Simple Suggestion #280... Ten tips for an almost waste-less wedding

Our eldest daughter's wedding took place at the end of June, and the celebration of her marriage to her chosen partner was a delight from start to finish. Not only did it completely reflect Landon and Christina and their love for each other, their families, and their friends, but it was pretty waste-less and sustainable -- right down to the fine details.

So how did they pull it off? Keep in mind that they're very progressive young people who don't necessarily hold to the ways traditional weddings are celebrated. They did at least 10 different things that not all couples consider when it comes to having a simpler, more earth-friendly wedding.

When Christina proposed to Landon two years prior to the wedding, we knew immediately that it wasn't going to be a conventional wedding. She had 1) two simple silver rings fashioned by a silversmith friend that she used to propose, and they also doubled as their wedding rings. So on the wedding day, their little "ring bear" (complete with a bear-eared hat) delivered the same two rings into their hands to put on each others' fingers as a sign of their permanent commitment.

2) Their wedding invitations were all online (except for a few mailed to less computer-savvy folks who probably preferred paper copies). They put up a nice little website at theKnot.com so guests could read up on all the details of the day.

3) Christina said "No to the Dress" because she had a perfectly lovely one in her closet already. Who says a wedding dress has to be long and pure white, and worn only once? My mom found a crinoline in her own closet and did a few alterations for her granddaughter. It turned out to be the perfect dress for our girl, a simple white cotton print with splashes of lilacs, peonies and roses. Christina didn't even buy wedding shoes, but went barefoot for most of the day and kept her Birkenstocks close at hand for longer, rougher distances. Her dress was the "old" (she's had it since Grade Twelve), a white wrap I crocheted for her was the "new," my own wedding earrings were the "borrowed," and she painted her toenails "blue."

The bride and her attendants all wore Baby's Breath in their hair, but that was the only matchy-matchy thing about them. 4) The wedding party were invited to wear their own comfortable clothing with pink, green or purple accents from their own wardrobes, things that they can also wear for other occasions. The groom picked out a sharp new suit that he will wear in the future, and his attendants joined him on a little shopping trip to buy new ties that all worked well together. The only clothes specifically "made" for the wedding were the bride's crocheted wrap and two bow ties my mom made from fabric left over from the wedding dress alterations, a surprise worn by the bride's grandfather and great uncle. Seeing those two in their floral bow ties saved our emotional bacon as Christina and I giggled our way up the aisle! (I didn't cry until the vows. They were just beautiful!)

5) Bouquets came from local gardens -- mine, my sisters, and MCR friends'. A rural friend of Christina's had some late-blooming lilacs that we kept in my cold storage room for three days prior to the wedding (heavenly fragrance in there!), and one of the bride's attendants picked some wild grasses (from the nearest ravine) that found their way into every unique bouquet put together by florist friend, Annette. Because the bouquets would have wilted if left too long out of water, they were kept in vases to decorate the hall for the evening -- and our back doorstep for the gift opening the next day. Once they wilted, they found their way into my compost bin.

One of the things Landon and Christina insisted upon was that 6) no wedding decorations be sent to the landfill after the wedding. Landon and his dad, Greg, built an outdoorsy wedding arch from birch harvested from the family acreage, and it was decorated with lengths of tulle salvaged from an event at the Stony Plain Library. It now sits over a bench at the family firepit.

There was enough re-purposed tulle that we hung it across the front of the community league hall with some borrowed fairy lights to create a lovely ambiance for the evening. Landon's mom, Sandy, got to work re-purposing jam jars as herb planters that wedding guests could take home as gifts, and grew little pots of basil, oregano, thyme and parsley to go into them. They were set on cut "plates" of downed tree trunks also from the acreage, later to be used for firewood. Tiny fairy light strings borrowed from a friend were put into jam jars decorated with jute bows and used in the place of candles on the tables, and tiny (compost-able) pine cones gathered by someone on the decorating committee were strategically placed on the tables to add a little more outdoor elegance.

7) There were no stretch limos or parades of wedding cars emitting fossil fuels. The wedding was a twenty minute walk from the bride's home, and photos were taken on the hills near the Cloverdale Community League hall, where the banquet was held (it takes its electricity from solar panels). Driving was pretty much kept to a minimum, though the parents of the groom and some guests had further distances to travel.

