It’s no secret that weddings generate a huge amount of waste. With the pressure to have the perfect picturesque day comes the impulse to buy lots of items to make your wedding more beautiful. If you care about our planet, then here are just a few things you can do to cut down on waste during your wedding day.

Potluck weddings can be lots of fun, and can give all of your guests a way to feel involved, but they can also be a lot of work. Not sure whether a potluck wedding is really the right fit for you and your partner? We asked the members of our vendor directory to share their thoughts.

Bethany and Greg didn’t want to drop tons of money on their wedding. Instead they opted for a simple front porch ceremony at their Ohio home to celebrate the day.

If you too are thinking about making your own wedding flowers but need some pointers to get started, here are a few things that you should always keep in mind while working on a DIY floral project for the big day.

Printing your invitations at home is one great option to consider, but a few small mistakes could lead to a serious Pinterest Fail situation. Before you commit to printing your wedding invitations at home, consider these 8 guidelines.

If hiring a calligrapher for lettering place cards, addressing envelopes, decorating paper goods, etc. is not in the budget, let me impart a little knowledge for free. I’ll show you how to fake some really lovely calligraphy and turn something most couples dread — addressing all those invitations for instance — into a simple task you can take pride in.

Stephanie Selle, owner of With These Rings, firmly believes that “you can’t buy love, but you can make it.” In fact, it’s her tagline! Her studio in Port Townsend, Washington gives couples the unique experience of making their own handcrafted rings!  

For us lay-people, the mysteries of bridal gown tailoring can seem like pure magic. We sat down with the expert, Amanda Madden of AMadden Tailoring, and we asked her everything we have ever wanted to know about altering, customizing, and creating wedding dresses!

Tory planned the most elaborate and heartfelt proposal for her girlfriend, Kate, and a run-of-the-mill engagement ring would not do. After dating for seven years and living together for two, Tory and Kate knew they wanted to get married, but both felt ambivalent about engagement rings, as neither wears much jewelry. Tory says that after guessing at Kate’s finger size based on a mood ring, she went into Tiffany’s one day after going for a run, “which was one of the funniest experiences. I was like, can I just look at bands with no bling, and they were very confused why this sweaty woman with no engagement ring wanted to try on wedding bands.” In the end, Tory decided they would make their own wedding bands together at With These Rings in Port Townsend, Washington, and she planned an elaborate proposal leading up to the making of the rings.

With These Rings is a sweet studio in Port Townsend, Washington, on the Olympic Peninsula where you and your special someone can make your own wedding rings and fall in love all over again. The studio tagline is “You Can’t Buy Love, But You Can Make It.” The owner and artist behind the studio and concept is Stephanie Selle, a kind and gentle soul who will ensure you have a pleasant and creative afternoon melting metals and crafting one-of-a-kind rings.

The easiest way to save money on weddings is to have a smaller one. The reason for this is simple: if you have fewer guests, you don't have to provide as much on the day. While this seems like you will have fewer people to celebrate with, a positive effect of a smaller wedding is that the wedding will feel more personal.

Reasons for this include:

• Picking and choosing who to invite results in guests who are closer to the couple.
• You can be more comfortable in front of your guests.
• You’ll have a chance to interact with everyone.

Today, three in four couples in the U.S. decide to get married outside of a religious institution. Couples report making the choice to write their own ceremony because they do not share a common faith tradition, have experienced bias or trauma through organized religion, or simply envision gathering in a place that feels more meaningful to their story than a house of worship.

Amy and Adam had one of the most fun wedding days I've ever been a part of! They held their ceremony and reception in a Redwood tree grove in Redwood Regional Park. They incorporated wooden ducks into their ceremony decor as a nod to their Korean heritage, but opted for vintage wooden duck decoys instead of the traditional version to match Adam's love for antiques. From the food and cake to the decorations and favors, their friends and family were essential to making their day go off without a hitch. Ukulenny provided music for the ceremony and entertainment during the reception. He even went table to table during lunch taking requests and encouraging guests to sing along! 

Blanca and Cody met in Seattle in the summer of 2007. Cody was 21, and Blanca was 24. They dated for nine years before tying the knot. They're a couple that's always on the go! Cody is an amazing cook at a local hot spot in Ballard, and Blanca is a talented photo stylist for Zulily.com. Together the couple also runs an Airbnb and are superhosts! Their home has also been featured on Apartment Therapy.

