If you are planning a wedding, there are lots of great ways to make your day as eco-friendly as possible without sacrificing on glamor and magic. Sustainable wedding dresses are just one of the greener trends that are turning the wedding industry upside-down, and these beautiful pieces can easily be styled for any type of wedding. Read on to learn about sustainable and ethical wedding dresses and how you can do good while looking stunning!

Why the Conventional Dress Just Doesn’t Cut It Anymore

Wedding dresses — by definition — are not sustainable. An intricate work of art that takes upwards of 20 feet of fabric and at least two weeks to make, a typical wedding dress will only be worn once before sitting at the back of a closet and ultimately heading to the landfill. Add to this the fact that most wedding dresses are made of pesticide-heavy silk and/or synthetic fabrics like polyester that don’t break down easily, and you have an environmental conundrum on your hands!

In recent years, values-based wedding planning is leading more and more couples to avoid fast fashion and choose eco-friendly options for their weddings — from recycled card invitations and plastic-free table settings to intentionally mismatched bridal parties and sustainable wedding dresses.

Ready to discover your perfect, eco-dress? Here are our top suggestions:

Embrace the Charm of Vintage Styles

Styles come and go, but fortunately, time can transform passé into vintage! Your mother’s or grandmother’s highly-prized bridal gown could soon become the perfect ethical wedding dress style when it makes a grand re-entrance on your special day. If the original owner is happy for you to make some changes, you can easily transform the dress with a few small adjustments to make it your own.

If dear granny’s dress isn’t your style, hit the thrift stores and e-stores to browse sustainable wedding dresses in an endless array of silhouettes. For something a little more modern, you could also buy a second-hand dress from a friend or online. Don’t shy away from low-back styles while you’re shopping, either. You can always add a bra directly to your dress so you don’t have to worry about straps showing.

Set the Pace with a Trendy Rental Gown

Another easy and budget-friendly approach to sustainable wedding dresses is to rent a gown and tux for the day itself. The ultimate closed-loop approach, rental gowns reduce your footprint to a fraction of the (environmental) cost and eliminate the question of what to do with the dress after you’re wed.

Make Your Dress from Recycled Fabrics

For the more crafty among us, making your own wedding dress gives you free rein on the design and can save you a lot of money in the process. If you have the time and are so inclined, consider making your dress sustainable by sourcing recycled fabrics that don’t cost the earth. Some excellent fabric sources for ethical wedding dresses include:

• Factory offcuts
• Used wedding dresses that are beyond repair
• White cotton bedsheets and lace curtains from friends or a thrift store
• Excess fabric offered through Freecycle or Craigslist

Depending on what you find, you can create an eye-catching piece that is either all one color (bedsheets!) or multi-tonal. Either way, some basic patterns for sustainable wedding dresses and a few days at the sewing machine could result in a one-of-a-kind dress that you’ll be proud to wear down the aisle.

Go for a Versatile Two-Piece

Another option for sustainable wedding dresses that won’t go to the landfill is a two-piece top and skirt combo that you can wear in the future. Buy a pre-matched set or shop around until you find a combination that works and top it off with a cream-colored shrug or fitted jacket (hello, future job interview outfit!)

Apart from saving on precious resources, investing in a set that you can wear again-and-again lets you keep this special part of your life forever and relive those precious memories time-and-time again.

Invest in a Dress that Does No Harm

A final alternative which we personally love is to shop for sustainable wedding dresses that are made to do good. The perfect solution for a traditional wedding gown that does good for your style and the earth, ethical wedding dresses minimize pollution and are sewn by workers who are paid fairly for their work.

These flowing dress styles available in bamboo and Tencel™ are the ideal replacement for conventional silk and feel wonderfully soft on your skin. Dresses made from organic cotton and linen are the best choice if you want a little more shape and stiffness to your outfit and can be woven to include stunning embellishments such as embroidered details and beading.

Brands Matter

When shopping for sustainable wedding dresses, be sure to do your homework and find the brand that best suits your values. The best brand will be one that has a transparent supply chain, economizes on energy, and uses materials that are pesticide-free and fully biodegradable. You can even keep the good vibes going by donating your dress to a charity you cherish.

Shopping for the Honeymoon and Beyond

Once you’ve thought about how to shop sustainable wedding dresses, don’t forget to prepare for the honeymoon! Eco-chic, ethical lingerie, and comfortable organic sleepwear are essentials for enjoying your first moments as a married couple, and remember a few flattering organic dresses and jackets, too, for strolling around your destination!

Choosing to shop ethical wedding dresses and clothing for your wedding and beyond will not only inspire your guests but will get your family off to a great start with values you can live out in your home. Explore our collection of eco-friendly formal dresses to find your perfect fit, and say “yes” to the dress today!

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Since 1970, April 22 has marked the celebration of Earth Day. Set to coincide with Arbor Day — a day dedicated to planting trees — Earth Day was initiated as a way to bring together the various groups that were working on environmental issues and create a day focused on putting sustainable living ideas into action. 

Whether you’re reading this article ahead of Earth Day or simply want to do your bit to help the planet, here are our top seven sustainable living tips for celebrating Earth Day, every day.!

Sustainable Living Tip #1: Get Out in Nature

Sustainable living ideas start with a love for nature and a desire to protect it. But you can’t love nature if you spend all of your time indoors. As the Chinese philosopher, Lao Tzu said, “Love the world as your own self; then you can truly care for all things.”

The single best thing you can do to help this earth flourish is to go outside and take a walk, visit a national park, adopt an area as your own, and really get to know it. As the seasons pass and the landscape changes, you will become much more attuned to the cycles of nature and find that you start caring more about the local environment as well.

