I should admit up front that I love love love jewelry, and that I’m about as sentimental as they come.  That’s why I’m so impressed by Tracey Jenkins and Green Spot Studio.

Tracey specializes in custom wedding jewelry – and one of the coolest things (in my opinion) that she does – is take old jewelry and reinvent it.

So, say you had an old broach from your grandmother, or a collection of few pieces of family jewelry, that you wanted to modernize and wear for your wedding, Tracey could redesign and recreate it for you.

For example, Tracey had a client who wanted to create her wedding bands from her mother’s (who had passed away) jewelry. So she created these wedding bands to jacket around the engagement ring. (The diamond set in the engraving came from her mothers’ favorite bracelet.) Imagine how meaningful that wedding band is to the woman who wears it.

And Tracey created wedding jewelry for another client using stones from a few different family rings. Tracey had already made the clients engagement ring without family stones.  So the wedding day jewelry was designed to match the engagement ring style – and to use all of the diamonds from the different family rings.

Here’s the engagement ring (totally beautiful):

And here’s the wedding day jewelry (a bezel set diamond surrounded by smaller diamonds, and matching earrings…stunning).

Honestly, I’d probably pay double to get something so meaningful. But the cost is actually drastically less than new jewelry because the stones and metal are reused. (And of, course, recycled jewelry has much less impact on the earth).

Check out some more of Tracey’s designs – and then start hunting through your mother and grandmother’s old jewelry.  You could take care of “something old” and “something new” at the same time.

Truth be told, I wouldn’t consider myself a super environmentalist.  I’m more the make small changes, unplug your cell phone charger, don’t buy bottled water, take your own bags to the grocery store kind of environmentalist. But I do think incorporating green into your life where ever you can is the best thing to do.

That’s why I think a perfect idea for a wedding favor is an environmentally friendly one. Like these adorable personalized seed packets from Beau-coup.

I love the fun look of the bags – which are biodegradable and contain wildflower seeds of baby’s breath, cornflower, California poppy, catchfly, spurred snapdragon and garland daisies. And there are tons of choices for the labels (and even options to use them as seating cards).

And flowers are such a sweet way for your friends and family to remember your wedding (and you could plant a few packets at your house or apartment too!)

I love this idea recently featured on Courtney’s blog, The Little White Book.  Tn keeping with an old tradition from Swiss and Dutch cultures (a nod to the ancestry of both families), the bride and groom planted an evergreen tree after the wedding to symbolize their relationship.

This bride and groom added their own twist to the tradition and used water and soil instead of a unity candle during their ceremony. ( The bride’s side carried water and the groom’s side carried soil).

What a meaningful way to personalize their ceremony. And now the bride and groom have a lifetime keepsake from their wedding. (And have even made a small contribution to the environment).

Check out the entire post to see the the bride’s amazing sense of style that was brought to life at her wedding. (And her perfect use of the color green).

Buying a preowned wedding dress innately “greens” your wedding – even if it wasn’t your intention. And in today’s world, I really think it is our responsibility to try and incorporate environmentally friendly acts into our lives everyday.

So, if you are looking for ways to green your wedding…even small acts like removing the inner envelope on your invitation can make a small difference. (And with 2.3 million US weddings a year, if everyone made one small change…..)

Laura Patterson is an event planner from Effortless Events in Chicago who knows how to make an event more environmentally friendly.  She shared this list of big and small things you can do to reduce your wedding’s impact:

1. Try to use paper for a little as possible: e-mail a save the date, create a wedding website to communicate all information, etc.  For the items that really do require paper, use only 100% recycled post consumer waste paper.

2.  Flowers - try to use locally grown, organic flowers. Most of the time, flowers are grown with lots of insecticides and brought in from overseas.  Carbon footprint will be smaller if local, organic, truly “in season” flowers are used.  You can also use potted plants for centerpieces – they can be planted in a garden, not thrown out at the end of the day.

3.  Find a caterer who specializes in using locally grown, organic produce, grass fed beef, etc. Be prepared to pay a premium for these items as they are more expensive (the farms providing these goods don’t necessarily receive government subsidies) but if going green is important to you, the cost should be well worth it.  (A recommendation from the Chicago market: Monogramme Events – her priority is to use almost ALL organic, sustainable, fair trade products).

4.  Venue Selection: do something as easy as asking whether the place recycles its glass and aluminum.  Choose a venue that AT LEAST recycles.  Further, ask them if they can serve beer on tap rather than from cans or bottles.

5.  Rent as much as possible for tabletop items – use rented, real, re-usable plates, flatware, glassware, etc.  Use rented, real, re-usable napkins….even for the cocktail hour!  It is possible to rent linen cocktail napkins.

6.  Limit your guest list. This is a hard one – but consider how much traveling will need to happen for your wedding.  A smaller guest list = smaller carbon footprint from the traveling.

7.  Earth-friendly lighting. Make the mood romantic by lighting hundreds of SOY candles which are made from a renewable resource and are longer burning and cleaner, too.

8.  Favors – don’t do favors unless they can are ‘consumptive’ goods like handmade soap or organic chocolate bars.  Or, even better….seeds to plant (but you have to give this to the right crowd or it’s all a waste, anyway).  Donations to your favorite charity or environmental organization may be the best idea.

9. Research eco-friendly honeymoon ideas.  REI.com is a great place to start – their adventures are CO2 neutral and they claim to “offset the carbon footprint” of all their trips.

Photo courtesy of  Jeremy Lawson Photography.