REDUCE, RECYCLE, REINVENT / PAGE 3
GREEN IN VOGUE
Echoing the sentiment of beautiful, modern design derived from recycled products is the Hotel Basico in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, a stylish low-key establishment that’s hosted over a dozen weddings since their opening in 2005. The hotel utilized countless recycled goods throughout their design, including recycled rubber for floors and drapes, and two swimming pools fashioned from old storage tanks.
REUSED MATERIALS AT HOTEL BASICO IN PLAYA DEL CARMEN, MEXICO
“It’s incredible how many recycled items they’ve used there,” says Jennifer Sebastian, a recent visitor to Hotel Basico. “We loved the little innovative touches, like the bathroom door with a recycled saw handle for a doorknob. It’s a beautiful place, and makes you feel good to see all that recycled stuff in use.”
Also available today are evermore organic food purveyors with unique wedding menus and fare derived from sustainable agriculture and responsible treatment of the Earth’s resources – some catering to pretty esoteric tastes. San Francisco cake maker Hannah Tai, who specializes in creating custom organic wedding cakes, was recently asked to include the root “galangal” (used in many Southeast Asian foods) to flavor a wedding cake. “It’s actually taken powdered as a snuff as well in the East and is used in perfumery and in brewing,” says Tai. “So I was quite surprised to have this requested in a cake!”
For brides fed up with the major expense of the wedding gown, and the added insult that it’ll be used for the sum total of about eight hours, there are vintage wedding dress shops – or a bride can consult UK-based Thedressmarket.net, which goes one better by offering near-new secondhand designer wedding dresses at a fraction of their original cost. “I’m definitely considering a secondhand gown,” says bride-to-be Donna Frankel. “Wedding expenses have gotten so out of control that if I can find a way to cut a cost without cutting the aesthetic, I’m all over it.”