8) The weekend's meals were almost waste-less. For the rehearsal party and day after the wedding, I borrowed MCR Suzanne Dennis' party boxes. Su had enough colourful plates, cloth napkins, cutlery, and other useful items that we didn't have to use a single paper plate or serviette, just washed it all up and used it again. For the wedding banquet, Christina and Landon rented dinnerware and linens for 120 from Special Event Rentals, which doesn't expect everything to be washed before it's returned. Unfortunately, the plates came in packs of ten, wrapped in plastic shrink wrap, but that's minimal waste when you compare it to the amount of single use paper plates and plastic cups/cutlery that weren't thrown out in the end. We recycled pizza boxes and bottles, as should be the case. Leftover food was eaten by friends and family in the week after the wedding (we just finished eating the cookie bar cookies because Christina and Landon didn't want wedding cake), the unopened booze was returned to the liquor store, and some pop was passed on to Christina's cousin for his wedding two weeks later.

Landon and Christina's friend, Alexis Hillyard, (of Stump Kitchen -- check out her videos!!) catered 9) an amazing, lower carbon vegetarian meal of pancakes with both sweet and savoury toppings. Because Landon and Christina are vegetarians, they didn't want animals to be harmed in the making of their banquet. Some guests were a bit skeptical about a pancake supper for a wedding, but Alexis really pulled it off, and I'm thinking about trying some of her savoury recipes for myself. Who'd have thunk putting roasted mushrooms and onions, basil cream cheese, avocados, pineapple or pulled jack fruit on a pancake would taste so good? There were four different recipes to try (named after different aspects of the newlyweds' life together), and from all reports, each one was delicious. For the less adventurous, pancakes with fruits and syrups were also available.

Most fun of all was the evening's entertainment. After supper and speeches, the happy couple and various friends with whom they form several different bands got up to sing and dance with the crowd, playing 3-song live sets, interspersed with dance music. I will never forget Landon, Christina, and Landon's brother and best man, Matt, performing A Thousand Miles (Vanessa Carlton) with the crowd singing along at the top of their lungs. We danced to music of all descriptions, and it's safe to say that a good time was had by all.

The thing about simple and sustainable living is that it's not exactly convenient. 10. The couple and their family and friends worked pretty hard to make the wedding celebration a sustainable one that we'll never forget, and because "many hands make light work," it came off with hardly a hitch. There's something extra special about pulling together as we did for two people who are so special to us -- a real sense of community formed at the event. Resources were conserved rather than wasted, the weather co-operated (the sun even came out as the couple shared the heart-felt vows they had written themselves), the ceremony was both delightful and beautiful, the supper was delicious, family and friends had a wonderful time together, and our newlyweds have plenty of memories to cherish from their special day. And me, I was simply awash in mother-love for both of them!

Christina and Landon celebrated their marriage in their own inimitable way, without stressing their bank accounts or their planet. Of their creativity, sense of fun, and desire to do things as simply and sustain-ably as a wedding for 120 can be, we are prouder than parents have any right to be. And we don't doubt for a minute that, in working together to create such a beautiful day, they proved themselves capable of facing the logistical and emotional challenges that marriage brings, too. With friends and family to back them up, we're sure their life together will be made of love, wonder, sustainability, goodness, joy and beauty! We're so proud of you both; God bless your life together!

Simple Suggestion #232... Make your own yogurt

My sisters always tease me for having a strange capacity for odd memories. Well, here's another one...

I remember the first time I tasted yogurt. I was 14, and our family was waiting for a ferry on the BC coast to take us to Vancouver Island. Everyone went to the snack shop for treats, and mine was the most exotic of the group's -- peach yogurt. For whatever reason, we hadn't been yogurt people up to that point. At first, I wasn't sure I liked the sour milk undertone, but by the time the little container was empty, I was wishing for more. I was a convert.

I still love yogurt, but I have two major issues with the stuff you buy at the store:

1) The packaging. Every time you bring a container of yogurt home, you're stuck with a plastic container. I know, I know, they can be reused for all sorts of things -- kids' crayons, dog food, plants, you-name-it, but most of us have only so many places we'll employ them before they start piling up. Fortunately, in Edmonton, our Reuse Centre takes certain sizes of containers to be reused by daycares and playschools and people who need them.

They're also recyclable, especially here in Edmonton with our state of the art recycling facilities. But as with most recycling processes, plastic recycling requires a lot of energy, and every time it's recycled, the original product tends to lose quality. Better not to have those containers at all!

2) I have juvenile diabetes, and store-bought yogurt contains way too much sugar -- or sweetener related chemicals -- for my liking.

