03/11/07 Commit... To Go Green; Say 'I Do' To The Environment With An Eco-friendly Wedding

Commit... To Go Green
Say 'I Do' To The Environment With An Eco-friendly Wedding

Wisconsin State Journal
Sunday, March 11, 2007
CHRIS MARTELL

When Rebecca Grossberg was planning her wedding to Mark Harvey last summer, she made a point of not looking at any of the Bridezilla magazines -- the guides that help American couples spend an average of about $27,000 on their weddings.

"We wanted our wedding to be personal, and a reflection of who we are," she says.

Rebecca and Mark are, among other things, ardent environmentalists. They decided to make their wedding as "green" as possible. And they are among a growing number of couples who are rebelling against the waste and extravagance that characterize most traditional weddings. And for them, there's also a growing number of businesses selling wedding products and services that are friendly to the environment. One such place is Henk Newenhouse's 477-acre organic farm in Lone Rock, in Richland County, where the Harveys and many other couples had their weddings and receptions.

Newenhouse, who got a certificate to officiate weddings on the Internet about seven years ago, has performed about 500 weddings since then at the farm he owns with his wife, Linda. About half of them have been "green" to varying degrees.

The Harvey family flew in from the East Coast, while the Grossbergs came from California. The 85 guests had received invitations of handmade recycled paper embedded with wildflower seeds, so they could be planted instead of discarded.

Because Lone Rock is an hour from Madison, the couple hired a Van Galder bus to take their guests out to the farm.

"They'd already paid for plane tickets and hotels, so we didn't want them to have to rent cars," said Rebecca. "It saved gas and emissions, but it also allowed guests to mingle and get to know each other on the bus, and they didn't have to worry about driving or directions. It was so great seeing everyone get off the bus together, in one big group."

\ Quite a site

The Newenhouses' Merry Farm has a pond, a gazebo and more than nine acres of professionally tended flowers, mostly perennials. In addition to those flowers, the Harveys also arranged to buy flowers from Bill Zimmerman, who sells at the Dane County Farmers' Market. Rebecca wanted a sunflower theme. About a week ahead of the Aug. 5 wedding, they went to his farm to choose the flowers for the bouquets and vases, and for Rebecca's hair. On the big day, while Rebecca was getting her hair done at an Atwood Avenue salon, friends went to the farm to get the flowers and take them in buckets out to the farm.

Underground Catering had prepared a wedding dinner with local, organic and seasonal ingredients. There were two entrees, one vegetarian based on eggplant, and another pork, and the caterers brought grills, servers and bartenders. Eight types of heirloom tomatoes were served, and the wedding cake was topped with a coulis of blackberries. Prairie Fume, from the nearby Wollersheim Winery, and kegs of Great Dane beer, were served.

The bride wore a silk dress sewn by her friend. Including the $100 spa gift certificate to thank her friend, the dress cost $200. A WORT radio disc jockey who plays pan-African and world music got everyone dancing under the stars on the patio beside the 1926 barn.

After seeing their guests onto the bus for the trip back to Madison, the Harveys spent their first night of marriage in the guest quarters in the renovated barn. Guests are welcome to camp on the farm ($10 a night, pitch your own tent) and in summer many of them do. The total cost of the Harvey wedding, including their rings, was $10,000.

"It all fell in place so perfectly, and everyone seemed touched by our wedding," said Rebecca, who now lives with Mark in Mississippi, where they both work as social scientists. "A lot of guests said 'this wedding is so much you guys' and several of them mentioned it again on their Christmas cards. It was formal, but warm and comfortable and natural."

\ Different strokes

Former Madison residents Valerie Kozlozsky and Philip Anderson tied the knot in Newenhouse's flower garden last May wearing overalls.

Both are retired (she was a teacher in the Wisconsin Heights district and he was a state employee), and Anderson said, "It seemed ridiculous, at our ages, and because we were both married before, to go through the whole wedding thing. We're also cheapskates, so we also did this to protest the waste of the wedding industry. The average wedding is more than $25,000 and I think that, for young people, that money could be put to much greater use as a down payment on a home or to pay down student loans."

Besides weddings, the Newenhouse farm has been the site for concerts, ballroom dances, and seminars on horticulture and the environment (daughter Sonya has an environmental consulting business in Madison and daughter Astrid is a UW horticulturist). They've also hosted children from Chicago, to give them a taste of life down on the farm.

Most of Newenhouse's bridal couples are from Richland and Grant counties, with some from Madison. Many rent school buses, which can cost as little as $80 to just drop off the guests, or up to $300 "if the bus waits around to drive the drunken bride home," Newenhouse said with a laugh.

To date, the Harvey wedding was the most "green" of the weddings Newenhouse has officiated. But he always looks for opportunities to nudge couples in that direction, sometimes using plastic flowers as a prop.

"I laugh at it and show them how ugly it is," he says in a Flemish-Dutch accent. "I can't tell them what to do because it's their wedding and they're my customers. But I love to encourage green weddings. I have no power to forbid things, but I do my best to discourage the use of paper plates and flowers."

He recalls one wedding when the bride's parents arrived with three garbage bags filled with plastic flowers, and began decorating. A short time later, the groom's parents arrived with tropical flowers they'd had delivered to O'Hare International Airport. Wrangling ensued, especially after the bride's mother sprayed the tropical flowers with artificial rose scent.

Everyone wound up wearing two corsages -- one plastic and one real. On the tables were vases of both fake and real flowers. And the bridal couple had to pose for pictures under two arbors -- a plastic one bedecked with fake flowers, the other made of willow with real flowers.

That skirmish could have been avoided, though, since Newenhouse allows couples to pick flowers from gardens or from the edge of the woods.

He also encourages couples to organize organic potlucks.

"Often, I am somewhat successful, sometimes nobody listens," he says. "Once in a while, they follow my suggestions to the letter. Gradually, people are starting to show a real interest in this type of wedding."