(Instead of) Gifts

No presents, just be present!

We don’t want or need any material things, but we wouldn’t say no to mindfulness!!

We understand that wedding presents are part of the marriage tradition, but we’re not the most “traditional types,” and we do not want or expect any gifts.  If, despite our insistence, you feel you cannot refrain from GIVING us SOMETHING, please consider the following ideas we’ve developed in lieu of “traditional” gifts. The great thing about these gifts is they won’t cost much if anything, and they benefit everyone!

Some things we would REALLY appreciate:

-Plant a back-yard veggie garden in our honor! If you already have one, expand it to include heirloom veggies! If you don’t have a back-yard, and even if you do, buy local, organic food!

-BIKE, walk, ski, or use public transportation as much as possible, just don’t drive in our honor! If you need any bike commuting tips, Sam will happily provide!

-Get to know your neighbors and local businesses in our honor! Many statistics show that people feel more secure, less stressed, and are generally happier when they are connected to their community. Too often these days we isolate ourselves in our houses and miss out on all sorts of benefits, from borrowing eggs to sharing laughs, that we could gain from community involvement. When it comes to economic support for communities, buying local products from local merchants leads to about twice as much money staying and circulating within communities as compared to buying from big box stores, where most of the money leaves town very quickly. For more on this: http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1903632,00.html

-Start a COMPOST in our honor, if you don’t already have one, and try to buy biodegradable products which CAN be composted.  According to the EPA, “Organic materials continue to be the largest component of Municipal Solid Waste,” and “Yard trimmings and food residuals together constitute 27 percent of the US municipal solid waste stream.” That’s 67.5 tons per year, or 436.6 lbs per American per year that could be made back into soil, but instead is in landfills where it makes methane bombs out of the plastic bags we shove it in. Here are a couple of links to help you get started:

http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/rrr/composting/index.htm

http://earth911.com/news/2010/05/03/compost-awareness-week-no-more-excuses-start-your-pile/

-Reduce your waste in our honor! Even if you compost and recycle, how much garbage do you still throw to the curb? Each week, try to reduce it. Go from two bags to one, or trash bag to grocery bag, and continue from there. This process starts at the store, or with things you already own: What packaging can you avoid? What can you sell on Craig’s List, or give away on freecycle.com, or fix, or reuse for something else rather than just throwing it out? Eat leftovers for lunch! Challenge yourself to use everything in your fridge before you go shopping again and you’ll avoid those mouldy, mystery messes! We like to add one more R to the R’s of conservation: RETHINK, then Reduce, Reuse, and if you can’t do anything else, Recycle.

-Convert your LAWN to a GARDEN in our honor!  Why? Here are some reasons from American Green: The Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Lawn by Ted Steinberg:

• TIME: The average homeowner will spend 150 hours a year maintaining their lawn (… but only 35 on sex!)
• PESTICIDES: 10 times more herbicides per acre are dumped on lawns than on the fields of agribusiness.
• MONEY: Per acre, it costs more to maintain a lawn than it does to grow corn, rice or sugarcane. More than 40 billion dollars are spent on the lawn in North American each year – more than the entire continent gave in foreign aid in 2005.
• BIRDS + BEES: In the U.S. an estimated 7 million birds are killed yearlyby lawn-care pesticides.  Honey Bee Colony collapse disorder is being linked to pesticides.
• RUNOFF + FISH: Phosphorus run-off from lawn fertilizer causes algae blooms that suck oxygen out of lakes, asphyxiating fish.
• WATER: 30% of the water used on the East Coast of U.S. goes towards watering of lawns. A single golf course in Tampa, Florida uses 178,800 gallons of water every day, enough to meet the daily water needs of over 2,200 people.
• SAFETY: Approximately 74,000 Americans are injured every year using lawn mowers, about the same number as  firearms. About 5,000 of those accidents involve children. More than 30% these injuries resulted in an amputation of some sort.  That’s more than 22,000 limbs and digits that go missing every year in pursuit of the perfect green!

-Avoid Styrofoam, Plastic Bags, and or Bottled Water in our honor! Styrofoam cannot be recycled, and bags and water bottles often aren’t, but all of these things can usually be avoided.  Bring a reusable mug, bag or bottle with you, buy “loose” produce in the store rather than packaged, and ask for a paper doggy bag! If you don’t like the taste of your water, filter it! Americans spend over $15 billion dollars each year on bottled water, and $1 billion dollars worth of bottles end up in landfills or litter each year. Aquafina (Pepsi) and Dasani (Coke) sell 24% of all US bottled water: both are merely treated municipal tap water, resold to the public at a premium mark-up.

-If feel you need to buy something, especially if it’s a gift for us, look for used things, or check out what’s free at the dump before buying new. Karin Nelson can give you helpful hints on this particular talent of turning trash to treasure, as she is a master.

-Help make the wedding run smoothly: take a turn as the DJ or jam a bit on your own instrument, help clean up, help a grandparent find a chair, bring some flowers to decorate; whatever you can do to take some of the stress out of our lives on the “big day” would be greatly appreciated.

-If you want any more information or ideas, just let us know! Here’s to a happy, healthy future!

xo~Aubrey and Sam~xo