Blanca: We didn't have a traditional engagement. We came to a decision to get married together while in traffic. Then we planned a 2-day wedding in only three months! We planned and executed it ourselves with the help of friends.

Kendra Renee is a metalsmith in Oakland who truly brings couples’ stories to life through their wedding bands by involving them in significant elements of the ring-making process, from collecting the raw materials to pouring the metal in the cast, creating the actual ring — talk about an awesome date night! Kendra says, “It’s kind of magical.” Recently one of her clients brought in gold nuggets that her grandfather had once been paid in for his work as a dentist. With Kendra, the client alloyed them and melted them into her wedding set so she will always have a little piece of family history with her. “People love to see the process behind the scenes — they literally see their ring take shape and become a part of its story.”

Searching for wedding rings can be exhausting. There are seemingly millions of options — and you don’t want to choose something flippantly because it is something you plan to wear for the rest of your life. It should be special. It should mean something. You should love your ring, right? After all, the wedding ring symbolizes your never-ending, unbroken devotion to your chosen life partner. It’s a big deal.

Good afternoon! And welcome to a cookie chronicle that will go down in history as the best thing to happen in 2017, due to lack of competition. Just kidding. I'm hoping we see lots of beauty, love, resilience, and badassery in the days ahead — things much more important than cookies. But for the days we don't/can't see those things, I'm here for you. Who am I, you ask? (You didn't, but since I'm the one writing this, it really doesn't matter what you are and are not saying.) I'm a little baker based in Virginia who loves butter, Beyoncé, Michelle Obama’s arms, Michelle Obama’s everything, Drake’s feelings, superheroes, anti heroes, graphic novels, black excellence, spirituality, cheese, dranks, ice cream, “me time,” and these pants I got from Costco that look like real pants but are actually basically yoga pants. And I come with cookies.

Jenny and Chris follow their own rules. She works in theater and both of them are whiskey loving, desert obsessed, and all around fun-lovin' folk that aren't afraid to "get a little weird." They DIY'd their entire wedding and used an online calculator to figure out how much booze they need, which they ended up doubling out of fear of running out! Their wedding was a little bit Rock n Roll mixed with desert fabulous. A bunch of guests stayed on site in the cabins (this is where the film crew for old westerns that were filmed at the fake town next door would stay) and partied the night away. Chris constructed the photo booth, they had BBQ ribs and pulled pork, whiskey and lemonade, and some kegs followed by an epic dance party.

With the ever-increasing popularity of craft cocktails, it might seem nearly impossible to serve your favorite cocktail and still stay within your budget. Luckily, there’s a DIY solution that won’t break the bank: pre-batched cocktails. By making large quantities of the drink before your wedding, you can ensure that the drinks will be quick, tasty, balanced and consistent. To help guide your quest for the perfect signature cocktail, we’ve put together a how-to guide for one method of pre-batching cocktails.

Emily and Billy met when Emily got hired at the restaurant where he managed the kitchen. She asked him out a week before she moved out of state. They wanted their wedding to be about celebrating with the people they actually love and live life with, rather than an obligatory and stressful party. They spent the morning of their wedding showing parents and grandparents around the Grand Canyon, then held their intimate 30-person ceremony that evening at Chapel of the Holy Dove, a small shack outside of Flagstaff, AZ with no electricity or water. Their decorations were all borrowed, thrifted or homemade. The money they saved went to helping friends with plane tickets and their European honeymoon. The ceremony itself was hand-crafted by the couple together to exclude gender-specific language and many of the traditional, symbolically problematic elements of weddings, such as the giving away of the bride and the permission to kiss. Emily, being an incredible spoken word poet, recited her vows as a ten part poem that had everyone in tears, blown away by the beautiful honesty and sincerity of her words. When it seemed the ceremony didn't know to follow after such moving vows, Billy began snapping like a beat poet, which perfectly broke the tension and got everyone laughing again. They have no regrets about choosing not to have a big and elaborate wedding. Emily and Billy currently reside in Nashville, TN with their two cats Lewis and Lucy.