Vintage Budget Eco Bride

I would always advise buying everything you are able to and can afford from local independent shops, but there are always a few things that you cannot.  The Oriental Trading Company offers a cheaper alternative for those things.

Personalized Cake Serving Set

The Oriental Trading company offers these for $20 to $30-- most that I have seen are around $40 on sale.  Stick with one of the all metal sets or one of the porcelain sets for a more elegant look, as the others have plastic handles.  The all metal sets will likely last the longest-- you want them to last past the reception, right?

Fans

 Give your reception a vintage or oriental feel with fans that can be used as decorations your guests can use!  Let guests take them home with them after the reception so you aren't stuck with a ton afterward.  Don't order one for every guest (not every guest will want one)-- just enough to decorate with.  You can keep a few at the ceremony site just in case any guest wants to use one during the ceremony.  The Oriental Trading Company has a good variety of styles and colors-- a lot more than I have linked to here.

Memorial Vase


If you are planning on displaying flowers in memorial of friends or family members (I am displaying both my grandmothers' favorite flowers), this vase can hold them during the ceremony.  It will be a nice keepsake to have in your home as well.


Wedding Favors or Gifts for the Wedding Party
While the best wedding favor is to donate to a charity in your guests' honor, many couples want to give their guests something to take with them.  Food generally does not go to waste, but there are other options, such as this notepad case that comes with a pen.  Everyone can use a notepad.  The case is plastic, so it is not as durable as a metal case, and I am not sure if it is refillable (these metal case notepads are), but these are a cheaper alternative.  They come in a dozen, so if you want to use them for the wedding party, there should be some left over for anyone else you wish to give a thank you gift to.  Again, the Oriental Trading Company has more variety than what I have linked to.


A mint tin is much like the food favor-- everyone is likely to use it/want it.  The cases can be personalized, and your guests can refill them with whatever they want to.  They come in sets of 24, so you should have enough to give to the whole wedding party, anyone else who helped with the wedding, and immediate family members if you want to use them as wedding party gifts.  Again, they have more variety than what I have linked to.

Lip balm is something that most people use, so your guests or wedding party can think of you and your wedding every time they use it.  A variety of colors is available, and they come in sets of a dozen.


Cookie tins probably work better as wedding party gifts than wedding favors, but they would make really nice gifts.  The receivers can use the tin for whatever they want to afterward.  Again, these can be personalized, and they come in sets of 6 tins (a dozen cookies in each tin).


Things to Avoid

The Oriental Trading Company has a lot more for weddings than what I have listed here.  It can be easy to get carried away, and order things that you do not really need.  Some things that I would try to avoid:

• wedding bottle stickers or can covers (who is going to keep a water bottle or can as a souvenir?) 
• wedding print toilet paper (I know, I know, it's for toilet paper dresses at a bridal shower, but all that paper is just going to thrown away-- is it really worth all that money and energy used to produce it?)
• favor packaging (unless you really need something to put the favors in--less packaging is always better)
• bubbles (I know it is a great thing for people to blow bubbles at you after the wedding, but aside from the few initial blows, the only guests who are going to use those bubbles up are the kids-- my fiance and I are just handing out leftover bubbles from a friend's wedding to the kids for fun)
• card boxes (chances are, you know someone who already has a card box or bird cage they used for their wedding, and now all it is doing is collecting dust--borrow it!)
• flower girl baskets (if you already have a basket with a handle, dress it up with some ribbon in your wedding colors; if not, get a basket that you can use in your home afterward, and again, dress it up with some ribbon)
• confetti (that is just a mess that has to be cleaned up and thrown out)
• favors like candles (these are great for people who like candles, but are you only inviting candle fanatics?)

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We just did this at my shower-- ask the guests to bring a recipe for the bride, which is pretty standard, but also ask them to make the dish the recipe is for so that the bride and groom can taste it before they make it.  Those putting on the shower can scoop out some of the dish into numbered containers, and number the recipe cards with the corresponding container number.  The rest of the dish can be served to the guests as your average pot luck, but the bride and groom will be sure to have a taste of each dish later.

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Just heard this great tip for keeping candles burning longer at a reception.  Put the candles in the freezer for the week before the reception, and they will burn twice as long!

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If you want to put a vintage or DIY twist on your thank you notes, for either the bridal shower or the wedding itself (or both), instead of using a prepackaged set of thank you cards, write thank you letters.  Look for a pretty set of stationary, and make your own envelopes.

 If you have never made envelopes before, you can purchase a template from SpoonSisters.com. You can also find free envelope templates around the web.

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 If you like big napkins, and like colors,  Mayan Cotton Napkins are a good choice for putting on your registry.  Available in green, blue, and yellow, you can mix and match or get all one color.  Use embroidery or fabric paint to decorate if you wish (or ask that whoever purchases them for you to do so), or leave them plain.  The napkins are fairly traded from Guatemala, and available through the Unity Fair Trade Marketplace.  Browse the rest of the website for other great fair trade items to put on your registry.

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Check the makeup you want to try out on the Environmental Working Group's cosmetic database.  Chances are, they have tested it for toxins.  Also check it out on Good Guide, for data not just on the ingredients, but how environmentally friendly the company is when they are making their products.

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Before you go tossing any of the packing material some of your Christmas gifts came in, you may want to keep some of it.  Or, you may have some of these left from previous years, saving them in case you found a use for them.  In particular, a cloth bag that a sheet set or pajamas came in, or a zippered plastic one that a bath kit or a sheet set came in would make a great travel toiletry bag to take on your honeymoon.  It can also double as a bridal emergency bag for the wedding day itself (or, if you have more than one bag, make up one for each).