Sustainable Living Tip #2: Watch Wildlife

The second tip on our list of sustainable living ideas is an easy way to derive even more benefit from your time in nature. Whether you choose a kind of animal to watch (birds, insects, etc.) or simply wait and see what crosses your path, spend some of your time in nature simply staying still and watching. 

When you go outside, take a bird-identification book with you or make a sketch to look up when you get home. As you learn to recognize several species, you could even keep a log of the wildlife that you see on your wanderings. These logs provide valuable information about the wildlife in your area and how the numbers change over time. If you would like to promote sustainable living ideas in your community, you could volunteer with a conservation group that documents wildlife sightings for the purpose of advocacy and planning.

Sustainable Living Tip #3: Pick Up Trash

Ultimately, spending time in nature will open your eyes to the impact that humans have on the environment. For some, sustainable living ideas might mean taking a bag and pair of gloves to pick up trash in your local area. For others, it could mean taking shorter showers, turning off the lights at home, and only printing things out when you really need to. 

Every action counts, and not just because of the cumulative effect that enacting many sustainable living tips can have over months and years. Each action you take is also serving as a reminder to live lightly and thoughtfully — and that has benefits for your own well-being as well as your relationships with others!

Sustainable Living Tip #4: Plant a Tree

Seeing as Earth Day falls on the same date as Arbor Day, what better excuse to plant a tree? Trees provide oxygen, shade, soil stability, habitat, and can transform a barren area into a lush retreat. Whether you have a yard of your own or only a small balcony, adding trees of any size to your space will improve the air quality and can even lower the ambient temperature. It can also provide important nourishment for local insects, including bee populations and other important pollinator species.

Make sure to see these sustainable living ideas through by caring for your trees until they are well established. Planting a tree is one thing, but you will also need to water, mulch, prune, and fertilize each tree at the right time to help them grow healthy and strong.

Sustainable Living Tip #5: Grow a Garden

Food transportation accounts for around 11% of our carbon footprint, and the actual production of that food accounts for 83%. If you’re looking for sustainable living ideas to help the planet, growing a garden is a fantastic thing to do. By growing some of your own produce, you are cutting your food miles to essentially zero, and you will be eating pesticide-free, seasonal produce. Besides, who doesn’t love the taste of a homegrown tomato? Yum!

Sustainable Living Tip #6: Green Your Diet

Those of us who don’t have a balcony or the time to care for a home garden can make a difference with sustainable living ideas like shopping organic, seasonal produce and reducing the amount of red meat that we include in our diets.

According to experts, high-meat diets produce 3.3 tons of CO₂ emissions per year compared to 2.5 tons for an average diet, 1.9 for white meat only, 1.7 for vegetarians, and 1.5 for vegans. By switching from red meat to free-range chicken and fish, you can lower your food emissions by nearly a third overnight. By going from meat-loving to vegetarian, your food-print is slashed almost in half!

Sustainable Living Tip #7: Choose Conscious Consumption

Everyone needs to buy things in order to live, and there are very few people who don’t love a bit of retail therapy! Enjoy the fun without the harm by implementing sustainable living ideas into your shopping habits. Here are a few sustainable living tips for the conscious shopper:

• Choose FSC-certified and recycled paper and wood products.
• Look for the fair trade symbol when buying coffee and chocolate.
• Buy reusable bottles and containers for packaging take-out food.
• Use washable diapers and sanitary products instead of disposables that end up in landfills.
• Opt for eco-friendly women’s and men’s clothing.
• Wear recycled jewelry to avoid strip mining practices.
• Purchase eco-friendly gifts for friends and family.

Be Inspired at Faerie’s Dance

Whether you’re looking for sustainable living ideas or wanting to browse cute, eco-friendly clothing, you can find endless inspiration at Faerie’s Dance. We go to great lengths to source the most socially and environmentally responsible clothing, ethical lingerie, jewelry, and eco-friendly accessories and offer each item to our customers at less than the recommended retail price.

Browse our collections this Earth Day and enjoy knowing that by following these sustainable living tips and purchasing ethical, eco-friendly items, you’ll be doing something great for the planet we all share!

Have you been wanting to try on one (or a whole bunch) of our products in person?  Your opportunity is here!

The event will run from 11am – 5pm on Saturday, August 26, 2017.  We’ll be doing raffle prize drawings every 30 minutes starting at 11:30am.  You must be present to win a prize, so be sure to leave some time for your visit with us.  You could easily get into 2 or 3 drawings while you try on clothes and meet with these other wonderful Portland-area women business owners.

Dr. Kayla Luhrs will be there to help you develop a wellness plan for conscious living.  

Amanda Bishop will show you how to make your own cleaning products using common household items and essential oils. 

Angela Stevens will chat with you about buying and selling real estate, or how to green the home you currently own.

 

Our warehouse is located minutes from this years Street of Dreams site.  We’ll be raffling off tickets to Street of Dreams at noon, so be sure to come early and check it out.

We’re also giving away 25 “Goodie Bags” to the first 25 people who RSVP either on our Facebook Event Page or by calling us at (971) 255-0752.

 

Here is a (partial) list of the prizes on offer for our raffle:

1. 2 individual tickets to Street of Dreams
2. PrAna Bag
3. PrAna Eco Yoga Matt
4. Maggie’s Bee Socks
5. Maggie’s Scarf
6. Swegmark bra of your choice
7. Blue Canoe logo tee
8. From War to Peace Make Art Not War Necklace
9. Earth Creations Fingerless Gloves (multiple colors)
10. Earth Creations Infinite Scarf (multiple colors)
11. Spun Bamboo men’s Boxer Briefs
12. dōTERRA Essential Oil Starter Kit
13. Cottonique hair accessories.  (Also in Goodie Bags!)