This past Sunday we participated in the Fraser Valley Wedding Festival.  The event was very well run and probably the fanciest wedding show we’ve participated in so far.

We had a draw again, and would like to congratulate Donna Lunch, who is getting married on September 5^th, and has won 200 cards for her wedding.

There were a lot of great vendors there, and Corinne ran into a past co-worker that now runs her own cupcake business, Frosting Cupcakery. There was also some really nice lingerie provided by Nectar Lingerie. Photobooth Vancouver was at this fair as well (we originally met them at Indie I Do), and this time we decided to have a bit of fun and jump into their photobooth and take some silly pictures.

This is our last wedding show for the year, so we plan on volunteering again this year with more green events, and working on some new card designs.

We’d like to congratulate MJ Marceau, who is getting married on August 7^th, and has won 200 cards for her wedding.

This was the very first year for the Grass Roots Wedding Fair, and we had a great time.  There was a diverse range of vendors and each was eco-friendly in some way.  Delicious appetizers were provided by One Planet Catering, there was some great entertainment with a wide range of music including Flamenco music by Singing Guitar, some really adorable ceramics by Eikcam, as well as unique Carrot Cake Lollipops by Sweet Naturally Bakery.

Thank you to all those that stopped by our booth.  We hope to see you again at our next wedding show on March 7^th at the Fraser Valley Wedding Festival.  For more information visit their website.

We’d like to congratulate Emily Nicholson, who is getting married on June 12^th, and has won 200 cards for her wedding.

We had a great time at the Indie I Do wedding show. It was our very first trade show and we learned a lot. For example, bring an extra set of tools to speed up the setup and take down process. (We took far too long!) This is what our booth looked like once we were finally done setting up.

We tried our best to make our booth as eco-friendly as we could.

We received a lot of positive comments on our cards, along with requests for Save the Dates and Thank You Cards. We are working to put these new products up in our store as soon as possible.

Finally a wedding event focused on helping the green bride and groom plan a locally rooted, eco wedding. We are very excited to be a part of this wedding fair. The Grassroots Wedding Fair aims to help you plan your wedding by introducing you to local and green businesses.  Some of the vendors that will be there are:

Amoda Flowers
Providing eco sustainable floral decor to Vancouver and the entire lower mainland. They use Flowers that are Organic, Local, Fair Trade and Veriflora™ Certified.

Jupiter Ranch
A luxurious eco-friendly retreat, Jupiter Ranch offers a romantic getaway on Gabriola Island.

She to Shic
Vancouver’s first organic and eco friendly boutique beauty lounge. They offer services such as manicures, pedicures, eyelash extensions, hair blow out, and threading.

Come by our booth to say hi, and enter our draw to win free wedding invitations. We’d love to hear from you and answer any questions you may have. You will also have the opportunity of winning numerous door prizes, including our gift of 50 Thank you cards in our Birds of Paradise design.

January 30, 2010 – Vancouver, Canada.
Heritage Hall, Main and 15th
10:30 am – 6pm
Tickets are $15.00 with $2.50 from every entrant going to the Environmental Youth Alliance’s Seed Project. Tickets are available at the door.
More information…

Now that the holidays are over, wedding season is fast approaching and it’s time to start doing some serious planning.  Many wedding shows are taking place around the lower mainland, and we’ll be taking part in one of them near the end of the month.

Come see us at the Indie I Do Wedding Show on January 23^rd at Heritage Hall.  The Indie I Do Wedding Show aims to cater to a diverse crowd, and is not your traditional wedding show.  Independent vendors and designers from all over the city will be showcasing their products and services to those looking for something a little different, and not so traditional.

Come by our booth to say hi, and enter our draw.  We’d love to hear from you and answer any questions you may have.  The first 30 people to enter the show also get free swag bags loaded with tonnes of great stuff!

Are you getting married and are in the Vancouver area?  Drop us a line at info@sgreencards.com and we’ll hook you up with some free passes!  Hope to see you there!

- Corinne & Jahzel

This past Saturday was the kick-off of the Great Canadian Shoreline clean-up, sponsored by TD bank.  We went down to Kitsilano beach to help with the clean-up and attend the kick-off party.

They had music, food, a mural that kids could paint and some pretty entertaining dancing crabs.  We were put in teams and went down the beach to clean up.  Our team collected 171 cigarette butts, a bunch of food wrapping, and even a golf ball.  Overall Kits beach was very clean, but there were some strange things that were found along the beach, including a mattress.  There were over 500 pounds of garbage that was collected along the beach.  Good job everyone!

Us with the very entertaining dancing crabs.

Our clean-up team.

Cleaning up the beach... it was very windy.

Mural for kids to paint.

I came to Epic with a mission, to find my Mom a great mother’s day gift. I had already bought her an earth friendly papaya growing kit from Seracon, but was looking for something extra.

On my way to finding a gift for my Mom, Corinne and I each made a purchase at the EverythingEco booth. Corinne bought their Sole delight foot butter ($9). A very popular product we are told as it is frequently gets sold out. I bought a basura bag wallet ($19).

