Guest Blog- How to Be Green with your Wedding Photos

How to Be Green with your Wedding Photos

The Green Hanger Shop was started after my husband and I hosted two beautiful weddings for our daughters. Through our experience, we realized that there were many opportunities for making weddings more eco-friendly, such as reusing all those gorgeous gowns and party dresses. Since our start-up in January, we have discovered other companies with the same mission. Featured in this blog is The Wedding Lens, an online digital photography website dedicated to weddings. I regret I did not know about them last year when my youngest daughter was married. I can not tell you how many friends and family were eagerly taking pictures. What I can tell you is how many pictures I actually saw that were taken by them. Exactly three! I begged for more, but to no avail. One uncle even flashed us as we walked down the church aisle. (Hear my Southern gasp!) Now I would love to see it from that angle, but it is trapped in his camera. If only we had arranged a website for everyone to upload their pictures beforehand. What a great concept! I know there are other photo websites and social networks, but here is the ONE website where everyone can meet, view, comment, and even print their favorite shots. It's a great website with too many features to include here, but some of my favorites are that it's free for standard membership, password protected, and has unlimited uploads. Couples also receive unlimited guests and invitations for a full year. While neither The Wedding Lens nor I would recommend this in place of a professional photographer, it is something I would definitely recommend that brides include in their plans. I thank Natasha Carroll-Ferrary for taking the time to share these tips on how to make your wedding photos more earth friendly.

'Many couples want to put disposable cameras on each table so that they can see the wedding from their guests’ perspective. It’s a great idea – but it’s not very green. It requires buying disposable cameras, printing hundreds of potentially blurry photos (that may get thrown out), and disposing of the cameras (most of which aren’t biodegradable).
So what can you do? Encourage your guests to bring their digital cameras – which should be easy to do because they were probably going to bring them anyway! Then, after the wedding, you can have your guests upload all their photos to an online wedding photo album site, like The Wedding Lens.
On a site like The Wedding Lens, guests are able to upload all their photos and videos. From there, everyone can download the photos and videos that they like the best, and they can order prints of their favorite photos. There’s no need to order prints of any of the blurry photos – so the couple saves money and the environment saves photo paper.
The best part is that at the end, the couple has a collection of all the photos of their wedding from their guests’ point of view – just like the disposable cameras, but without the waste.

The Wedding Lens is an online photo sharing website, designed for couples who want to collect all the photos from their wedding. The site was started by two college friends, Justin & John. Justin was getting married and looking for an online photo site, but couldn’t find anything that met all his needs. He and John got together and developed The Wedding Lens. They pride themselves on their 100% satisfaction guarantee and phenomenal customer service. For more tips, check out our wedding planning blog and our 50 Green Wedding Tips.'

Why Me?

When choosing to sell your dress or accessories, you have several choices. Let's look at the pros and cons to the most obvious avenues available to you.

• Consignment Stores The advantage to selling at a consignment store is that you can walk in with your dress and drop it off. This gets it out of your way. Potential buyers can try it on and that is very helpful to them when deciding whether to buy. The disadvantage is that you will not get to set your own price and you will only get half or less of what it sells for. While it is great that buyers can try it on, each time your dress picks up makeup stains, body oils, and dirt. Over time, it will show and diminish the look and value of the gown. A consignment shop will limit how long they will carry the dress and also reduce its price quickly.





• Free Online Posts There are plenty of websites that offer free postings for selling used items. These are great avenues and obviously, the best possible way to sell if you can. The disadvantage is that usually it is difficult to post a picture and the post will be lost in a long list of other postings. Usually, buyers shopping these websites are looking for "cheap" prices, so you may not be in the most desirable market. You basically get what you pay for.





• Paid Online Advertising An online service that lists your dresses and accessories for a small fee have several advantages. First, you can showcase your items with a full description along with pictures. You will be in a market where buyers are coming to the website for the precise purpose of buying a designer item that is barely worn and an excellent find. A buyer can find your specific dress in their search for size or design. You can maintain some anonymity until a serious buyer is ready to contact you. YOU earn the entire proceeds of the transaction. What do you get for the small fee you paid to list the item?





• At The Green Hanger Shop, we give you Main Street Service on the World Wide Web. We invest in online advertising that brings shoppers in for the express purpose of buying a preowned dress or accessory. We look for buyers who are looking for what you are selling and invest time and dollars in those markets. We hope you will give us the privilege of helping you sell your dress!
  

Garter Toss

If you have wondered about that garter tossing tradition, you will be happy to know that as wild as it may look today, it is mild in comparison to what it once was. Seems that wedding guests used to consider it good luck to possess a part of the bride's gown, so they would tear at it. Imagine the chaos that would ensue! To protect the poor bride, the tradition of a garter toss was begun and the groomsman who catches it is said to be the next one to marry.
The Green Hanger Shop is happy to introduce a new line of garters for the bride who is looking for something personal. These garters are custom made and contain an antique item, such as a pin or button, bridging something old to the future. The first of our garters, for example, features a mother of pearl baby christening pin that can used with the newlywed's firstborn christening gown, or simply worn on a sweater or tie. Each new garter will be unique and one of a kind and we are excited to make new discoveries as we develop new designs. A "tossing garter" is included for the reception. Custom orders are available as well if brides want to specify their color preferences.
Have fun with this wedding tradition and enjoy a keepsake for your happily ever after days!