Fortunately, I have learned a better way to get my yogurt fix, thanks to my friends, awesome MCR and tweeter SuperSu, and her neighbour, Diane, who both taught me a few tricks at our Simplicity Study Circle last year. Making yogurt is easier than I would have believed. Here's how I do it (according to their suggestions/advice):

1. Warm some milk on the stove top to no more than 170 degrees F (75 C) -- not being a candy maker (for obvious, diabetes-related reasons), I had to go buy a candy thermometer for $7, but it was the difference between good yogurt and a mess, so well worth the money. (I discovered , a few times, that accidentally boiled milk makes something more like cheese curds than yogurt, and you can't reuse that product as feed stock for your next batch -- it won't work.)

2. Let the milk cool to 110 degrees, and then spoon in some natural (plain) yogurt that has active bacterial cultures. I used a 2% milk fat variety to start and put in one tablespoon (15 mL) of yogurt per cup (250 mL) of milk. (More isn't better in this case -- putting in too much starter yogurt doesn't make your yogurt any thicker, it just crowds the yogurt bacteria, or so I read on one of the websites SuperSu shared with me).

3. Warm the oven slightly, wrap the yogurt pot in a towel, and set it in the warmed oven (with the oven light on) over night. I tend to make mine before I go to bed, as I like to use my oven some days, but any time of day works, and you don't have to use an oven, though it's important to keep the batch warm. Click here for a website about slow cooker yogurt.

After several hours (about eight in my case), presto, fresh yogurt... that I package into the same plastic yogurt containers I've been using for the last four months, being sure to set aside enough for my next batch of yogurt. So -- I'm not bringing home a plastic container plus a milk carton a week, only the milk carton. Therefore, a bit of a reduction in waste. And there are fewer fossil fuel emissions in my yogurt making (no strawberries trucked from California). And it costs about a third (or less) of what store yogurt costs to make the same amount.

Of course, the yogurt I'm making is not quite the same as the thick and creamy stuff with fruit syrups that you find in the grocery store, which have cornstarch, cream, gelatin, vitamin D, and all sorts of other things added. If you like your yogurt thicker, a fine cheesecloth would be helpful to remove more of the whey water, or so a friend from India tells me. Or you can follow Sue's tip in the comment section below, adding skim milk powder to the mix before letting it set.

But I like mine as is, with cereal or in smoothies -- which have become my favourite breakfast meal because I can use a piece of banana for sweetness and a few frozen Evans cherries from my sisters' tree for colour, maybe mix in a few sprouts that I grow on the windowsill for extra nutrients and blend it all up. And with the honeyberries, raspberries and saskatoon berries that are growing in our yard, I'm looking forward to more yogurt smoothie flavours this summer.

Yogurt making is one more small, self-reliant step I can take in my own food production, one that cuts down on the over abundance of plastic in my life, and it's much simpler than I imagined.

I doff my hat to wise women Diane and Sue for sharing their wisdom with me! And pass it along to you!

P.S. Looking for more Simple Suggestions? Click here.

Simple Suggestion # 219... Let sleeping plants lie

Every fall I see them, neighbours out hacking down their perennials before the snow flies, stuffing the dead leaves and stalks into garbage bags for the city to haul to its composting facilities. Those same neighbours probably look at my messy, un-hacked yard and think, what a lazy gardener she is!

Well, yes and no. Yes, in that I refuse to cut my plants down to the ground in the autumn -- but that's because I know that perennials fare better through the year's cold seasons if they are protected by last summer's decomposing growth. No, in that it all gets cleaned up in the spring when it's not so necessary for protecting my bushes and bulbs through the winter.

Raking autumn leaves out of my flower beds is also something I won't do because they are free, natural mulch. The layer of detritus that so many people pack up and toss makes a good winter home for numerous beneficial insects like ground beetles and the cheery little lady bugs that get rid of nasty, plant eating aphids and others of their ilk. Until heavy snow cover arrives, birds are always poking around in the mulch looking for a bite, and our local jack rabbits often nibble their way through. The chickadees, grosbeaks and nuthatches pick grains from the seed heads that they like, and play hide and seek in the stuff that's still standing. Of course, if you don't like nature paying you visits, it's best to get rid of all those plant leftovers. (Don't forget the benefits of winter composting, though!)

I know, leaving those plants sticking up all over the place makes a yard look messy -- but once there's a snowfall, the bumps and branches are a lot more interesting to look at than flat snowdrifts. And who really cares what the neighbours think? Once spring rolls around, cabin fever and the excess energy all gardeners get from garden hibernation will make it easy to get out and clear space for new growth. Plus, fall's already full compost bins will have shrunk through the winter to make space for a few more stalks and leaves that can later find their composted way into the summer garden, or be made into compost tea-fertilizer. The yard will look happier than ever come summer, and if the neighbours happen to wonder why, well, that's a perfect chance to educate them!

So if you didn't get your yard cleaned up before the first snowfall, fret not. You're only gardening like God does (going back to #3 of these Simple Suggestions), and actually doing your garden and its creatures a favour!

