Any one who knows me knows that I am a little obsessed with weddings, well the little white dress or lack there of to be exact. Its more than fashion its about reinvention (my favourite word) and its about wearing something that solely represents your authentic self, your creativity, its about taking your individuality, your attitude, your aesthetic and pushing it just that little bit further on your big day. Just like the great Vera Wang said "I want to define the vocabulary of a wedding both visually and intellectually. A wedding or wedding dress, can be a metaphor for women's lives, their creativity" I think this is so accurate! You should be able to create your dream metaphor on your wedding day, regardless of your bank balance or budget. You should also be able to create your dream day bettering other people and helping out the planet at the same time. How can I have it all and still be sustainable you ask?? That's where this amazing New Zealand initiative that I stumbled across called recycled weddings come to the rescue.
Meet Liz, lover of positive energies, any thing peanut butter, the sun and creator of Recycled Weddings. Born from a cute proposal and realization that a budget friendly and DIY wedding meant you accumulated a lot of "stuff". During her own wedding planning journey Liz found the process of obtaining second hand wedding decor a little tricky. Liz found that it wasn't only hard for her it was also hard for a lot of the ladies trying to sell their very well planned and thought out wedding collection. Liz found that there was just so many great "recycled wedding" items out there and so many people wanting to find them but no link in the middle. Looking at her growing collection of "stuff" one day she said to her fiance "Gosh I think I'll have to have a recycled wedding garage sale after our wedding because I don't want to have to deal with all that!".
"I started talking to married friends about the situation and several of them offered for us to borrow things - candles, candy bar set ups, decorations of all kinds - and when I asked why they still had them so long after getting married the response was always the same "I just never got rid of them" or "I had a heap more but I threw it all out because what can you really do with it?". I have one friend who's husband threatened divorce if she didn't reduce the number of heart shaped items that took over their house after the wedding was done and dusted" Liz Andrews
Recycled weddings does not only reduce the environmental impact of a wedding (and trust me there is a bigger impact than you actually realize which I won't go into detail here as that's another blog post in itself) money goes back into the pockets of other New Zealand families, its creative, its savvy, its cool, and its a healthier way to spend some of your hard earned money. You should never have to give up your dream wedding but take note when I say that you can actually have it all, a stylish and in some cases a designer dream wedding and not have to buy everything or anything brand new.
"I wanted that to all be possible for other people too. I wanted to show people that there are ways to cost save and have a wedding that doesn't have a $5000 budget for decor, and that a 'junk collection wedding' can still look beautiful. I wanted everybody who couldn't justify phenomenally large wedding budgets like us to stomp on the concept that a wedding has to be all brand new, perfectly crisp white and matchy matchy" Liz Andrews
The first 100 people through the door at the recycled wedding garage sale will receive a fantastic goodie bag full of lots of "green" products. There will be local 'green friendly' businesses from makeup artists and hair stylists to celebrants, cake makers and decor specialists. All who can relate in some way to the 'green' aspect of the day and fully support what recycled weddings is trying to achieve. We have people coming to sell their lightly used wedding items, and there will be over 80 wedding dresses up for consignment sale!
The Recycled Wedding garage sale is taking place Saturday 24th September at the Howick Pakuranga Cricket Club from 12pm - 3pm.
Tickets for attendees are on sale viahttp://www.eventfinda.co.nz/2016/recycled-weddings-nz-garage-sale-green-wedding-showcase/auckland/pakuranga and are only $5.00.
Meet Liz, lover of positive energies, any thing peanut butter, the sun and creator of Recycled Weddings. Born from a cute proposal and realization that a budget friendly and DIY wedding meant you accumulated a lot of "stuff". During her own wedding planning journey Liz found the process of obtaining second hand wedding decor a little tricky. Liz found that it wasn't only hard for her it was also hard for a lot of the ladies trying to sell their very well planned and thought out wedding collection. Liz found that there was just so many great "recycled wedding" items out there and so many people wanting to find them but no link in the middle. Looking at her growing collection of "stuff" one day she said to her fiance "Gosh I think I'll have to have a recycled wedding garage sale after our wedding because I don't want to have to deal with all that!".
"I started talking to married friends about the situation and several of them offered for us to borrow things - candles, candy bar set ups, decorations of all kinds - and when I asked why they still had them so long after getting married the response was always the same "I just never got rid of them" or "I had a heap more but I threw it all out because what can you really do with it?". I have one friend who's husband threatened divorce if she didn't reduce the number of heart shaped items that took over their house after the wedding was done and dusted" Liz Andrews
Recycled weddings does not only reduce the environmental impact of a wedding (and trust me there is a bigger impact than you actually realize which I won't go into detail here as that's another blog post in itself) money goes back into the pockets of other New Zealand families, its creative, its savvy, its cool, and its a healthier way to spend some of your hard earned money. You should never have to give up your dream wedding but take note when I say that you can actually have it all, a stylish and in some cases a designer dream wedding and not have to buy everything or anything brand new.
"I wanted that to all be possible for other people too. I wanted to show people that there are ways to cost save and have a wedding that doesn't have a $5000 budget for decor, and that a 'junk collection wedding' can still look beautiful. I wanted everybody who couldn't justify phenomenally large wedding budgets like us to stomp on the concept that a wedding has to be all brand new, perfectly crisp white and matchy matchy" Liz Andrews
The first 100 people through the door at the recycled wedding garage sale will receive a fantastic goodie bag full of lots of "green" products. There will be local 'green friendly' businesses from makeup artists and hair stylists to celebrants, cake makers and decor specialists. All who can relate in some way to the 'green' aspect of the day and fully support what recycled weddings is trying to achieve. We have people coming to sell their lightly used wedding items, and there will be over 80 wedding dresses up for consignment sale!
The Recycled Wedding garage sale is taking place Saturday 24th September at the Howick Pakuranga Cricket Club from 12pm - 3pm.
Tickets for attendees are on sale viahttp://www.eventfinda.co.nz/2016/recycled-weddings-nz-garage-sale-green-wedding-showcase/auckland/pakuranga and are only $5.00.