Bazura, means garbage in tagalog. This wallet is made from post-consumer juice boxes. The neat thing is that this is the type of juice I use to drink for lunch when I was a child living in the Philippines. Bazura bags can be bought online at Everything Eco and Bazura Shop.

Corinne and I also bought all natural mineral make-up from Micabella. Their eye shadow is quite ingenious as it’s more a pigment than eyeshadow and can be used as eyeshadow, eyeliner, blush, lipstick, nail polish and mascara depending on what you mix it with. (Water, vaseline, clear nail polish,  lip gloss, clear mascara) You can also use it in your hair, but it barely shows up in black hair. I’ll have to see if Corinne is more succesful with the hair colouring. Pictured below is myself made up using 4 Micabella colours ($33) for eyes, liner, blush and lips. Micabella can be bought online, and will soon be available as a kiosk at the Bay.

Finally, right beside the Micabella booth I found the perfect gift for my Mom. An all natural nail care kit from Sea Tone ($20). I tried the buffer stone on one finger nail and it pretty much looked like I was wearing clear nail polish. Happy Mother’s Day Mom!

Last Saturday Corinne and I went to EP!C, the Vancouver Sun Sustainable Living Expo. It was a much larger event that we had expected and we had a fantastic time. I attended Epic 3 years ago, and it was tiny. I am so pleased to see that it has grown in both popularity and size.

The convention was hosted at Vancouver’s new green convention center. Not only is the convention center power smart, but it also boasts a 6 acre garden roof with thousands of indigenous plants, rainwater recover system, seawater heating and cooling, and fish habitat built into the building foundations.

Some of the things we did at Epic.

• Sampled eco friendly foods and drinks
• Went shopping
• Accidently knocked over the Terasen Gas display
• Collected a bag full of free stuff
• Test drove a Lexus Hybrid GS450
• There were also a number of shows to watch: fashion shows, cooking demonstrations and environmentalist speakers.

Foods
There was a ton of free organic food to sample. We pigged out on chocolate, jam, peanut butter, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, hummus, tea, and even alchohol.

Our 2 favourites were:
Rosemary Balsamic Vinegar by Nonna Pia’s Gourmet.
There were a lot of booths selling balsamic vinegars and olive oils, but Nonna Pia’s was our hands down favourite.

Organic Energy Max (Energy Drink)
I don’t like the gross, sugar packed taste of energy drinks, but I found this organic energy drink delicious. It uses guarana and ginseng instead of taurine. I’ve never seen it in stores, but it’s supposedly available in the Save On Case Lots.

Programs
The BC Scrap-It program was something that caught our attention, particularly Corinne as she has a 1991 Volkswagen Golf that she wants to get rid of. The program provides an incentive valued up to $2,250 to retire 1995 or older high emission vehicles. The mobility choice incentives are transit passes for a year, bike and transit package, or new car rebate.

Cars
The car section was like stepping into a science-fiction movie. There were 2 cards to test drive, a Toyota and Lexus Hybrid. We went on a spin in the Lexus GS450. It’s probably the nicest car I’ve been in. Corinne could not get over how quiet it ran, it didn’t even sound like the engine was on. The most interesting part about the car was the energy monitor. The monitor displayed when the car ran on batteries and when it switched to gas. Pictured below are the eVaro (green) and XY150 covered scooter.

Products
Just about everything under the sun from cleaning products, to bamboo and hemp clothing, and furniture made from windstorm downed trees. Not to mention all the free stuff we got.

Our product purchases will be going on a different blog post, but here are some of the stuff we saw that we would like to try in the future.

The GDiaper
An earth friendy diaper with a washable cotton outer part and an inner plastic-free disposable. The inner part of diaper can be flushed down the toilet or composted, it breaks down in 50 to 150 days. The booth attendent told us that she used cloth diapers at home and the gDiaper when she and her family went out. Here’s something to think about, 50 million disposable diapers enter the landfill every day, where they sit for up to 500 years.

Norwex Antibacterial Microfibre (Cleaning fabrics)
A fabric that cleans without chemicals. It contains an environmentally friendly silver based antibacterial agent. It removed 99.9% of germs and bacteria. Earth friendly cloths are just hitting the green market. E-cloth is another company that sells general purpose cloth that need only water to clean. I am a fan since I have yet to find a green cleaning agent that is not too weak or expels toxic smelling fumes.

Because of Mother’s Day activities I had planned later in the evening, I did not manage to watch any of the shows. Thought my Mom very much enjoyed the gift I bought for her at the convention. Stay tuned for the blog post about how Epic drained our wallets.

Last Saturday we were at Jericho Park doing some native planting for an early Earth Day celebration. It was a lot of fun, and was a much larger event than we expected. Along with Evergreen who hosted the event, there were expert gardeners, the Jericho Stewardship Group, and Starbucks giving out free coffee to tree planters. There were even stilt walkers and no trophy bear advocates in cutesy bear costumes.

We started out the day with helping Evergreen setup by putting up signs, and taking shovels and gloves to the different sites. After setup we looked at the different booths, watched a tree planting demo and proceeded to our assigned site.