Beautiful Attire for the Whole Wedding Party
While you shop for your own green gown, check out what retailers of natural, organic, and sustainable clothing have for the rest of your bridal party. If the bride is the only one wearing eco-conscious attire, everyone else will be green with envy.
Rawganique's commitment to making the world a better place and treading lightly on the planet extends to its online presence. The Rawganique website (www.rawganique.com) was created and maintained entirely off the grid. It's powered by solar and wind energy.
Eco-Retailers
Rawganique carries clothing for everyone from the bride to the flower girl. It offers casual and formal clothing options. It even carries a very nice suit for the groom and hemp shoes. Most hemp suits can be purchased for approximately the same price as renting a designer tuxedo, but you can keep the hemp suit to wear again.
Conscious Clothing has apparel for the rest of the bridal party, including beautiful bridesmaid gowns and cute flower girl dresses. Other retailers have just some of what you might need. Boll Organic (www.bollorganic.com) carries organic cotton men's dress shirts. For a more complete selection of organic and eco-friendly retailers, check the web resource section at the back of this book.
Borrowed or Gently Used
Everyone in the bridal party also has the same options as the bride: borrowing clothing, buying used attire, or wearing something they already have. No one says the guys have to rent tuxes or wear identical suits. They can wear suits they already own; just specify a color palette and purchase matching ties to unify the look.
If you do want your groomsmen to rent identical tuxes, check with your rental place to see what kinds of dry cleaning practices they follow. Traditional methods of dry cleaning release large amounts of toxic pollutants, but there are many green dry cleaning options.
The bridesmaids could see what they already own in the same color scheme or hit the local thrift stores to see what they can find. The dresses don't have to be identical. If each woman bought something similar but in a style that flatters her body, she'd be that much happier and be more likely to wear the dress again instead of stuffing in it the closet and forgetting about it.
Flower girls can wear pretty dresses they already have. Ribbons, bows, or lace can be added to fancy a dress up or fit it into your color scheme. Other accessories such as hair pieces, gloves, or even just the flower girl's basket can dress up the ensemble to coordinate with your theme.
