wedding favors?
Every time we visit Bahia Honda State Park in the Florida Keys our first activity is always snorkeling under the 7 mile bridge. It isn’t a popular snorkeling spot, there are never more than a couple people snorkeling in this area every day, but it is some of the best snorkeling that we have found inside the park. We usually spent at least 2-3 full days of our Florida Keys vacation snorkeling at the bridge – it’s that good!
When we arrived at Bahia Honda last week, we grabbed our gear and hit the bridge and as usual we weren’t disappointed. Here is a peek at what we saw during one of our days of snorkeling.
This area of the bridge is covered in sea urchins. We always wear our Keens when we are in the water – we have learned the hard way how important it is to always wear shoes in the water. Eben stepped on a sea urchin a couple of years ago and we spent a long, excruciating evening in the emergency room. Lesson: Wear shoes in the water!
Eben is checking out the sea urchins and getting ready to hit the water. The water in this area is very shallow, especially during low tide – making it the perfect snorkeling spot to see small sea creatures up close and personal. There are a ton of different kinds of tropical fish, starfish, sea urchins, crabs, lobsters and an octopus or two.
Every year we see at least one octopus, this year we saw two! (I didn’t have my camera with me for the first one). They have to be my favorite, they are so intelligent and beautiful!
As you start to walk into the water if you look carefully you will see all kinds of small Gobi’s swimming in and out of the rocks. They will swim away super quickly as you walk into water and they are everywhere. Do you see it in the middle of the photo below?
I am a huge fan of the Needle Fish – they are everywhere in the Keys, however unless you are really looking you won’t see them, they blend in really well. They swim on the top of the water in small schools and they are very inquisitive, I have had them come right up to my mask while snorkeling just to say hello and sometimes they will swim with us.
The mister and Eben are the most adventurous, they carefully pick things up, examine, admire and then put it back exactly where they found it. This day they found several small lobsters, the octopuses and several different types of starfish.
If you go into the deeper water under the bridge, we have seen Nurse Sharks – which is always amazing! (I really need to get an under water camera!)
It is one of my favorite snorkeling spots in South Florida and the Keys. Have you been? Is there another place in the Keys or South Florida that has amazing snorkeling that we should know about (besides the reefs)? I would love to hear about your snorkeling adventures.
In a society where carbon emissions and global warming are major issues, it is becoming increasingly important for each household to do their part of âbeing greenâ. Whether this is recycling more, using the car less or buying locally, there are many ways to become more eco-friendly. Furnishing a home isnât something that people associate with helping the environment; however, it can make a huge difference and it doesnât mean that you have to forsake style in order to enjoy greener living. From sofa beds to eco-friendly kitchens, searching around for the best in eco-friendly furnishings can reap rewards. How does eco-friendly furniture help?
There are plenty of reasons why eco-friendly furniture can help the environment, the first being the difference in the materials used. Avoid heavily varnished or painted goods, or ones that have been treated with toxic substances, as these will release gases and chemicals into the atmosphere. Choose certified sustainable products, which means that the wood or fabric has been harvested in a way that doesnât damage the environment or increase carbon emissions during production. There are different ways of creating eco-friendly materials such as recycling or âup-cyclingâ where an old product is made into a new one, or old woods are broken down to build new furniture. Reclaimed woods do not originate from trees chopped down just to make the furniture, but have been sourced by other means such as those that fall naturally.
Where can I buy it?
There are plenty of options when it comes to sourcing eco-friendly furniture, whether it is through online stores or brick and mortar stores in your local neighborhood. Other great sources include checking out Craigslist, eBay, and your local thrift shops. We recently did a patio makeover using pieces of furniture that we already owned, along with a great table that we found on Craigslist!) Vintage has also made a massive comeback in recent years, and the beauty of reclaimed and recycled furniture has meant that there is an ever-increasing number of possibilities. Eco-friendly furniture doesn’t have to be expensive, and even browsing free recycling websites (such as Freecycle) can reveal some gorgeous pieces, which have still got a long lease of life for the next owner.
When looking for new items of furniture, eco-friendly may not be the most obvious of solutions, but it is a way to assist in helping the environment. Whether it is bought from a specialist supplier of reclaimed wood, or a local crafts-person who has recycled an old item, eco-friendly furniture can be both affordable and stylish without damaging the future.
Hello, Friends! We are back from seven amazing days at Bahia Honda State Park in the Florida Keys. We take a trip every summer to the Keys, however this summer’s trip was epic! Some years we stay on our sailboat, some years we have taken whatever camping spot we could get – this year, the mister planned way ahead and booked the above spot on the beach.
Every morning we would get up early to sit on the beach sipping our coffee, watching the birds catch their breakfast and planning the adventures for the day. The amount of foliage around our campsite was fantastic – it was so thick you couldn’t see the campsite next to you.
Every morning would carefully walk down to the beach, careful not to step on any hermit crabs or sprawling vines crossing our path.
We couldn’t help but feel completely relaxed when we were there – we didn’t want to leave. Even this little one had a great time, we call her our camping Pug. Ha!
Have you been to Bahia Honda State Park? Are there other areas of the Florida Keys that you recommend that we check out?
Hello, Friends! How are you? How has your summer been going? We leave for our annual trip to the Florida Keys on Sunday. I am so excited I can barely stand it! Seven full days in the sun with nothing on the agenda except relaxation, well that and beachcombing, paddleboarding, snorkeling, swimming and hopefully we will see another octopus! Oh, yea and of course, soaking up every second of sunshine and time with my boys! I have been busy packing all afternoon, finished up all of the projects I was working on for my clients, made a list for the housesitter and plan to spend the rest of the evening having dinner by the pool with our great friends. Yay for summertime! While I grab my swimsuit, here are a few green things I thought you might enjoy:
I hope you have an amazing weekend – I will be taking a little time on vacation to blog about our adventures in the Keys. I thought it would be fun to share our activities for the week! Stay tuned!
