Planning a Vegan Wedding

Remember a few months ago when I mentioned that my love and I had gotten engaged?  We've spent the past few months researching, planning, changing our minds, planning again and simply trying to find a way to create a wedding that has meaning to us without totally breaking the bank and without totally giving into the craziness that is the wedding industry.  The only non-negotiable is that we want a vegan wedding.  You would think that this would have been a given to our  families and they would be completely on board with it, but you would be wrong.  My parents in particular seemed a bit shocked that you could have a wedding without serving animals.

So that brings me to planning a vegan wedding.  I give thanks every single day that my fiance is also vegan.  I can't even imagine planning our wedding otherwise.  Jesse and I are vegan for the animals, the earth and ourselves and we want a wedding that is in line with those beliefs.  Here are some things we need to consider:

-The Food:  What will we serve our guests (other than us, only one that I know of is vegetarian)?  Will they like it?  Will we?  Can we find gluten-free options?  Will it be too expensive?  Do we want a traditional wedding caterer or to hire a vegan company/restaurant/person?  What about the cake?  We want to be sure to serve something that lets our guests know exactly how awesome vegan food can be.

-The Favors: What type of favor is most useful/meaningful?  What can we give our guests that speaks to who we are as a couple?  Should we make a donation instead of having favors?

-The Dress/The Suit:  No silk.  No wool.  No leather shoes.  I don't want to spend the first day of my married life wearing an animal, thank you very much.

-The Invitations:  I would like to have them printed on recycled paper with soy ink.  Do we let people know on the invitation that we will be having a vegan buffet?

-The Honeymoon:  Where should we go?  Does the place have lots of vegan options?  Do we want to somehow incorporate animals?

It seems like a lot but I've found our parameters more helpful in terms of decision-making rather than limiting.  So far we've met with one vegan caterer (who served us a whole meal instead of just giving us a tasting--it was awesome!) and did some research on vegan cakes.  I've also been soaking up inspiration from the VegNews annual feature on vegan weddings, as well as the blog Rose Pedals Vegan Weddings.  While writing this, I also came across PETA's Top 10 Vegan Wedding Ideas.

If you have planned or been to a vegan or vegetarian wedding, do you have any advice?  Are we missing anything that we need to consider?  If you were a guest, would you prefer to be told on the invitation that it will be a vegan wedding or not?

Stay tuned for most posts on wedding planning and thoughts on weddings and marriage (vegan and otherwise)......

Revelry Review: Vedge

Oh my, dear readers, a few weeks ago I had the best dinner of my life at Vedge in Philadelphia.  Vegan fine dining of deliciously prepared vegetables in a beautiful setting.  It was amazing.  Here is some of the evidence (taken on my phone in a dark dining room):

Revelry Review: Beyond Meat

I was strolling through our sort of local vegan-friendly grocery store last weekend and came across Beyond Meat!  I had heard of this new chicken substitute through Mark Bittman's article in the New York Times a few months back and the fact that the founders of Twitter were financially backing this product.  While we don't eat too many meat substitutes in our house, I was particularly looking forward to giving Beyond Meat a try since it is gluten-free and could open up some new dinner ideas for us.   Here is the nutritional information.  Here it is in the package:

Up close (this stuff looks and feels JUST like chicken!):

We added some to burrito bowls that followed this recipe: 

Also got this new product on our grocery jaunt (melts really well but I think I prefer Daiya):

The completed bowls (with Tofutti sour cream, lettuce, tomatoes, salsa and avocado over brown rice):

Another quick weeknight dish with Beyond Meat: brown rice pasta with tomato sauce, Beyond Meat, olives, dino kale and chickpeas:

The verdict?  I had to keep checking the package for the word "vegan" because this stuff tastes just like the real deal (without the cruelty).  It would have been a great transition food for me (chicken was the last thing to go!) and we may get it again when we want to cook something that calls for chicken.  Beyond Meat is a huge step forward in the faux meat category!