Global Cool » weddings

Let them eat cake! How to cater for your own royal wedding…

rita — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 11:19:47 +0000

By Rita Alves

Kate and Wills’ engagement has been the talk of the town for months now. What dress will she choose? What will they eat? How far will Prince Harry go with his best man’s speech in front of the Queen? And we’ve been very impressed by how much the lovely couple care about their environment. So with the wedding only a few days away we’ve got the best tips for your own (eco-friendly) wedding. Today we have the perfect menu for the happiest day of your life…

The Menu
You don’t need to have a award-winning Swiss Chef to cook for your wedding. If you want an organic and personalised menu, we suggest Skye Cooks!

They offer you delicious and imaginative food for all occasions… Top picks include pacific prawns marinated in lime, lemon grass and Thai basil or chicken brochettes with a sundried tomato and thyme marinade.

The drinks
No wedding party would be complete without a glass of champagne or two, and there are plenty of great organic options to choose from, as well as wines and beers. But with so many marvellous organic and biodynamic wines out there, which do you choose?

We selected a few for you: AOC Champagne Fleury Vintage 1995 (France), remarkable freshness, a sparkling intensity and great longevity; The Millton Vineyards Te Arai Chenin Blanc 2008 (New Zealand), slightly dry and refreshing, it has hints of pear, quince and honey; AOC Gigondas Clos du Joncuas (France), distinguished, sophisticated and intricate. If you want to taste more wine, beer, ciders, liqueurs, juices and even chocolates visit the Vintage Roots website.

The cake
A party is not a party unless cake is involved.

Check out the eco-friendly cakes on offer from The Utterly Sexy Café. Made using sustainably sourced, natural ingredients, the cakes can be mail-ordered up to a week in advance and are served on vintage china.

Share your ideas on how to organise a Global Cool wedding in the comment box below…

A right royal getaway: Our top honeymoon destinations

emily — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 08:14:41 +0000

By Emily Rycroft

Kate and Will’s engagement has been the talk of the town for months now. What dress will she choose? What will they eat? How far will Prince Harry go with his best man’s speech in front of the Queen? And we’ve been very impressed by how much the lovely couple care about their environment. So with the wedding only a few days away we’ve got the best tips for your own (eco-friendly) wedding. Today we’ve put together pick of our top eco-honeymoon resorts. Of course, we’d much prefer you to take a Traincation, but if you really have to go further afield then check these bad boys out…

Turtle Island Resort, Fiji
This secret resort is a hidden paradise. With only enough space for 14 couples at any one a time you’re guaranteed peace and privacy. This private-island resort is in the South Pacific’s Yasawa Archipelago and has over 500,000 trees planted as part of a reforestation plan. Turtle Island Resort also has it’s own four-acre organic garden, so the daily meals are great tasting and great for the planet.

Uno Lodge, Mexico
Wake up to breathtaking views of 65,000 acres of towering mountains and lush wilderness at Uno Lodge in Mexico. The resort offers some of the best hiking in North America, and braver guests can explore the area’s caves, streams and waterfalls. It is perched above the Urique River on the edge of Copper Canyon. Better still, solar panels power the electricity and heat the water so you can enjoy the incredible views with your mind at ease.

Lapa Rios Ecolodge, Costa Rica
Set in 1,000 acres of private rainforest, Lapa Rios Ecolodge offers an incredible view of the local wildlife from its many decks. Honeymooners can even plant a tree within the rainforest to represent their growing love. Anyone not content with lounging in the sun all day can partake in a rain-forest hike, ocean kayaking or horseback riding. This hotel now runs off biodiesel and gets its power from used kitchen grease!

Tiamo, Bahamas
On the South Andros island in the Bahamas is a paradise of white sand and clear ocean, and the Tiamo resort provides the perfect backdrop for such beautiful surroundings.There are no TVs, no telephones, no distractions: just pure escape. The resort is solar powered and was entirely designed, constructed and is operated with great efforts to make the smallest impact on our planet as possible.

Share your ideas on how to organise a Global Cool wedding in the comment box below…

Highlights of the week: Kate Winslet, Lily Cole and Wills/Kate’s horse power

Global Cool — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 08:57:00 +0000

Our pick of the best green posts from around the web this week…

Kate Winslet donates her dress to charity, via @ecorazzi
Prince William and Kate Middleton to use horse-drawn carriage on wedding day, via @ecorazzi
Lily Cole shows how to be green whatever your budget, via Daily Mail
11 ways to take dogs on bikes, via @treehugger
Earth Hour 2011 – the new iPhone app, via @altcon
Go green by reading ebooks, via Holy Kaw
Seven funny green TV adverts, via @treehugger
New eco trailer helps movie stars go green, via @ecorazzi

Seen a cool green story? Let us know on Twitter @Global_Cool or in the comments below…

How to have a wedding on a (Royal) shoestring

liberty — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 16:51:18 +0000

By Liberty-Belle Howard

Unless you’ve been living in some kind of media-free bubble for the last few days, you’ll know by now that Prince William and Kate Middleton announced their engagement on Tuesday, and that they intend to get married in spring or summer next year. If you think Kate’s ring looks somewhat familiar, it might be because William proposed using his mother’s old engagement ring. Not only is this romantic, it also suits us just fine here at Global Cool – we’re all for reusing, recycling and re-purposing.

