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When I was a girl, I was thrilled when my aunt got married one lovely June day. Ma tante wed her handsome groom in a princess-style gown surrounded by attendants in pastel shantung gowns cut in a modern 1960s style—like Jackie Bouvier Kennedy might have chosen. Jackie‘s maid of honor and her bridesmaids looked classic and cool with their hair swept off their long necks and invisibly pinned into smooth French twists. At the time, I made mental notes and sketches of the fabric and style of my dream bridal gown and bridesmaid dresses.

My Wedding
The revolution in thought of the late 1960s and second wave of feminism in the 1970s made me see marriage as society-sanctioned slavery for women. I forgot my little-girl self who imagined every detail of my wedding and left behind lace communion and confirmation dresses with tulle veils for blue jeans, political tee shirts and beaded headbands.

In 1979, I was a reluctant bride and wore a simple tailored suit when I stood before a judge in New York City to wed the man I still love like a newlywed. Over three decades and four children later, as I watch my son’s fiancée try on gowns, part of me regrets forgetting my girlhood dreams of the white dress and opting to wear muted mauve when I said, “I do.”

If I did it again, I’d create the white wedding dress I designed then. But I would select vintage or handmade fabrics processed without chemicals and crafted by workers earning living wages under humane conditions. I’d include pieces of fabric, beadwork or design details to wordlessly honor family members or remember a departed relative. My “something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue” would include a rose-plated pin my grandmother wore, a new piece of jewelry by an artist friend, a white beaded evening purse my groom’s grandmother once carried, pearls my father-in-law gave his bride and an antique Sleeping Beauty turquoise Navajo ring.

Ingenuity Plus Natural Materials
When helping brides shop for bridal gowns today, I encourage them to combine ingenuity with natural materials to manifest their wedding dreams while staying true to honoring the Earth by conserving and protecting the environment we share. Brides dream about floating down the aisle in an ethereal wedding gown. They can, and still be kind to the Earth. She can be a vision in a dress of luxury fabrics woven from fibers grown organically without synthetic fertilizers and pesticides and processed without chemicals by artisan labor.

A wedding often offers a woman her first chance to practice the values that will guide her as she becomes a wife in her own home. Eco brides can choose a dress reflecting their commitment to sustainability. Modern brides and their families spend hundreds to thousands of dollars for wedding clothes and their dollar is heavily courted by designers and dress manufacturers. Brides can make a huge impact and influence the industry to provide sustainable, renewable choices while implementing safe green industry practices so no one has to choose between her dream dress and exposing garment workers and the environment to toxins.

Green Choices
There are increasingly more widely available green choices offered today by couture designers, bridal shops and department stores. Justin Alexander launched Pure, a brand extension focused on both style and ethics with a bridal collection made from certified organic fabrics in natural colors with decorations of freshwater pearls, mother of pearl, quartz, marble chips, wooden beads or semiprecious stones. Pure’s British designer, Tony Mentel, states in BridalBuyer.com’s July 2010 cover story, “We have researched this collection thoroughly and we are making a bridal dress as green as it is possible to be.”

Another popular green alternative is a vintage, recycled or redesigned gown. An eco bride can pull mom’s or grandmother’s wedding dress out of storage and top with a veil fastened with grandmother’s brooch or tiara for “something borrowed.” Plenty of online and neighborhood vintage shops stock exquisite vintage and antique wedding gowns and bridesmaid dresses in pristine condition. They have usually been worn only once, if at all. The best thing is that most pre-1960s wedding dresses are made of natural organic fibers grown the old-fashioned way. Even better, brides can afford a wedding gown of far better quality when buying vintage.

Think of how much greenhouse-gas reduction can result from not buying new, and instead, dressing the entire bridal party in vintage dresses that require almost no new expenditure of materials and energy. Buy at local resale and vintage shops and save even more in shipping costs, fossil-fuel use and greenhouse gases. Bridal parties appreciate the low cost and consideration of their budgets. Many are grateful to wear natural luxury materials that don’t pollute the Earth or oppress today’s workers in their making.

Enlisting the Aid of a Seamstress
Brides who hate the style of grandma’s wedding dress, but love its fine heirloom handmade Belgian lace, tatting, beading or embroidery and yards of exquisite natural silk and tulle can enlist the aid of a seamstress or relative, or pick up a seam ripper and needle to hand sew a couture wedding gown with fabric that would cost a fortune to buy new if it were even available at the same level of craftsmanship today.

Vintage bridal-dress sewing patterns are available online for a broad selection of dress styles from casual and semiformal to formal from every age since the Victorian era. If mom’s dress has seen better days, there may be some lace, beading, embroidery or a detail that can be appliquéd or somehow incorporated as a design element into the new gown. Here are some ideas in that regard:

1. An antique turquoise and silver Navajo butterfly broach for “something blue.



2. Great-grandma’s latticework collars and cuffs or handmade lace remnants can make a lovely custom bridal gown when sewn onto fine fabrics layered over a vintage silk slip with a broad luminous rose patterned white lace edge.



3. Wedding-special vintage dresses are available in a wide variety of luxurious and rare fabrics from beaded silk to lacework raffia.[



4. Walk down the aisle in ballroom or beach in vintage satin-pleated skirt edged with pearls, paired with sparkly beaded pumps or strap sandals.



5. Vintage clothes in bridal whites often have special touches like this tiny pearl edging at bottom.



6. Pearls, whether mother’s, grandmother’s or new are always perfect for a bride. Lace camisoles in shades of white make any white skirt in satin, silk or leather look bridal.



7. Top a sleek char-design leather skirt with vintage Ann Taylor white Shantung top embroidered in modern black for a black-and-white wedding.



8. Vintage couture ivory raffia-lacework dress paired with handwoven linen and cotton shawl for a natural-chic beach wedding. (Dress custom made for my grandmother in Paris in the early 1960s.



9. Mix textures in a subtle range of whites, ivories or ecrus and choose natural textiles and handwoven or hand-carved pieces like this vintage Chinese wooden fish purse to add an Earthy tone to a wedding ensemble.


Mothers will smile to see part of their dress included in their daughter’s bridal gown and the bride’s thoughtfulness may even bring a tear to her mom’s eye as her daughter walks down the aisle. This summer, when shopping for bridal gowns and wedding-party dresses, eco brides have a wide range of options to make choices consistent with their values that have personal and symbolic meaning—and still wear the wedding dress of their girlhood dreams.

Additional resources:
Eco-Friendly Bridal Gowns, Lingerie and Bridal Party Dresses –
Wedding Times
Bridal Buyer
Vintagewedding
Green Bride Guide

Second-Hand Flower Girl and Wedding Party Dresses –
Recycled Bride
Flower Girl Dress for Less

Dry cleaning and storing wedding gowns –
Wedding Gown Specialists

Green Wedding Ideas -
Green Wedding Planner: 'To Have and To Hold' Without Harming the Earth

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