Hair Accessories Travel Bag

Of course, you can always buy a bag, like this one from the SpoonSisters (it is really cute, and I'd be tempted if I didn't have several bags from sheet sets), but a free bag is always better than one you have to pay for.

If you are looking for a gift for a bride, you can always get a sheet set for her that has a bag, and suggest in the card that she reuse the bag for a wedding emergency kit or honeymoon toiletry bag.


Travel Nail Polish Remover

One of the things that you will want to include in your Bride emergency kit is nail polish remover-- and travel nail polish remover is the least likely to spill (spilled nail polish remover could cause a bigger emergency than your kit could deal with!) and the easiest to fit in your kit.  If your kit is also doubling as your honeymoon toiletry bag, so much the better.

Keep tuned for more bride emergency kit and honeymoon packing ideas.

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Sorry I haven't been posting-- December can be quite a busy month, with getting ready for the holidays and also at work (I have co-workers trying to fit in the rest of their vacation hours, so I've been taking on some more hours). Yes, I copied and pasted this paragraph to my other blog.

This may be a bit late for this idea, but one way to cut down on the amount of mindless Christmas gifts you receive (and up the amount of wedding registry items that you do receive), is to encourage people to buy you and your spouse to be wedding registry items for Christmas.  Obviously, if you do not have many items on your registry (perhaps due to already owning a lot of the traditional wedding gifts?), this idea will not be helpful.  On the other hand, getting an extra set of towels isn't a bad thing, as towels wear out (and can wear out rather quickly) and you are going to have to buy new towels several times throughout your marriage.

If you have added donations to your favorite charity (or charities) to your registry, or even if you haven't, you can also encourage friends and family to make a donation to charity in your honor during this holiday season.  Christmas is a great time to investigate charities for putting on your wedding registry as well-- be sure to look up your favorites on GiveWell, Charity Navigator, and CharityWatch to get a good idea if your money is being spent well and really going towards the cause.  Each charity review organization takes different factors into account, so checking the charity on each-- if it has been reviewed by all of them-- will give you a better picture.  GiveWell also provides a guide to DIY charity evaluation, and Charity Navigator and CharityWatch both have a page of tips for choosing a charity.

I encourage you to check out the Advent Conspiracy if you are a Christian (or even if you are not, but you celebrate Christmas).

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When registering for wedding gifts, why not register for something that is both eco-friendly and vintage?  Cloth napkins are reusable, and in many time periods were the only napkins available.

Register for plain cloth napkins, and you can add your own designs to them with fabric paint and stencils, or with embroidery.  Use a different design for each napkin so that each of you will know which napkin is yours, and guests will be able to tell their napkins apart.

If you are not particularly crafty, use the Alternative Gift Registry to link to the napkins you want, and ask that one of your guests with craft skills design them for you.

There are also many napkins that already have adorable designs on them that you can also include on your registry.

Click any of the links for examples.

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Have a lot of guests that do not have a lot of money?  Have a lot of things you need that are not gifts that your guests can wrap up for you?  Consider using the Alternative Gift Registry.  Ask for a pet sitter while you are on your honeymoon.  Ask for help setting up your reception hall.  Find guests who have extra room in their homes that would be willing to house your out of town guests.  These are only a few ideas... there are many more things you can add to the Alternate Gift Registry!

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The above labels are free Suzee Que Vintage mailing labels. If you click the link, it will take you to more labels and instructions for downloading and using them. These would look great on invitation envelopes.

If the above are too ornate for your taste, there is the Lil' Prettie mailing label from Le Blagh (the blog may have moved, but all the previous posts are still there, including some lovely free downloads). It has a simple vintage flavor.

If a wrap label (a label that wraps around one side of the envelope) is more your style, there is the French Postcard wrap label from Le Blagh (subtitled Pretty Procrastination) as well. The blog post also includes a free bookplate download at the bottom.

The Antique Ledger wrap label, also from Le Blagh, is simpler than the French Postcard wrap label, and could showcase a love of math and vintage.

The Ming wrap labels and mini Ming mailing label are more contemporary looking, but could still pass for vintage.

Wrap labels will need to be printed out on a piece of paper and then pasted onto envelopes. Depending on how talented you are with the computer and printer, the mailing labels may be printed and pasted, or printed directly onto the envelopes. Most of the labels will need the addresses handwritten on unless, of course, you can figure out how to get the addresses typed inside. Be careful with the first set of labels-- they are set to prepopulate the rest of the labels on a sheet once you have typed in the first label on the sheet.

If you want to play around with just decorating your envelopes (or your own DIY invitations), check out the Graphics Fairy.

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While there are some lovely save the date emails one can purchase (especially on Etsy), we're trying to keep what we spend to a minimum. That's why free email save the dates are so wonderful. Bonus: no paper is used, so they are green! Note that there are a mixture of vintage and contemporary looks in save the date emails.

Some places that offer free emailable save the dates:

Smile Box
Evite
Punch Bowl

If you need to send some of your save the dates through snail mail, why not use this adorable Giving Tree template (Click link for instructions-- but don't feel you that you need to use the exact paper products they suggest):




The save the date is meant for a fall wedding, but my fiance and I thought it would work just fine for a June wedding. It has a nostalgic feel that will go will our vintage casual theme, so don't feel you have to be having a fall wedding to use this!

The image can be printed out on cardstock (use the same cardstock as your invitations if you are making DIY formal invitations—) for snail mail, and insert the save the date (save it as an image file like a .jpeg instead of a pdf) as an image into an email message to those you can email. The instructions also include a mailing label for those you want to mail out.

Visit the Wedding Window for some other DIY save the date ideas, like Save the Date hankies, or Save the Date calendars. Keep in mind that some of these ideas will not be as inexpensive as the emails, or even printing out your own save the dates on cardstock.

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