not a "green" wedding, but...

I do genuinely try to do things to cut back on some of the obviously bad-for-the-environment things we do: we recycle religiously, we compost all our yard scraps and clippings, etc. But mostly anything I do that's environmentally-friendly has more to do with my overwhelming hate of waste than some greater purpose. But means to an end, I guess, eh? Anyhoo, along those same lines it's occurred to me how even those weddings that claim to be so very green can, in fact, be so very wasteful. Just the amount of paper and packaging ALONE is staggering. With this in mind I've done my best to cut down on our own wedding. Think about it: just by limited to invitation to a single sheet, single envelope, and requesting e-mail rsvps, you could cut your paper by AT LEAST HALF! That's pretty significant! Especially in an industry as large as the wedding world, if even a fraction of brides chose to do this, it WOULD make a big impact!

Along those same lines, I'm trying to re-use and re-purpose, even before the weddings, the odds and ends that might normally go to waste after our diys. Which is how I came to be sitting in the middle of my kitchen floor, patchworking together the odds and ends left over from the invites (which, yes, I kept. You never know when you can re-use little bits, here and there!) With the sections, glued together, I was able to recover my small, but ugly collection of cookbooks that sit prominently in my kitchen. Now they're pretty, stylish (I think?!), co-ordinated, and very organized. All together, the project cost me, literally, nothing. I simply cut the glued together sheets into strips long enough to wrap around the book covers, and attached labels (which were also bought, at the dollar store, for wedding-related projects) to be able to identify the newly disguised spines. Maybe my mother-in-law's right: NEVER throw anything out. You never know when you can use it. (Feel free not to tell her I said that though, k?)

Before: pile of brightly coloured, seriously chaotic, not to mention messy cookbooks, BEGGING to be prettified.

The only supplies needed (if you'd like to do it yourself it was SUPER easy. Just make a band of paper, preferably heavier weight for durability, long enough to wrap around the book, with approximately three inches extra to wrap around the covers. Score the fold lines lightly for neatness, and cut the height of the band to match up with the height of the book, added about a 1/4 inch for clearance. Attach labels (you can print them out using Word; just search mailing labels) or hand write names on spines to be able to identify them, and voila! Done!) I HIGHLY recommend using co-ordinating but different papers. Keeps it looking neat, without being too boring. I'd love to see a whole bookshelf done like this. Imagine the possibilities!? The colours!

That right there would be the Martha Stewart Classics, which is normally BRIGHT orange. I have an irrational hate-on for orange. Yeah, it HAD to go!

Finished, with labels. Nice, neat and organized. This actually really helps since a lot of them didn't actually have names on the spines to start off with so they're all much easier to find now! Oh, and kind of cute since every time I look up there it reminds me of our wedding! yay!