On the Way To A Less Wasteful Wedding

135 days to go until our wedding day.

Less than 5 months.

That doesn’t seem like a lot, but when you start this wedding planning journey a whole year and a half beforehand, it’s a lot.

Plenty of things have been crossed off the to-do list, but there are still many more tasks to go.

Here is a roundup of my less wasteful wedding planning experience so far:

• Introducing Waste Not Want Not Wedding
• I’d Rather Job/Apartment Hunt Than Wedding Venue Hunt
• Committed to a Green Wedding
• Green Wedding Resources
• Finally Found Our Venue
• Finally Found Our Venue: Updated (We found The Joinery before it became a part of the Green Wedding Alliance!)
• Numerous Unnecessary Paper Goods
• Passing on a Traditional Florist
• Gonna Be Composting At My Wedding
• Registering for Things That Will Last
• Buying vs. Renting Wedding Stuff
• Save the Date with Less Waste
• FancyFlip Wedding Resale Event

Yet there is still so much to do!

 

This is NOT my wedding dress. Just one I tried on.

 

FancyFlip Wedding Resale Event

The other week I stood in line for over half an hour with my mom and my future mother in law waiting to get in a hotel ballroom.

At 1:30 on the dot, we rushed in, scanned the room, and ran over to the nearest vendor.

We were attending FancyFlip a traveling wedding resale event. Those who just got married can get a booth and resell their stuff, and those who are future brides and grooms can buy it!

source: http://www.fancyflipevents.com

There were some great booths with some awesome goods! From signs to tablecloths and fake flowers to candles, there were so my options!

source: http://www.fancyflipevents.com

The best part is that there are brides who were in the same position you are currently in. They provided advice and suggestions on how they used their items.

source: http://www.fancyflipevents.com

Another bonus were the fantastic prices! People just wanted to get rid of their stuff and most likely get it out of their basement. The sellers were motivated to sell!

We ended up leaving with the following:

• Table numbers from vintage picture frames
• A dessert bar sign
• Kraft paper bags for hotel guests
• A seating chart frame
• 2 Easels

We made some awesome deals and I can’t wait to turn around next year and sell it again!

Buying vs. Renting Wedding Stuff

There comes a time in the wedding planning process where you realize how much all that fancy, cute stuff costs from the rental company.

This is a very contradictory situation for me. I want to save money, but I also don’t want to be wasteful.

There were two main pieces I wanted for the reception: cake stands and lanterns.

I checked around at some vintage rental companies and found that renting a single cake stand can range from $15-$50.

For one cake stand!

 

Nimble Well vintage jadeite, gold, and pink milk glass cake stands and vases, photo by Amanda Megan Miller.

 

Overall, it is cheaper to buy a couple cake stands, and then re-sell them as a set to another bride, all while keeping my favorite(s) for myself.

So, that’s what we did. We scoured garage sales and Homegoods to come up with our own set of vintage looking cake stands.

We did the same thing for the lanterns. The perfect lanterns happened to be at Target and all on sale as outdoor summer items were moved off the shelves to make way for fall. These lanterns were only on sale in stores and in small quantities, so there were plenty of trips to Targets all over the Chicagoland area. (Sorry you got roped into that dad!)

Once the wedding is over, I plan to keep these items in the wedding rotation by re-selling them to another frugal bride. There are a couple options for that:

• The Great Wedding Recyclery is an event put on every April by the Green Wedding Alliance in Chicago.
• FancyFlip Wedding Resale travels around the country hosting resale events
• Bridal Garage Sale lets you list your items for other brides online
• Wedding Recycle also lets you list your items online for other brides
• Craigslist, obviously…

Here is more information on where to buy and sell used wedding materials online.

The whole thing definitely is more work on our part, but I am okay with that. I know my purchases will be put to good use.

 

Recycling My Obsolete iPod

Today marked the end of an era.

I tried very hard to prevent it from happening, but sometimes we must let go of electronics that are 10 years old and no longer work.

And by “let go,” I mean recycle.

My Apple iPod Classic was purchased circa 2007-2008 with the money from my first job in high school. Together, we listened to favorite songs on repeat, and passed countless hours in the car, walking to class, and eventually walking to work.

 

RIP iPod Classic 2007-2017

The battery started failing a few years ago, but since I no longer walk to work, it was not getting as much use anyway.

 

Eventually, it stopped holding a charge.

Then it would not turn on.

I brought it to the Apple Store a few months ago to see if there was anything they could do. Apparently, my iPod is so old that Apple classifies it as “obsolete.” There was not even an option on how to restore my decrepit device. After some messing around, the employee did get it miraculously to turn back on.

Unfortunately, it was a last ditch effort that only worked for a few days.

Months later, I finally got around to bringing my iPod back to the Apple Store to recycle it. It was a super easy process, where I just filled out a quick form, and I was on my way.

Speaking of recycling electronics, I also recently brought a broken Fitbit back to Best Buy, which was also easy peasy.

Now I want to know how and where do you recycle your old electronics?

More information on Apple’s Recycling Program.

More information on Best Buy’s Recycling Program.