The biggest trend in weddings is rustic, woodsy and occasionally nutty.  

Rustic is in. The hottest trend in weddings is coordinating natural touches with an eco-friendly sensibility. From what we’ve seen across the web, that can mean anything from a crafty twig centerpiece to an un-harvested cotton boll boutonnière. We think traipsing into nuptial bliss like a wood nymph will not only give your wedding more character, it’ll save you money and score you some green cred.

Here are some ideas to get your sap flowing.

Happy planning.

Note the artichoke bouquet. Whomever catches this one is a very lucky girl, unless it’s mashed into a squishy, cheesy dip.

These down-to-earth boutonnières (in dandelion and cotton boll) are quite literally plucked from the ground from which they came.

Now, for the reception. A woodsy wedding is characterized by a color palette that is cinnamon-toned with tints of fall. Raw cotton bolls and logs add a campfire spirit to the reception. Here’s a hint: consider firing up S’mores at your event, and you’re bound to live happily ever after.

The rosemary takes the cake, entwining your masterpiece in a fragrant halo that is almost edible…if only it weren’t so beautiful.

These visual masterpieces, one with pebble encrusted layers and the other with mushroom sprouting toppers, are like eye candy and food porn rolled into one. A naughty honeymoon is sure to follow.

Yes, if you invite me to your wedding I will spend the entire reception oggling your cake. I love the simplicity of this single layer cake served on a wooden platter.

On that note, I’ll leave you with Lord Byron, who wrote.

When the green woods laugh with the voice of joy, And the dimpling stream runs laughing by; When the air does laugh with our merry wit, And the green hill laughs with the noise of it…

…what you have, my friend, is a mighty fine wedding.

Images: Sarah McAllister Weddings; Tulle & Flora; Seven Spoons; Green Wedding Shoes; The Bride’s Café; Etsy;

Looking for an unusual wedding banquet? I may have found the answer for you- Marije Vogelzang and her food laboratory.

While contemplating the greater joys of food, I remembered hearing Marije Vogelzang speak at the annual PopTech conference last year. This amazing designer has created her own genre for food as art: Eating Design. After studying product design and worried about the wasteful use of materials, this Dutch designer turned to food. Viewing food as already perfectly designed by nature, she began focusing on creating unique and meaningful eating experiences.

Vogelzang’s edible art projects take on many forms, including installations, performance, and event catering. In every case, she explores cultural preconceptions of food, and attempts to change prior experiences or associations with what’s being eaten. At one catering venue for a large holiday dinner party, the designer took the tablecloth and hung the sides up instead of down, creating slits so diners were encompassed in this tent-like construction, transforming the relationship of the eaters to one another and to their food.

Color often becomes a prominent focus in Vogelzang’s work. In a project working with kids and their food perceptions, she arranged a series of healthy snacks according to color, and each color was associated with a feeling or meaning, such as red=energy or yellow=friends. Children then chose their snacks based on a desire for “happiness” or “energy” as opposed to the food itself, thereby removing their previous hesitancy or negativity toward healthy foods.

Other works include spoons made of sugar that melt into your coffee, candy “guns” that are meant to raise awareness that sugar is bad for you, and garden cress grown on clothing that can be used to garnish cocktails.

If you haven’t heard, fancy-shmancy cupcakes are stealing the hearts of America as we downsize our celebrations with treats that fill us up, not out.

For a growing number of sweet teeth, four bites and one candle do the trick as we replace the wasteful sheet cake of old with an indulgent Red Velvet vegan confection made to order at your chic neighborhood cupcake boutique.

Call it theater in the round for the bakery hound!

The new stars are the vegan assortments  introduced by bakers such as Yummy Cupcakes in Los Angeles, which sells from its healthy alternative menu three days a week at its shops in Burbank and Santa Monica.

Yummy’s flavors include Almond, Blood Orange, Chocolate Chili,  Brown Sugar Cinnamon, and my favorite, the Arnold Palmer – black iced tea and lemonade.  They sell for around $3.25 a pop for the classic size and $1.50 to $1.65 for the mini size. Of course, you can buy them by the dozen, as well.

Tiffani Soforenko, one of the three partners at Yummy, says the vegan menu was  inspired by an offer to prepare cupcakes for talk show host Ellen DeGeneres and her crew. “We knew Ellen was a vegan and hadn’t done vegan recipes yet, and figured it was the perfect time to figure out how to do it,” she recalls. “We brought the red velvets for her and her staff and they were a huge hit.”

It took off from there. “We thought if we can make that, what else can we make? Our normal menu is 156 flavors and we do 43 as vegan,” says Soforenko.

What sets them apart? No animal-based products, eggs or butter or egg replacers. They are also topped with raw sugar instead of colored sprinkles. People with food and dairy allergies are gobbling them up!

Another gourmet vendor, Kara’s Cupcakes in San Francisco (with four Bay Area locations) proudly boasts it is “green” on its web page, from its sustainable local and organic ingredients to environmentally-friendly recyclable and compostable packaging to its bakeries built with green certification standards. It even uses green cleaning products and delivers its treats in ultra low emission vehicles. Plus, the cupcakes are to die for, from Kara’s Karrot on Halloween night to Raspberry Dazzle and Milk Chocolate Ganache.  They look good and are filled with good stuff. What else would you expect from the daughter of a dentist?

While pure ingredients are naturally in high demand in buff California, the notion of a greener cupcake is just now making its way to glitzy Miami, where the founders of Cupcake Nouveau – Cristina Valdes and Shayrin Badillo – are getting in the groove.

“We are in the process of developing new recipes that are sugar, gluten and dairy free,” shares Valdes, who says her South Beach clientele is all about glamor and chic. These skilled bakers are known for the artistic detail they add to their specialized cupcakes for weddings and fundraisers, such as pearls and roses adorning the Vanilla Bean Madagascar creations. You grow, girls!

Rather bake em yourself? Many of these gourmet cupcake companies offer cupcake party baking kits for around $42 that ensure hours of fun and a terrible mess for moms as the guests go crazy stirring, blending, frosting and decorating their visions. Either way, the naturally beautiful end result seems to be taking the cake.

Main Image: Cupcakes Nouveau

Image One: Yummy Cupcakes

Image Two: Cupcakes Nouveau

Image Three: Luanne Bradley

While we generally avoid traditional paper gift wrap these days, a Berkeley MBA and mom has developed a line of more responsible coverage for those gifts: reusable, recycled bags.

Josie Gaillard’s Living Ethos made its debut in San Francisco this summer in selected boutiques. Now, the versatile and vivacious eco-chic wrap is available on the web.

What makes this attractive paper one to chase?

The sustainable gift bags come in 30 varied prints that are as attractive as upholstery fabrics. But instead of being assembled with cheap cotton, they are a high quality fabric born of recycled plastic bottles (hurray) and come with coordinated grosgrain ribbons also made of the same PET materials (hurray, again!).

They can be reused countess times – for gift-giving or storage – which is the goal when it comes to paper products. Just yesterday, I presented a bottle of wine in one, and the recipient returned the bag to me to use again. That was special.

The bags come in four sizes – mini, small, medium and large to fit small items like books and trinkets to larger gifts such as wine, clothing and toys. $28 for set of four. They are sewn locally in the Bay Area and the shipping envelopes also are reusable.

It’s all part of Gaillard’s effort to make it easier for consumers to “live their ethos.” Gaillard, a solar energy marketing professional turned entrepreneur, has a passion for product design and promises more stylish, sustainable goods to come.