Guest blogger: Kate Harrison, creator of greenbrideguide.com.
After planning her own green wedding in 2007, Kate wrote the best-selling green wedding book, The Green Bride Guide: How to Plan an Earth-Friendly Wedding on Any Budget (Sourcebooks, 2008). In 2009, she founded greenbrideguide.com to help couples use their weddings to promote social and environmental change while supporting the local green economy. Kate has a JD in Environmental Law and a Master's from Yale in Environmental Policy. 

Once upon a time, a letterpress stamped our crests into rich paper, ecru or eggshell. We wrote in calligraphy, each letter a work of art. A wedding required a forest of trees that were felled, ground to a pulp, pressed on a screen, and dried in the sun. Today, the paper making process is industrial and includes cutting machines, duplex board machines, hydraulic head boxes, and pressurized screens. Smoke billows from tall chimneys and from the exhaust pipes of tractor-trailer delivery trucks bound to all four corners of the lower 48. We drive to buy the paper, choosing boxes from piles of boxes stacked to the ceilings of office supply superstores. Then we send it back out on another truck, to another destination. All of this energy — the fossil fuels, the man-hours — turns a wedding into a giant carbon footprint.

Guest blogger: Kate Harrison, creator of greenbrideguide.com.
After planning her own green wedding in 2007, Kate wrote the best-selling green wedding book, The Green Bride Guide: How to Plan an Earth-Friendly Wedding on Any Budget (Sourcebooks, 2008). In 2009, she founded greenbrideguide.com to help couples use their weddings to promote social and environmental change while supporting the local green economy. Kate has a JD in Environmental Law and a Master's from Yale in Environmental Policy. 

Photo courtesy of zuukusa.co.cc

There is nothing more fun than frolicking through a cloud of celebratory confetti. Launching things in the air is a timeless staple of any celebration. There is something so exciting about letting loose – hurling something into the wide blue sky to express the deepest joy. But there is a downside to all that hurling: waste. Traditional confetti falls everywhere: in your hair, on your clothes, and on the ground. All of those tiny pieces can be a real mess, especially if they aren’t environmentally safe. Protect nature and have fun with these great eco-friendly confetti options. Hurray!

Snowflakes

Guest blogger: Ms. Herringbone, polkadotbride.com.
Ms Herringbone writes for Polka Dot Bride, Australia’s premier wedding blog dedicated to anything and everything wedding related that may be useful to today’s bride — style, unique finds, fabulous suppliers, real wedding inspiration — and a little bit of fun thrown in!

Due to its impressive size, Australia has a hugely diverse landscape that encompasses pristine beaches, red deserts, tropical rainforests and mountain ranges. It’s no surprise then that Australian brides are just as varied, with a fantastic wealth of advice to share from their wedding day. Here are the top five tips from newlyweds featured on Polka-Dot Bride in the last year; even though we're worlds apart from BG readers in the United States, we share these universal wedding truths in common!

1. First and foremost, stay true to yourselves as a couple.
"We made the decision to elope and were scared of hurting our families; however, we weren't going to be able to have the wedding that we wanted any other way. It was getting too big and out of hand otherwise. People might be disappointed if you choose to elope, but they'll also understand. Take the pressure off yourself, no one else is going to notice so-called 'imperfections.' The most important thing is who is standing up there at the altar with you, pledging their life and love to you." — Celeste and Cristian

Dreaming of a fantastical gown that will feel as light as air and move beautifully as you walk? The ruffled ballgown is the dress for you. We love the frilly movement of this gown and the optimism of the silhouette.

If you want to extend the princess fantasy feel, look for ruffled ballgowns with a little sparkle throughout the bodice. With its youthful joie de vivre, this silhouette is better suited to brides in their 20s. This look is paired best with a cleaner updo. Here, a few of our favorite ruffled ballgowns from Val Stefani, Oscar de la Renta and Mary's Bridal.

—Naima DiFranco

The biggest wedding season, June through September, is right around the corner. We asked celebrity event expert Brian Worley, co-owner of Your BASH! Event Production, for his take on what the hottest trends (no pun intended) will be for summer celebrations. Brian has not only created weddings for Hollywood celebrities, but he’s also hosted a number of TV shows including WE tv’s Platinum Weddings and TLC’s Battle of the Wedding Designer.

Here are Brian’s top three trends:

1. Go Bright: Summer weddings will encompass bright colors using various hues of green and bold jewel tones such as emerald, which is the color for 2013. Outdoor weddings will pull upon vibrant colors to act as natural electricity rather than lots of bright lighting.

These electric weddings will incorporate beautiful linens that pop and flowers that contrast the linens and really act as a centerpiece of color.