why eco chic weddings?
A wedding consumes your entire life for a finite period of time. Before that, you probably never thought about most of the things involved--save the date, favors, a ring pillow, etc. And right after the wedding, and the honeymoon, you stop thinking about most of those things. So the reason I care about weddings is that most of us don't really pay attention to what is going on in the industry of producing weddings. The reality is that it is one of the largest consumer markets, and it is growing exponentially. Along with it an opportunity to make change through commerce. Environmental, social, and personal change.
So, why weddings? No, I was not a wedding planner. No, I'm not obsessed with weddings (sorry). I do love parties, which I really consider a wedding to be--just a party. And I learned how to throw fabulous parties with the best there is--Martha Stewart, of course. Which brings me to the original question, why weddings? To be perfectly honest, I knew people would be interested, if only for a brief period of time. After all, there are approximately 2.2 million new marriages in the United States every year, about 6,000 happen a day (probably most on just two days--Saturday and Sunday).
So, will all of these people getting married every year, you'd think the wedding industry would have it covered, right? Well in my opinion that is sadly not the case. I may be slightly biased, but in 2004 when I began to develop my book Eco Chic Weddings, I estimated that of all the wedding magazines on the market, Martha Stewart Weddings was really the only one offering tasteful, stylish, creative wedding ideas. That's just my opinion, so I don't mean to offend anyone. And of course this was the time that weddings were, let's face, completely out of control.
At the center of the growing-larger-every-minute wedding industry was the image of crazy, selfish, overly-consumptive brides--or, as the industry so lovingly refers to them as--bridezilla. This was the name for "the bride" created by someone who shall remain nameless (because I have no idea who started it). In short, I decided to create something that could serve as the antidote to this terrible image of women who happened to be planning a wedding. Smart women, accomplished women, nice women, generous women. And women who wanted to do things differently. But, alas, there was very little available on the market for the bride or groom who wanted recycled paper, bridesmaid dresses that could be worn again, honeymoons to places that cared for and nurtured the local environment and local economy. Appallingly little, actually.
In comes me and my little idea for a little book that would help me not only launch career writing and designing. And the chance to create a life I could be proud of. I was still working at Martha Stewart, and I actually really wanted to stay there and develop the Eco Chic Weddings idea in-house. Alas, it was an idea before its time. So, I left to write the book, and the rest is history. Well, the rest is my history anyway.
Why weddings now when I've written another non-wedding book, and I have a new, amazing, wonderful book coming our in March 2010--Eco Chic Home? Honestly, my focus is not as much on weddings as it was in the past, but this site, and my book, continue to inspire and provide practical ideas for the 6,000 people who get engaged everyday. So, I am still here as a resource, though I may not post that often. As I said, before you are planning your wedding, you aren't thinking about all those pesky details, swirling around in your head. I bet if you spend some time looking around Eco Chic Weddings you might just breathe a little easier, and hopefully enjoy the process a little more too.
>
Comments