On the longest night of the year, surrounded by family, friends, the woods and a roaring fire, Nick and Leslie promised themselves to each other at the end of their beautiful ecofriendly wedding at Riverside Park.

One year prior, the couple signed a contract to rent the Urban Ecology Center for their winter solstice wedding and the planning began. “Being eco-minded is the foundation of who we are already,” they told me and it helped form what they wanted to do for their wedding. To assist with planning, they attended the UEC’s Eco I Do Green Wedding Expo to get some ideas.

Every year around this time the Facility Rentals team at the Urban Ecology Center reflects on how many wonderful clients and vendors we had the opportunity to work with all year long. All of them believed in our mission to help reduce waste and host more sustainable events and we couldn’t be more thankful.

This time of year we are also prepping and planning for Eco I Do Green Wedding Expo which is another way we forward this mission. Guests who attend the event can learn how to host environmentally friendly events from local and eco-friendly caterers, florists, and rental companies. They are also able to try samples, talk with local businesses to find out about their green initiatives, and attend workshops on a variety of ecofriendly wedding topics.

Once upon a summer day in 2016, an Urban Ecology Center member named Marybeth (same name – but not me!) decided to borrow a canoe through our equipment lending program and go out to explore the Milwaukee River. She knew that a week from then, she was going on a first date with a close friend and wanted it to be special. After that test run she decided to have their date on the river - an intimate time together in nature.

Did you know that the average American wedding produces 400 pounds of garbage and 63 tons of CO2? According to Eco Chic Weddings by Emily Elizabeth Anderson, American weddings are equivalent to 8.3 million cars driving on the road for a year. This includes flowers, paper (invitations), textiles (dress, suits), gas emissions (transportation), and everything else that can occur from the wedding. Holy matrimony! That is a huge carbon footprint on our world!

But have no fear – there are steps you can take to make your special day special for the Earth, too.