Looking for more Simple Suggestions? Click here.

Clothing room update -- another great reuse centre

The clothing room at the Distribution Centre for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul (the small chapel on the corner of 108th Avenue and 109th Street, just outside St. Joe's High School) has gone through a major upgrade since I was last there in February. Over the last 8 months my mom kept me up to date on my favourite folks who come to the Centre, and on the SSVP's reno plans and progress. Yesterday, for the first time since Shadow-puppy joined our family, I went to volunteer (after taking him for a long walk) and to see the "new" place.

Here's a view of the tiny bit of floor space where clothing for men, women and children used to be displayed:

(You can't see the second crowded aisle on the other side of the housecoats...)

And below, the cramped room where volunteers unpacked donated clothing.

Over the last several months, furniture and large items were moved to another building to facilitate the reorganization and renos, and some generous people donated a hefty sum that was used to brighten the entire space, rearrange the different "departments" somewhat, and enlarge the clothing area. Old walls were removed and new walls added, different sections were moved around (I'm not sure where the repair workstation went -- forgot to ask) and the whole place received a fresh coat of paint and new lighting.

The renovations are a vast improvement.The new and improved Terry Mahon Clothing Room (named for the son/brother of our generous donors) feels four times the size of the old space, which has now been transformed -- the small space where shoppers had to climb over each other to get clothing items for men, women and children is only one of three larger "shopping" areas. The old space is now just the women's section...

Look at those nice wide aisles!

A well-lit, full-sized men's section fills the space where 

walls and shelving units once were (back then, the men's "department" 

-- though you could hardly call two shelves and two racks a department -- 

had been squished against one wall and into a dark corner of the old space):

I love the bright new area where kids and babies clothing, books 

and toys are displayed... there's even a live plant! 

The ceiling is high, making the air circulation much better 

than it used to be... and the lighting is vastly improved!

We also have room to move as volunteers, 

with a long high table for unpacking donations 

and lots of shelving with bins for storing extra items 

so that we don't run short of things so often.

The City of Edmonton has an excellent Reuse Centre, but this non-city-affiliated one is my hands-down favourite, mainly because of all the people with "hearts for the poor" who work here, and all our homeless friends who visit. Saving stuff from the landfill isn't as important to us as helping people in need, but I'm sure the City's Waste Management Services would be impressed with our efforts to reuse, recycle, and reduce the stuff that goes to the landfill! 

Thanks to the Mahon family for their generosity, and congratulations to Daryl D. and all the volunteers who renovated and reorganized this place to better serve our brothers and sisters in need, especially Louise and my mom, who put things in their proper places. 

"Well done, good and faithful servants!" 

#80 of 100 Simple Suggestions... Pack trashless lunches

My workmates are very good at this suggestion. When we meet for lunch in the Amigos room, everyone has their little reusable containers, and the only waste is apple cores, orange peels and other food scraps, which are compostable in the City of Edmonton's massive composting system.

Having a reusable lunch bag is a wonderful, simple thing, too. Mine is already four years old -- from my Master Composter/Recycler course (my undying thanks to those who offered the course, which was wonderful, by the way). Unfortunately, the logo is wearing off from so much use.

This suggestion goes back to being mindful of how the every day things in our lives add up. By avoiding unnecessary packaging and reusing resources rather than tossing them out, we're easing the burden on our planet. Consumerism dictates that much in our society is made to be disposable, but if you think about it, nothing should be. We've reached the Ecozoic Era in human existence, and we're realizing that if we don't start reducing our consumption by reusing what's reusable and recycling the rest, we'll start to run out... and our earth has enough overflowing landfills already!

Packing a trashless lunch is a simple thing, and if everyone takes similar small steps to reduce waste, it will make a big difference in the long run.

P.S. Looking for more Simple Suggestions? Try here.

#69... Make something new from something old

My grandmas were great at this... Grandma Dorothea had nine kids, and Grandma Eugenia, twelve, and they were raising their families through the depression and the wars. So they did a lot of "re-creation" in the literal sense of the word -- repairing clothes, darning holes, renovating hand-me-downs, fixing toys and furniture, and making quilts. I still have my graduation quilt from Grandma Eugenia (she made one for each of her 77 grandchildren!), though it's getting a little tattered. Grandma made it from patches of my cousins' outgrown dresses. I'll never forget how when one of those cousins came to visit, we sat on my bed and she identified bits and pieces of dresses she and her sisters had worn.

I also have a couple of quilts from my grandma's daughter, my mom. Here's a picture of grandma's quilt, right, and a purplish one my mom made me from scraps of a maternity dress I once sewed for myself.

