Greenly Engaged - Let the Eco-Wedding Planning Begin ...

After nearly seven years of dating, I proposed to my girlfriend on Christmas day with a ring made of recycled gold and a conflict-free Canadian diamond. Since I consider the "greenness" of everything I purchase for my home, I was certainly going to do the same for something that should hopefully last a lifetime. But finding the right ring wasn't easy!

Not only did the ring have to be green and attractive, it had to have a low profile (Not only do we do a lot of home improvement together, but she's a scientist and wears easily-pierced latex gloves on a daily basis). There are plenty of options out there; those with and without diamonds. As we are relatively non-traditional, a diamond wasn't really a requisite but an antique or conflict-free one was definitely allowed.

I considered antique rings from stores including Lang Antique & Estate Jewelry, artisan rings from Esty such as those from Bloom Studios (pictured here to the left) and finally those from a couple well marketed online companies that sell green tokens of love including GreenKarat, crafting ecologically and socially responsible jewelry, and Brilliant Earth, a company that carries only conflict free diamond jewelry made with renewed gold and platinum.

When it came down to it however, I settled on something somewhat traditional but that met all of the above requirements with a ring from Brilliant Earth that uses post-consumer sources including existing jewelry, industrial-use metals and electronics components. Every piece is cast with 100% recycled and re-refined precious metals.

Luckily, Jean loves the ring ... so let the green wedding planning begin!

I recently married and planned out an earth-friendly (as possible) wedding. I always had a dislike for diamonds so that helped a lot. I bought his engagement band (as I proposed) on Etsy made of recycled wood from a wine barrel, and our bands were also purchased on Etsy and are titanium! I think a big misconception out there that an environmentally friendly wedding has to be more expensive because you have to seek out vendors that grow/make/buy organic and recycled. Not so! You just have to do a lot of your things yourself and let go of those things that people think you 'need' at a wedding. Good luck!

posted by Hollie on January 5th 2009 at 3:09pm
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Hey, that's my ring too! I love it - I'm gazing at it's beautiful sparkliness on my hand right now. I second Brilliant Earth - they were wonderful to work with. I'm in SF where they have their showroom so I was actually able to go in and get some diamond education. Then we picked everything out online and were easily able to stay within our budget.

Congratulations and have fun planning your green wedding!

posted by squirrelgirlie on January 5th 2009 at 4:10pm
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My husband and I got our wedding bands on etsy as well. They're recycled silver, and mine has a green tourmaline stone from California. The artist knew the miner. We originally planned to use them until we could afford something from Green Karat. However, we really love what we got, though we might get the bands someday.

As far as the wedding, we eloped. I wore an organic cotton dress from Stewart Brown that I could ::gasp:: actually wear again.

Elopements are probably the best green weddings, and I highly recommend them, but I'll admit they probably aren't for everyone.

posted by mniche on January 5th 2009 at 4:21pm
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Congrats on your wedding! The conflict free diamonds from Canada is a great choice, however there are more environmentally friendly choices out there, primarily cultured diamonds. These are REAL diamonds, however, they are developed in a lab, free of social concerns or the environmental impacts associated with mined diamonds. I go into more detail on my blog post here:

http://www.thechicecologist.com/2008/12/eco-concious-diamonds-synthetics-and-simulants/

Good luck on the green wedding plans, i hope to hear more soon!
-JP

posted by The Chic Ecologist on January 6th 2009 at 1:48am
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