Registering for gifts is an exciting early step in your wedding preparations, and creating a green wedding registry filled with green, organic, handcrafted, lovely gift items is a brilliant option to add to your list of wedding registries. That’s right, I said list, since it’s now very common and acceptable for a bride and groom to create two to four very different types of registries giving guests the chance to choose from housewares to bedding, to active life gear like mountain bikes and kayaks (at www.REI.com) to Energy Star ™ kitchen appliances and vacuums. And, of course, your green wedding gift registry will be filled with environmentally-friendly, fair trade, fabulous gift items you’ll love to get, and guests will love to give!
Here are a few of the top green gift registries offering eco-friendly and fair trade home essentials and décor, many featuring the beautiful work of talented artisans all around the world (and treating those artisans well, with fair pay among other honorable perks!) Setting up a green gift registry helps support countless artisans and their families, you stay in your strongly-held values of using only eco-friendly and fair trade items in your home, eco-friendly gift sites stay in business, and guests get wowed by the unique and breathtaking handcrafted, natural materials on your gift list.
The glassware shown above is from Viva Terra’s new items list, and here’s how they describe it: “Recycled Glass Luster Collection: Our blue luster pitcher, tumbler and water glass capture the swirling energy of sea and sky. As we pour and sip we think of fresh air and gentle breezes.” That’s just lovely!
Viva Terra offers sensational wedding gift items such as handwoven placemats, driftwood candelabras, sea glass luminarias, river stone placemats and many other beautiful housewares that seem to come right out of those million-dollar wedding designs you see on the top wedding blogs and in bridal magazines. You get to have them in your home, as your party and family dinner décor, when these stylish and all-natural items are purchased from your gift list by a guest who’s very happy to see such creative and breathtaking gift items on your page. River stone trivets are such much more fun than rubber spatulas!
At The Ultimate Green Store, eco-conscious gifts from many of the world’s leading manufacturers and designers of sustainable, natural, organic, recycled, eco-friendly goods- products provide wow factor as well. And as a fun FYI, some of the companies whose products are featured here didn’t start off as eco-friendly suppliers; they grew into it, realizing the importance of sustainable practices and living, and your gift registry items chosen from their lines keep them in the green and going strong with their eco-friendly values and product selection!
Wedding gift registry items from The Ultimate Green Store include cool, hip, fun, colorful items such as organic cotton and bird bedding, solar iPhone and iPod chargers, recycled glassware sets, towels, rugs, green cleaning and air purification products, and more.
At Ten Thousand Villages, a fair trade retailer featuring items made by artisans in over 38 countries, including the US and Canada, handcrafted, natural-looking gift items for your home include wood sculptures, wall art, vases, lamps, tablecloths, table runners, bamboo bowls, star palm trivets and other beautiful housewares and tablescape elements that again turn your dinner party or family holiday dinner into a beautiful setting.
At Branch Home, you’ll be able to register for organic cotton bath towels, WASARA compostable tableware, bamboo serving spoons, artisan cutting boards, organic kitchen towels and so much more, in both functional and artistic styles for a gorgeous green home. Especially interesting here, and one that guests will love to give as a unique present: bamboo pebbles for displaying in a recycled glass vase, pedestal jar or apothecary jar.
Gaiam offers not just home décor items and clothing, but eco-friendly mats and blocks for your yoga practice, as well as marvelous, organic sitting pillows for your meditation practice.
These are just some of the green wedding gift registries out there, among the best-known, and for all, remember to add to your list gift cards to their stores, so that you can buy your favorite eco-friendly items for your home, and get more from ‘completion programs’ that allow you to buy all of the remaining items on your gift list after the wedding, for a nice percentage off. Gift cards let you shop without guilt or worry, enjoying a big $0 total due, perhaps, once you’ve filled your cart with fabulous organic linens, your dream table décor, garden items, organic cotton spa robes and other beautiful items that make your future brighter and more beautiful.
Tell us what’s on your green gift registry? We’d love to hear what you love most on your green wedding gift registry list!
