How to Have an Ethical Wedding

Weddings can be pretty awesome from the delicious food to the dancing to all the lovey happiness in the air.  And the wedding industry in the U.S. is huge- billions of dollars a year.  Sadly, some of that revenue is generated by the sale of things like wedding dresses, diamond rings, and cake toppers made in overseas factories by exploited and slave labor.  We all know slavery and love don't go together well, but what is an ethically-minded bride to do?

Thankfully, the Internet comes to the rescue.  There are a number of websites dedicated to fair trade, green, and otherwise more responsible wedding vendors.  One good one is Ethical Weddings, which has a long list of ethical suppliers from cakes to confetti.  It's based in the UK, but they have a lot of links to online stores which deliver to the U.S. and Europe.  The Fair Trade Federation also has some good suggestions of how to register for fair trade gifts.

One item which is commonly associated with both weddings and slavery is the diamond engagement ring, too often mined by slaves and exploited workers in Africa.  If you are a bride-to-be who wants to avoid blood diamonds and conflict diamonds like the plague they are, check out Brilliant Earth, which sells Canadian conflict-free diamonds.  They also use fairly mined gold.  Often gold, along with other minerals, is a huge industry for trafficked and exploited labor.

A wedding should be a celebration of two people's love.  It shouldn't be part of an industry that enslaves and exploits workers in other countries and destroys the environment.  The idea of ethical weddings may still be a little new, but as more people learn about the reality of human trafficking and slavery, the idea will likely grow.  After all, who wants something as important as a marriage tainted by slavery?

Thanks and congratulations my wonderful friends Angela and Jack, who are getting married today, and who inspired this post.

Image from ethicalweddings.com