As is often the case with things that grow, Sheila Sheffield's eco-friendly party favor business started with one seedling.
Jill Connor / The Citizen
Tree Beginnings owner Sheila Sheffield, left, ties a ribbon on a seed kit while manager Robin Johnson counts out plantable paper buttons, or paper infused with seeds that can be planted, for a baby shower order at their Locke workshop on Thursday.
Tree Beginnings owner Sheila Sheffield, left, ties a ribbon on a seed kit while manager Robin Johnson counts out plantable paper buttons, or paper infused with seeds that can be planted, for a baby shower order at their Locke workshop on Thursday.
Sheila and Rick Sheffield, who had been in the seed business since 1985, wanted to give their wedding guests something more personal than a picture frame or champagne flute.
Just months after guests left their August 1992 wedding with blue spruce seedlings in their pockets, Sheila Sheffield was in business, selling seedlings, seed packets and bulbs to brides interested in a different kind of party favor.
Tree Beginnings, an online, mail-order business based in Locke, is one example of how the trend of environmental consciousness has infiltrated the wedding scene. This movement takes the traditional requirements of a wedding - “something old, new, borrowed and blue” - and adds “something green.”
“The green movement is growing exponentially and the green wedding movement is growing accordingly,” said Kate Harrison, author of “The Green Bride Guide: How to Create an Eco-Friendly Wedding on a Budget.”
“Green weddings are here to stay,” she said.
As eco-friendly weddings become more popular, there is a greater variety of options for including eco-friendly practices and products in the celebration, such as a green gift registry, once-used wedding dresses and locally grown flowers, Harrison said.
Harrison wrote her book after planning her own green wedding in 2006 to draw attention to products and services that are not always easy to find.
“You Google them and they come up on page 30,” she said. Harrison's wedding guide Web site (www.greenbrideguide.com) recently added a searchable database to help wedding planners find local, affordable green options, such as Tree Beginnings, which is listed in the guide.
Tree Beginnings offers between 50 and 75 favor options, including seed packets, seedlings and bulbs - all personalized with the betrothed's names and wedding date - to accommodate weddings nationwide. Prices are competitive with traditional favor rates, Sheffield said, with seed packets costing about $1.50 each and bulbs ranging between $3 and $4.
The business creates favors for baby showers, anniversary celebrations and other special events, but green favors are a particularly good way to go green at weddings.
“You spend a lot of money on a wedding - your carbon footprint is probably pretty large,” Sheffield said.
Green favors are a small way for people to make a statement about environmental preservation with all eyes on them on their big day.
“I can plant one tree,” she said, “But they're giving 100 trees to plant.”
Beyond doing green business, Tree Beginnings operates with an environmental conscience, Sheffield said. All the company's supplies - trees, seeds, bulbs and even the paper they print on - come from local suppliers. The business operates out of an old barn on the Sheffield property, where a Sheffield and two other employees work to prepare favors and package them in shredded paper and recycled boxes.
“We really believe in what we're doing,” Sheffield said. “We're really green.”
The business is small, but there seems to be a niche for it, Sheffield said. In the spirit of the green movement, a revolution of public awareness, the aim of Sheffield's business is to spread the word about going green - to scatter seed.
Just months after guests left their August 1992 wedding with blue spruce seedlings in their pockets, Sheila Sheffield was in business, selling seedlings, seed packets and bulbs to brides interested in a different kind of party favor.
Tree Beginnings, an online, mail-order business based in Locke, is one example of how the trend of environmental consciousness has infiltrated the wedding scene. This movement takes the traditional requirements of a wedding - “something old, new, borrowed and blue” - and adds “something green.”
“The green movement is growing exponentially and the green wedding movement is growing accordingly,” said Kate Harrison, author of “The Green Bride Guide: How to Create an Eco-Friendly Wedding on a Budget.”
“Green weddings are here to stay,” she said.
As eco-friendly weddings become more popular, there is a greater variety of options for including eco-friendly practices and products in the celebration, such as a green gift registry, once-used wedding dresses and locally grown flowers, Harrison said.
Harrison wrote her book after planning her own green wedding in 2006 to draw attention to products and services that are not always easy to find.
“You Google them and they come up on page 30,” she said. Harrison's wedding guide Web site (www.greenbrideguide.com) recently added a searchable database to help wedding planners find local, affordable green options, such as Tree Beginnings, which is listed in the guide.
Tree Beginnings offers between 50 and 75 favor options, including seed packets, seedlings and bulbs - all personalized with the betrothed's names and wedding date - to accommodate weddings nationwide. Prices are competitive with traditional favor rates, Sheffield said, with seed packets costing about $1.50 each and bulbs ranging between $3 and $4.
The business creates favors for baby showers, anniversary celebrations and other special events, but green favors are a particularly good way to go green at weddings.
“You spend a lot of money on a wedding - your carbon footprint is probably pretty large,” Sheffield said.
Green favors are a small way for people to make a statement about environmental preservation with all eyes on them on their big day.
“I can plant one tree,” she said, “But they're giving 100 trees to plant.”
Beyond doing green business, Tree Beginnings operates with an environmental conscience, Sheffield said. All the company's supplies - trees, seeds, bulbs and even the paper they print on - come from local suppliers. The business operates out of an old barn on the Sheffield property, where a Sheffield and two other employees work to prepare favors and package them in shredded paper and recycled boxes.
“We really believe in what we're doing,” Sheffield said. “We're really green.”
The business is small, but there seems to be a niche for it, Sheffield said. In the spirit of the green movement, a revolution of public awareness, the aim of Sheffield's business is to spread the word about going green - to scatter seed.
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CountryWriter wrote on Oct 18, 2009 12:10 PM: