photo credit: My Wedding Dream via Bunches of Bliss

Vistaprint identified five top wedding trends for Spring 2011 by looking at a series of variables, including theme and color trend research in Europe and North America, Vistaprint’s top selling save-the-date and invitation products, as well as market research. And what were the results? Here they are:

• Green (Eco-Friendly) Weddings – Eco-friendly weddings are emerging. Everything from sustainable wedding dresses to plantable favors and recycled invitations will be commonplace. The setting will likely be an outdoor venue or tent, with decor consisting of LED lights and locally produced flowers. Green, brown and rust are common color choices.
• Vintage Inspirations – Vintage inspired weddings are one of the biggest trends for 2011. Brides can be glamorous and chic without breaking the bank. Common themes include beaded or feathered hairpieces, and natural and outdoor settings. These weddings include elements such as lace, do-it-yourself touches like homemade favors and hand-tied ribbons around the invitations, and softer, muted colors for a touch of extra romance.
• Traditional Elegance with a Modern Twist – This bride embraces the traditional wedding but wants to add her own personal flair. This may include an unexpected pop of bold and bright colors with her clutch or shoes, a unique hair piece, bold necklace or modern invitations and stationary. Colors are primarily white, silver and ivory with a minimally used accent color like red or chartreuse.
• Bright and Bold Color Choices – Expect to see lots of color in 2011, from the Pantone® Color of the Year, honeysuckle pink to turquoise, coral, and the ever popular apple green. Bold colors are hip, attention-grabbing, and the perfect way to add lots of personality to your special day.
• Black – Like the little black dress, black is always in fashion. Today it lends itself to a variety of styles from contemporary and elegant weddings, to the romantic and baroque. It also pairs well with almost any accent color.

Vistaprint offers a multitude of products and services for any type of wedding, including wedding invitations, save the date cards, place cards, promotional apparel like hats and T-shirts, and even wedding websites.

image: Message in a bottle

Here’s a super cute table number idea that was inspired by a restaurant that had something like it on their tables.  All you  need are some tin cans, paint, and a drill… Aren’t they cute? Inexpensive, recycled, and they double as candle holders, too!

Over at 2000 Dollar Budget Wedding, they’ve created vases using recycled wine bottles.  These were inspired, in part, by the transparent, subtle quality of glass and the muted variety of colors found in wine bottles. You can find the how to here! Aren’t they pretty?

Here’s a brilliant idea for a shabby chic garden wedding.  You can create lovely,one-of-a-kind napkins, table linens, and runners using vintage bedsheets!  Cheap, and best part: no sewing involved!  Simply cut them to size with pinking sheers. From A Backyard Wedding, via Intimate Weddings.

More ways of recycling cans… you can paint them or cover them with shiny contact paper, and use them to package edible wedding favors (get the how-to here!). Or you can just clean them thoroughly and leave as they are, tying some ribbon or raffia around the can and filling with flowers for a sweet centerpiece!

If you are truly eco-friendly, you can use your cans as planters, so that they plants can be taken home and re-planted in your (and your guests’) backyards. At Project Wedding, they used these can planters as both centerpieces and favors!

One popular wedding reception decor idea is using old furniture pieces like shuttered windows, antique dressers, and coffee tables as part of a display. Think about the area you want to set out place cards, a buffet table, or vintage photo booth. This white glass window display, trimmed with a little greenery, pulls off the trend magnificently.

A similar idea was used by Candace and Jared, featured on Project Wedding:

Using an old window to display photos of loved ones gives a new meaning to the words “window frame”! Photo from Weddings by Color:

An old door is a rustic choice for posting seating cards(photos from Libby James and Wedding by Color:

Another good use for vintage doors- they’re too pretty not to do something with– is to set them up at entrance to the reception, like this whimsical garden themed wedding, where guests pass through, underneath a swarm of fluttering paper butterflies. Check out the other vintage furniture they used, including an old bed headboard and dresser. Photo from Lang Photographers via Ruffled.

For a gorgeous array of photos depicting bridal bouquets in every shade of the rainbow, Martha Stewart Weddings has a gorgeous gallery! Here are a few samples of their featured bouquets, centerpieces, and boutonnieres from each color scheme.  You can the look you love, and discover the names of all those beautiful blooms, too!

Red Flowers

Click here for more red wedding flowers!

Yellow & Orange Flowers

Click here for more yellow & orange wedding flowers!

Green Flowers

Click here for more green wedding flowers!

Pink Flowers

Click here for more pink wedding flowers!

Blue Flowers

Click here for more blue wedding flowers!

Lavender Flowers

Click here for more lavender wedding flowers!

White Flowers

Click here for more white wedding flowers!

It’s amazing, points out Katherine DalPra (owner/designer for Green Diva, an online boutique of eco-friendly bridal jewelry) how uneducated and distanced we’ve become from the goods we buy.  We don’t know where our jewelry comes from, and who has been affected by it. “Behind some of our most beloved purchases… there is a dirty secret involving worker exploitation, toxic pollution and cultural destruction.”

Among the sins that you DON’T want to be supporting are violent conflict and forced labor. Miners and gemstone artisans are often underpaid and work in unsafe conditions. Metal mining is the number one toxic polluter in America, and is also the cause of Acid Mine Drainage, which is destroying our drinkable water sources.

Luckily, there are several options for sourcing ethical engagement rings from people that have made a great effort to get it right. If you’re not into wooden rings, synthetic stones, or rings constructed of your own bone, here are some trusted sources you might want to consider buying from.

CRED Jewellery

The world’s first Fair Trade jewelery retailer, CRED has pioneered the search for transparent, ethical sources of precious metals and stones, delivering the first truly ethical wedding rings in 2003.  Their engagement rings combine classic and contemporary styling with the finest ethically-sourced diamonds and Oro Verde™ Fair Trade metals to perfectly encapsulate your values and your love.

C5 Company

C5 company is a leader in sustainable fine jewelry. They offer beautiful, well-crafted, ready-to-wear pieces and custom jewelry that you can feel good about purchasing, gifting and wearing.

All of their jewelry is made with 100% recycled precious metals and ethically sourced gems and diamonds (both fair-trade mined and lab-created) to ensure that C5 company jewelry has minimal environmental and social impact.

Below: Estate diamonds reset in recycled palladium; Lab-created rubies set in recycled palladium.

Green Karat

Green Karat has a mission, to provide an ecologically and socially responsible jewelry alternative to those who seek change. If you want to become part of the solution, they want to help you.

Did you know that there is enough gold above ground (already mined) to satisfy all demands of the jewelry industry for the next 50 years? Much of it sits in bank vaults and in the form of old and unused jewelry.  Green Karat believes that buying recycled gold is one of the most ecologically and socially responsible choices a consumer can make.

Artisan Wedding Rings

These unique wedding rings and engagement ring sets are heirloom quality and made by artisans with recycled gold, silver and platinum. Artisan use the most ethically sourced diamonds and gemstones available anywhere.

Brilliant Earth

“Luxury with a Conscience” brings you uncompromisable ethics and meticulous craftsmanship. Their jewelry is created with the highest quality Canadian Conflict Free Diamond Jewelry™ made with renewed gold and platinum. They also supply Ethical origin Namibian diamonds, and 5% of all profits are donated in Africa.

To learn about fair trade, conflict-free diamonds, eco-friendly, recycled metals and responsibly-made jewelry, visit any of the websites mentioned here! For a list of more ethical jewelry suppliers, visit this page at the natural wedding company.

After all, diamonds are forever… and diamonds are a girls best friend… so choose wisely!

Shown: Tacori

Vintage Engagement Rings

Old Stones and antique settings prove that old is new again!

Shown: Doyle & Doyle $2,950; Gray & Davis $1500.00

Solitaire Engagement Rings

This elegant, timeless style is more popular than ever!

Shown: Cartier, Harry Winston

Garden Inspired Engagement Rings

The floral trend: where stones and flowers meld together!

Shown: De Beers $12,000; Christopher Designs $21,100

Green Engagement Rings

These brilliant, eye-catching gems with have you green with envy!

Shown: Tiffany & Co. $7,300;  Blue Nile $13,000

Rose Gold Engagement Rings

Platinum and yellow gold are classic choices, but rose gold is for the bold!

Shown: Neil Lane $120,000; Bulgari $7,900

These trends & photos are via InStyle Weddings. For more engagement ring pictures, visit InStyle Weddings!

“Our wedding collection combines the most environmentally friendly ingredients with modern design and centuries-old papermaking techniques. The combination of fine Artisan-crafted papers with distinctive designs lends a unique flair to each and every invitation ensuring that they are exceptional and inviting. Choose from the classic panel card, fold-over with natural deckle or the All In One which does not require any envelopes. Our progressive designs can be adapted to all formats and customized in any color combination. We specialize in individual, personalized attention and will work with you to create a memorable invitation for your unique celebration.”

Here’s a sampling of Green Field Paper‘s gorgeous wedding invitations and announcements. Visit their site for more lovely options, all made from 100% natural and recycled materials.

As well as making gorgeous shoes coveted by the likes of Natalie Portman, Beyond Skin’s philosophy is to ‘…trade in a manner that is non exploitative to humans, animals and wherever possible the wider environment. Using no animal products, all our footwear is hand-made to order in the UK promoting ethically-sound and less energy intensive working practices.’

Ok, so it seems that the UK has a monopoly on ethical shoewear, and the 10 shoes pictured at the Wishopt blog are actually all from the UK. Does anyone know where you can obtain shoes in the USA that meet these standards? And look this pretty?

Some use recycled rubber for the soles, or recycled vintage fabrics and trimmings. Others are produced under a Fair Trade agreement and are careful to use less energy intensive working practices. And of course, no leather, unless it’s recycled!

Gold: If you want subtle color in the place of white or ivory, consider a gold toned gown… or simply add a golden sash to warm up a traditional white dress. Add antique gold earrings, bangles, or pearls, and you’re ready to walk down the isle.

Red: Nothing says “romance” like red! The bold bride won’t be afraid to buck tradition and go for an all-out red gown. They are being seen more and more these days.  But red sashes, trimmings, accessories, flowers, or jewelry can also be used to add a touch of fire to a white dress.

Orange: I have heard of pumpkins, maple leaves, and orange gerbera daisies gracing a fall wedding. But an orange wedding gown… Well, why not?! The orange-loving bride can step out of the ordinary and don an orange dress like the feisty, free-spirited bride below.

Green: The bright lime green of spring is not this season’s shade. Fall’s inspirations are mellow ferns or deep, rich evergreen.  The leaves are changing color but dark green endures as a beautiful fall color.

Earth-tones: I have yet to see a brown wedding dress. But dark chocolate or hazel colored sashes look lovely with any gown, especially cream or coffee colored. (The groom will look handsome in a matching chocolate suit or tux!)

Accessories and Jewelry: Gleaming gold, iridescent pearls, flashing jewels… the colors of fall are warm and bright. A gold leaf and pearl choker, little flower earrings, gold leaf pin, and bangle bracelets turn any fall bride into a queen for a day!

See also:

Autumn Weddings Part I: Color schemes and decorating inspiration

So hot, they’re red hot!

Another favorite eco-chic designer is Deborah Lindquist, who mixes “reincarnated” and earth-friendly fabrics to create beautiful gowns that are “unabashedly romantic, more old Hollywood siren than sixties flower child…”

Olivia Luca is a designer who creates custom-made gowns using high quality, environmentally responsible fabrics. These include silk, organic cotton and cotton prints, sustainable SBP® hemp/silk, bamboo and other environmentally responsible fabrics. (How does one make dresses out of bamboo? I have no idea, but it sounds good to me!)

Another wedding dress designer with a mission is Tara Lynn, who’s goal is to create fashionable, high quality, natural fiber clothing that, among other things:

• Enhances awareness of environmental issues
• Supports environmental organizations
• Maximizes resource efficiency
• Supports the local economy

Tara Lynn’s philosophy is that “natural clothing is sexier than lifeless textiles.” Her dresses are meant to make a woman feel “strong, smart and powerful” and, of course, stylish and beautiful:

It’s good to know where your dress comes from, according to Tree Huggers, so check out the “ethical wedding dressmaker” Wholly Jo’s based in London. Their gowns are made from organic, fair trade and cruelty-free products. Here are some samples:

Style Me Pretty points out that the greenest fashion choice for your wedding is to recycle a dress that’s been worn before. Consider having a seamstress update your mother’s gown, or check out everything from eBay to online vintage boutiques like The Frock. There’s something so romantic about wearing a dress with a history of its own!

Feature image: Designer 100% Pure Natural Silk Wedding Corset & Gown (buy it here: evening-dresses.eu)