If you are a bird lover or if you just enjoy the appeal of our flying friends' accessories, a bird lover's theme can be very green and very easy to pull off. A bird lover's theme wedding is also very accommodating and can be coordinated with a wide range of styles: eco-elegance, charming country, cutesy craftsy, nature's bounty, or even exotic paradise.

Your décor, centerpieces, and favors can all center around birds and bird accessories: birdhouses, birdbaths, birdcages, bird nests, bird feeders, birdseed, and of course birds and their feathers.

Birdhouses, bird feeders, and birdcages, both new and used, can all be found in numerous locations. Stroll through any resale shop or thrift store and you are likely to find at least one handmade birdhouse or old birdcage. Any of these can be transformed into something beautiful for your bird lover's theme wedding. Birdhouses can be cleaned up and freshened with a new coat of paint. Birdcages can be cleaned and finished with white spray paint. Cover them with some vines, twigs, or ribbons to turn them into a show-stopping card collector or gift-table centerpiece.

Large birdhouses make beautiful centerpieces, and mini birdhouses make charming favors. You can hang birdcages in the reception area with vines trailing from them. Birdbaths make elegantly charming decorations, and birdseed can be put into little bags or envelopes and given as favors.

Make Your Own

It is amazing how many ordinary things that are normally tossed into the trash or recycling bin can be turned into birdhouses and bird feeders. Coffee cans, milk cartons, juice bottles, 2-liter soda bottles, plastic soda and water bottles, and even pinecones and old logs can be turned into feeders for the birds.

To turn any container into a bird feeder, clean it out thoroughly, remove all labels and stickers, and make large enough holes in the side of the bottom of the container for birds to get in and get the seed. These bird feeders can be decorated however you want and given away as favors.

Decorative birdhouses can easily be made out of scrap wood. If you are making houses you hope actual birds will nest in, here are a few guidelines for making a bird-worthy house:

• The birdhouse roof should hang over the entrance hole to keep out rain and provide shade.

• There should be small ventilation holes in the birdhouse where the roof meets the walls and underneath the overhang so air can circulate.

• Small drainage holes should be in the bottom of the house so any water that gets in can drain out.

• Either the back wall or front should be engineered to swing open or up so the house can be cleaned out after each nesting season.

• The ideal circumference for most entrance holes is about 1½″. This way birds can get in but larger predators can't.

• The distance from the bottom of the house to the entrance hole should be about 5″; this keeps baby birds in the bottom of the nest protected.

• The base nesting area should be big enough to contain five baby birds and the mother comfortably.

• The birdhouse should have a built-in means to be mounted or hung, or it should already be attached to a pole that will be placed in the ground.

If you are going to make birdhouses to attract specific types of birds you may want to do a little research. Some birds are picky when it comes to where and how they nest. A good book to check out is Build Your Own Birdhouses by John Perkins, complete with unique designs and floor plans for many types of basic and bird-specific houses.