One of my favourite children's story books when my girls were little was a book by Canadian Illustrator Phoebe Gilman, called Something from Nothing. I'm sure it's still findable at most libraries, as it should almost be a classic by now. It's the story of a little boy whose tailor grandfather makes him a coat, then a vest, then a tie, then a handkerchief, then a button -- all by restyling the original coat. And with every adjustment, a little mouse family who lives under the tailor's floorboard uses more and more of the scraps to furnish their home and clothe their little mice.

Would that we were all so resourceful! I know what my next renewal job will be: repairing the patches that have worn out on my precious quilts... In the meantime, why don't you tell me about a "redo" or "recycle" success of your own?

P.S. Looking for more Simple Suggestions? Try here.

#42 of 100... Use recycled paper products

This one's a no-brainer, right? Sources for paper, paper towels, serviettes, and toilet and facial tissue  shouldn't come from trees in a world swimming in paper waste. Products made from recycled paper are improving all the time. When we first started using recycled toilet paper, it reminded me of my curmudgeon uncle's joke from our summer of camping with him. Uncle Scotty said, "Campground toilet paper is like John Wayne. Tough and mean, and don't take the **** off of no one."  I would like to point out that since the early days of recycled paper products, toilet paper has gotten almost soft! But I still haven't found a recycled facial tissue that doesn't make my daughter's allergy sensitive nose all red and raw. So I confess that we still buy non-recycled soft tissues.

Of course, it never hurts to have a serious look at how we are using or abusing the world's paper supply. Do we really need paper towels if I have a rag bin in my broom closet? Could we use cloth napkins instead of paper serviettes? And how about recycling our own paper? One sided copies of things brought home from school and work can get chopped into four pieces -- the perfect size for grocery lists, notes to my kids, or telephone messages. Auto-reply envelopes from magazine subscriptions and charities work well for sending school field trip monies back to school -- just scratch off the old address and scrawl the envelope's true purpose on the back. Christmassy newspaper flyers are my family's wrapping paper of choice during the festive season, if we can't use gift bags from years gone by. My aunties are particularly excellent at paper recycling -- I love to get letters and notes from them because quite often the cards are made of bits and pieces of cards they've recycled or pictures they've taken. But the queen of paper reuse has to be my daughters' playschool teacher. Mary Lou had all the playschool parents saving the tissues wrapped around mandarin oranges, and used them to stuff a special art project later in the year. And she had more creative uses for old newspapers than I can catalogue here!

I'm sure you can leave comments about a dozen other ways to save trees. So, let's help the earth's forest lungs as much as we can...

P.S. Looking for more Simple Suggestions? Try here.

#27... Repair things

Last week, my youngest daughter dropped one of my large cooking pots, a Lagostina Dutch oven that's been with us for a long time, and the handle broke off. I was quite disappointed, as it's a good pot and I wasn't sure that it could be fixed. Looking more closely at it, however, I discovered that the same pot had the same accident befall it so many years ago that I had forgotten about it. My husband had glued the handle back together once before! Being a handy kind of a guy, he bought my pot many more years of faithful service... and on the weekend, he reglued the handle so that I can use it for a long time yet.

So often, when things break or begin to fall apart, it's easy to assume that the only place for them is the landfill. Our society has become such a throw-away entity -- but if we can repair things, we're saving resources that future generations will need. My biggest victory in this regard is our sofa. It was a hand-me-down to start with, and the fabric was frayed and shredded with the wear and tear from three little girls, so when I took a cushion to see if I could get it reupholstered, the fellow at the upholstery place insisted that the foam in the cushions wasn't worth saving because it was yellowing. He suggested that it would cost more to recover the chesterfield (how many words for sofa do you know?) than to get a new one, so I might as well take it to the dump.

I didn't think much of that idea... so I called a seamstress friend of mine. Cristina was delighted to help, and I was delighted with the results. We spent a grand total of $45 on recovering the couch, my husband and I took Cristina and her husband Santo out for a delicious fancy dinner at a classy restaurant (because she wouldn't let me pay her for her work!), and we were still a lot richer than if we had bought a new sofa. Plus we didn't waste a perfectly good one.

If more of us looked at repair and reuse as a challenge, as an art to be cultivated, we'd have the satisfaction of being more self-reliant and less wasteful. I still do a little victory dance about that chesterfield now and then. Self-reliance is worth a lot in my books.

P.S. Enjoy this longest day of the northern year! (Sunrise here 5:04 a.m., sunset 10:07 p.m.!)

P.S. again... Looking for more Simple Suggestions? Try here.