A Wedding Gone-Green

As our society goes greener with each passing day, more and more people are doing what they to help to save our planet. If you find yourself planning your wedding thinking, “what can I do to help,” we’ve got some great answers for you!

There are a few simple things that can be done to not only make things easier on your wedding, but also on our community as a whole. Things like hiring local vendors will save on transportation and support the local economy, using digital photography will cut back on the use of paper and harsh chemicals. Using recycled paper for your invitations (a great place is Naturally Ever After.com) or even invitation that contain flower seeds that you can plant and grow. Botanical PaperWorks.com has a great selection of handmade plantable wedding invitations. Another thing you can do is send online “evites” for all your pre-wedding events. This saves paper and postage. Evite.com is a great place to customize and send your online invitations.

One thing I myself am personally going to do when I get married is plant a wedding garden. Find a friend or family member who’s got a little land to spare and plant a garden with all the flowers you want at your wedding. This not only will save a huge cost, but is also a wonderful way to get people involved. Plus, you’ll have a little more pride on your day knowing your green-thumb created one of the most important aspects of your whole wedding. If you don’t exactly have a ‘green-thumb’, another thing to do is order organic flowers that are grown without any harsh chemicals.

Serving organic foods, using utensils and plates that can be washed, and getting all your wine from a local winery are just a few other ways to go-green on your wedding day!

Cake Topper Tips

Picking out a cake topper can be either very simple or very difficult, depending on who you’re working with! Cake toppers can range from traditional, unique, to ethnic and comical. You’ll need to get some ideas of the styles you like, as well as taking into consideration the feel of how you want your wedding to go, then take them to your fiancee and let him or her help you pick out your topper.

As the fad’s change, we’re finding more and more couples opting for funny toppers or even one’s as simple as the first letter of your last name (or soon-to-be last name) instead of the old fashion figurines. We’ve found a website called MicroDwarf.com that uses your own photos to sculpt caricature like figurines made to look like you and your mate. They’re hand made and come from polymer clay and stand around 6-7 inches tall. (see picture below)

When looking for that perfect piece to adorn you cake with, be sure that it goes with the theme of your wedding. But then again, don’t stress over it too much, whatever you chose will be perfect!

Creamy Banana Bread

As Christmas draws closer with each passing day, if you’re like us here at ABridetoBee.com you’ve probably found yourself headed towards the kitchen with your baking shoes on. The challenge however, before jumping into your mixing bowls, is to find this years perfect recipe! After searching through every magazine and cook book published within the last fifty years, we’ve found some secret recipes (old and new) that are absolutely to die for! We’ll post more recipes over the next few days that have been ‘kid tested-mother approved’ and will surely be a hit with all your friends and family!

Here’s another one we found on our quest to come up with a more moist banana nut bread and something that was easy to make and ship to our friends.

Creamy Banana Bread-from allrecipes.com

INGREDIENTS

• 1/2 cup margarine, softened
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 1/4 cups white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1-1/2 cups mashed bananas (@ 3 banana’s)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 cup chopped pecans (optional)
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS

1. Cream the butter or margarine and cream cheese together. Gradually add the white sugar, and continue beating until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the mashed bananas and vanilla. Add flour, baking powder, and soda; mix until batter is just moist.
2. In a small bowl, mix together chopped pecans, 2 tablespoons brown sugar, and cinnamon.
3. Divide 1/2 batter into two greased and floured 8×4 inch loaf pans. Sprinkle pecan mixture over batter in pans, and top with remaining batter.
4. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 45 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
5. *When we made this recipe we did it without the pecans for those of our friends who have nut allergies. And we tried the recipe with the original one cup of (2) banana’s and it was not banana enough for us, so we added 3 and made a difference. We also only baked the bread for 40 minutes instead of 45. But make sure you use an oven thermometer to test your oven for accurate temperature. We found out ours was off by 10 degrees!  

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