Green Shower!

My cousin recently got married.  On her bridal shower invitation I was impressed when I noticed the last line of text. "In honor of being "green" no wrapping paper preferred. What a great thing to do I thought! Then I started wondering how I was going to package up my gift for her, and what others might do.
For her shower I ended up getting her a set of small cast iron pans and a few utensils.  When I told the woman at Williams-Sonoma about the no wrapping paper she decided to tie the utensils to the box of cast iron pans with a pretty ribbon.  How cute I thought! It really came out looking very sweet and "green"! I was glad to not have to waste any wrapping paper.  The same day I purchased their wedding gift.  It was a very large pasta pot set.  The woman at the store had another great "green idea", she put the large box into one of their very large reusable bags, it is by far the largest reusable shopping bag I have ever seen, and I have quite a few.  I was so excited. I tied the handles together with a small piece of ribbon and the gifts were ready to go! I was certain I had gotten very creative with my "green" wrapping, I was looking forward to seeing what other people would come up with. 

The day of the shower there were numerous different types of green wrapping.  There were gifts piled into a reusable basket, tied with ribbon, wrapped with newspaper, in their original department store bags, in decorated store bags, and even wrapped in dish towels that were part of the gift. 
I must say people were very creative and artistic in their ideas. It was also nice that there was hardly anything to throw out.  Since the ribbons from gifts at showers are generally used to make the bouquet for the rehearsal dinner there was almost no wasted materials.  The department store bags used to "wrap" the gifts doubled as a way to transport all the gifts home.
Think about it this the next time you throw a shower, birthday or any kind of party. It is really a simple thing to add to the invitation.  And don't forget you will be helping the planet!