we got married last year and we tried to have a pared-down, greenish celebration. we didn’t want to do a registry at all but a couple of my relatives reminded us that if you don’t tell people what you want, they will buy you things you don’t want. a sign of our consumer-driven society, yes, but true.

so we put together a small amazon wishlist of useful stuff we’d been wanting, making sure to tell people it was just for ideas and they didn’t necessarily have to go through amazon. we didn’t register for sheets or towels or dishes or any of the stuff we already had–who cares if it doesn’t match? anyway, this was just for the people who wanted to get us gifts–there weren’t that many overall. and we got stuff that we’ll hopefully use for years, like a canning set.

at our party (which was really casual, like blue jeans casual) we asked that instead of gifts, people bring some food for a potluck dinner. we provided drinks. my mom bought inexpensive reusable silverware and donated it to a charity afterward. the food was great (thanks to our friends and family) and better than catering!

we did our invitations on evite to cut down on paper.

it was easy for us because we don’t really go in for all the wedding jazz (we wore clothes we already owned for the ceremony, even) and because we didn’t want to spend an arm and a leg. nice when being green means saving money, eh?

We used thethingsiwant.com as our wish list site and it works great for putting everything in one place but I’ve found that many of our family members are uncomfortable purchasing there for various reasons so we also made sure to find green options at more traditional wedding places like Macys.

The easiest way to green your registry though just seems to be register for less and don’t get caught in registering for everything recommended in bridal magazines.