In this age of recession, deficit and budget cuts, the Royal Wedding is going to have to be a relatively scaled back affair – Prince Charles’ wedding to Diana in 1981 cost about £30million by today’s prices, and whilst William and Kate’s will undoubtedly be a massive event, it’s likely to cost a fraction of that price. So why not make it eco-friendly at the same time? The couple have already got off to a fantastic start with their recycled engagement ring, and here are some other areas they could make their wedding sustainable without losing the royal fairytale feel.

The Dress
Some suppliers make wedding dresses from sustainable and ethically produced materials, as well as sourcing and making things locally. Kate could have one of these dresses specially made for her to ensure that she gets the perfect wedding dress, or alternatively, there are loads of gorgeous vintage wedding dresses out there – and you don’t necessarily have to trawl through charity shops to find them. There are boutiques around that specialise in vintage wedding dresses, which can then be altered to suit your measurements or style. Much more chic than buying something off the peg! If any of the wedding guests are worried about having a wardrobe full of clothes but nothing to wear, a visit to London Frock Exchange might be in order, to get a perfect, nearly-new dress.

The Jewellery
The Royal Family is bound to have loads of lovely jewellery lying around so Kate won’t have to buy new, and the couple might like to use vintage wedding rings, or even new rings made from recycled gold.

The Food
Kate’s brother James runs a cake company, so they may call on him to bake them a wedding cake if the need arises, but there are plenty of bakeries and caterers that will make the couple a wedding breakfast and cake using organic, fair-trade and locally sourced ingredients.

The Flowers
As with food, it’s easy to find a florist that will supply you with local, seasonal flowers instead of flying things overseas. Their flowers will look fresher than if they’d been lying in a cool-box on a plane, and local flowers will add to the quintessentially English feel that every good Royal Wedding needs. A florist would also be able to provide them with dried petals to use as confetti: easily biodegradable and far more bird-friendly than throwing rice.

The Venue
The obvious choices for the ceremony are Westminster Abbey or St Paul’s Cathedral, but for the reception it would be nice if William and Kate did their bit by hiring a charity-owned venue, where all profits will go to a good cause. The National Trust has some great venues in London that the couple could use, and to cut down on car-use between ceremony and reception, how about travelling by horse-and-cart? We’d love to see them on a bike, personally, but that might not be very befitting of the future King and Queen. However, we’re sure they’ll be checking out our Traincation page for honeymoon inspiration…

Wedding dress

Global Cool — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 08:52:11 +0000

I do love it. There is something magical about a wedding dress – as with anything associated with a happy wedding: it’s imbued with an ability to cheer me up. And mine’s particularly brilliant (if I do say so myself) because it’s purple, and I designed it myself, on the back of a tube ticket.

So why is it relegated to the dark recesses of my wardrobe and never allowed to see the light of day? Poor thing. Maybe it would like to be resurrected, born again into a new existence so that its magic can work again.

My wedding dress was a little shift dress and a massive long jacket. The little dress actually has been out again since the wedding – twice, in fact: to a family party and a friend’s wedding. But the jacket is the real magic, and, on my fifth wedding anniversary, I realised that it had had five dark years of no fresh air.

It would make a great suit! I do sew, but was CERTAINLY not about to chop it up, and trust my own limited skills with it. Very exciting: a new suit, practically for free – and with all that love sewn into it.

Found a tailor who could do it. Hoorah!

The day came to take the jacket in. My baby! Man, I was nervous. What if they f**k it up? Might have killed my baby. Took lots of photos of it in case I never saw it again.

The tailor just got out her scissors. “about here?” – oh god, I don’t want to WATCH you do it! It’s like taking in a friend with a brain tumour: I know they’ll need to take a knife to their head, but I don’t want to see it.

I nearly died.

Went back a fortnight later to collect it. More nerves: would the magic still be there in a suit? Would Madam Tailor have done a good job? Would I still love it?

I LOVE IT!! Resurrected wedding dress – I can wear it again without looking like I am wearing a wedding dress (which I obviously would be…) Looks great (if I do say so myself…)

And everybody else loves it: here it is before – at my wedding – and in its new incarnation – at a friend’s wedding two weeks ago.

You could call it recycling a wedding dress. I call it getting a great outfit for practically free. Brilliant.

Caroline Fiennes