Although many of you reading this may already have an engagement ring on your finger you may not have picked out your wedding bands yet!  When Cheyenne Weil contacted us I jumped at the opportunity to showcase her work on our blog.  She is based out of Portland, Oregon and designs eco-friendly jewelry.  Cheyenne does all the designing, carving and finishing herself so you are guaranteed to have an original, custom, handmade and beautiful piece! They truly are a piece of art. 

Cheyenne uses recycled metals whenever possible and all of the diamonds used in her jewelry are conflict free so you will not only look great but you will feel good about wearing them!  I love the engagement ring she designed for one of her brides below (gold with center diamond).  And I can't keep my eyes off the pearl ring!  It is simply gorgeous.  Not all of her pieces are wedding related so I recommend you check out all of her jewelry for sale on on her Etsy shop: Gin and Butterflies. If you are interested in a custom piece you can visit her website and contact her here.

All images courtsey of Gin and Butterflies (Cheyenne Weil Designs)

Monica and I are proud to be working with such a lovely couple, Matt and Mary, who live in the DC area. We are currently helping them plan their June Cinciannti wedding.  Mary is such a joy to work with; she is so open to new ideas, we are having a lot of fun with it.  I thought it would be great to post something about how to be green during your engagement and not just focus on "the day".  There are thousands of things you can do along the way which really add up to make a huge difference.  I am hoping by showcasing some of the decisions Matt & Mary have made it will inspire some of you other engaged brides as well.

First up: Save the Date

Mary was totally open to the idea of sending an electronic Save the Date to save paper.  She used a website called Pingg to personalize their card. I can't copy the entire card to show you but this is the image they uploaded with the following text:

Save the Date -Matt and Mary are getting hitched!

We are absolutely thrilled to be getting married and we hope you will be able to join us. Don't forget to mark your calendar!

Next Up: Engagement Photos

They were able to save $green$ by going green on this one and hired a local DC photographer (and close friend of theirs) to take the photos.  He did an absolutely amazing job.