Photography by Adam Hudson.

Throughout the Spring My Scoop will feature some of the hippest Mississippi weddings. Our first feature is a "green" wedding with lots of personal touches.  Check out the notes of ultra-cool and eco-conscious bride Corinna "Cori" Anderson Sullivan and her beau Mark Sullivan.

1. The Ring - Mark got me a platinum, Edwardian-style engagement ring with a square, inset central diamond and six surrounding smaller diamonds from an antiques store in Seattle called Alana.  We found the perfect curved band later, at Joel Clarke Jewelers, in Mississippi, which had pave diamonds along the top! I also have a straight wedding band from 1925 with floral engravings all around.  If you get a vintage piece of jewelry, then at least you aren't contributing to the diamond and platinum mining that causes all sorts of environmental degradation.

2. The Bouquets - I insisted on having local flowers in my bouquets- in Mississippi,
that's a bit challenging because most flowers can't make it through the late summer heat.  My bouquet included white zinnias, green hydrangeas and white garden roses.  The bridesmaids also carried zinnias and roses, but in bright pinks, oranges and purple.  The roses came from the garden of Mark's grandmother's best friend, and
the zinnias from Dolly Ridge Farm in Vicksburg. Our talented florist was Margaret Ray, but we got the ceremony arrangements from our friend Cheryl Welch.

3. The Planning - We had an 18 month engagement, which gave me plenty of time to get excited by too many DIY projects.  If I had to list the few websites that were most helpful to my planning, I'd say snippetandink.blogspot.com, eastsidebride.blogspot.com (I love it when she curses!), and, obviously, The Martha.  I'd like to give a shoutout to Google Reader for organizing my blogs-- deleting them was like quitting a hard drug. I almost had to seek help.

4. The Personal Touches - When you're planning a wedding almost all by yourself, it's hard not to think of everything as a personal touch.  There are a few that stand out.  I think the most unique was my bridal processional- my college roommate, Jenna Lyle, is an epic young composer, and she wrote me my very own wedding march. She based it on a Rainier Maria Rilke quote, and it was the first piece she had ever written for organ. We also provided our own vows, which my husband picked out himself. Also during the ceremony, we had a friend read the E.E. Cummings poem "I Carry Your Heart With Me" which has the best line of all times:  "I fear no fate (for you are my fate, my sweet)" and that was the only single moment that I teared up during the whole wedding.

The reception had loads of personal touches... the favors were handmade by my wedding party (recipe cards - see pictures in the gallery above) and my grandmother (Jordan almonds). I didn't have a wedding planner, or a caterer, or anyone at Mynelle Gardens to set up, so my wedding party and family busted their butts the day before and of the wedding to make things look beautiful.  I made up the wedding playlist from MP3s -- I had about 9 hours worth of songs, and made the groomsmen cut it down to four while they were playing poker a few days before the wedding.  And then, of course, my dad and Godfather cooked everything- you can't get more personal than that.

5. The Dress -  I wore my mom's wedding dress, and had it restyled by Sandra Ashford of Madison. That bad boy had never been worn (my mom eloped) and literally, it sat in a closet wrapped in a bed sheet for 25 years.  It originally came from a thrift store.  The dress itself was ivory organza (the real, vintage kind, not that crap chair-tie organza), and the whole thing was embroidered in medallions.  The strapless top had cotton lace flowers sewn on, and the bottom of the dress was trimmed in scalloped cotton lace.  A wide cream sash wrapped around my waist (gotta give a girl some curves!) and there was a chapel train.

The only unexpected thing that happened during the day was that within the first few minutes of the reception, a guest spilled literally an entire glass of iced tea down the front of my dress.  I had to grab a tablecloth to towel off. I also had a white silk cocktail dress that I changed into halfway through the reception, and I added some cocktail pearls with a green, jeweled clasp, and a rose with French netting in my hair.

6. The Registry - I believe in buying products that last a lifetime, so I only registered at a few places that sell quality items-  Williams-Sonoma, Belk, Dillard's.  One other neat thing that didn't come through for us was working with the  I Do Foundation - at the time, they didn't have any southern stores on the site, so we didn't get to donate through our online purchases--- they have a lot more now!

We requested a lot of items from local stores.  We wanted mint julep cups from Stein Jewelry in Madison and various decorative items from Chandelier in Ridgeland.

7. The Something Borrowed - There were a lot of "somethings borrowed" on the wedding day, but the funniest one is my petticoat!  My sister- and cousin-in law had
already worn it for their special days--- why anyone would spend that much money to wear something once and give it away is beyond me! Thank God for washing machines because that petticoat has been through a LOT.

8. The Menu - My father, who already works two jobs, catered the whole wedding,
except for the cakes.  The main course was pulled pork, which my dad and Godfather made starting at 6 a.m. the morning before the wedding.  We also did two slaws, amazing salad, and dad's famous pimiento cheese, corn relish,  sautéed green beans, and more.  We planned for more people that we were expecting, so we were also able to send everyone home with extras.

9. The Invitation - Another college roommate of mine is a graphic designer - Kelly
Housholder, of Birmingham.  She designed my invitation and picked out the paper for me-- off white recycled cardstock.  The invite and RSVP cards had a branch with two birds on it, and I was able to use the same graphic for our programs.  My husband helped rubber stamp a green scroll on all of the envelopes for extra flair, and he even addressed the invites to his friends!

10. The Music - I've kind of touched on this already- but I made my own playlist for
the reception.  We started out with some jazz and big band music for people coming in, and our first dance was to "Our Love is Here to Stay" as sung by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong.   My dad is my best friend, so we had to dance to "You've Got a Friend in Me" from the movie Toy Story. The rest of the music ranged from Dean Martin to the Cars to Montell Jordan. By the end, we had pretty much abandoned
the playlist, and the more excited guests were just hollering out song names....

11. The Cake - I had a simple white wedding cake with almond cream filling. It came from the Village Confectioners in Canton, which offers job training to women who need a little extra help.  Mark's cake was dark chocolate with raspberry cream and it was so good that I had to restrain myself from just sticking my face in it - it was made by For Heaven's Cakes in Jackson.

12. The Eco Slant - I study environmental policy and management, and thinking green is important to Mark and to me.  At every point of the planning, we would
ask ourselves, "what is the most responsible way to do this?" We used recycled paper and biodegradable plates and forks.  Our flowers weren't from Ecuador.  The boys wore their own suits and the girls got to pick out their own cocktail dresses.  We even drove around in a Smart car!  This list could go on forever, but with everything we tried to borrow, make or use green products.  You can make sustainable choices without giving anything up, I promise!

13. The Theme - Our wedding theme was based on an eco-conscious garden party.  I just wanted a reception where people could feel comfortable talking to us and each other, and that wasn't stuffy.  I think we accomplished that in a great way!

14. The Send Off - Mark and I actually pretty much closed the party down, and we were so busy that we never really got to the "send off'- actually I kind of hate it when photographers stage a send off, even though the couple wasn't leaving yet.  After the wedding, we went to The Bulldog to have an after party, and all of our friends cheered us out of the room on our way to the honeymoon!

15. The Honeymoon - Mark and I went to Costa Rica, which has made an effort to promote sustainable tourism.  We stayed in the coastal rainforest, the cloud forest, and on a coffee plantation-- all of the places we stayed were certified "green" by the Costa Rican government.  My favorite place was the coffee plantation, where we stayed in a two-story apartment with hand painted murals on all of the walls.  We also got to go on a coffee tour to learn about the plantation's sustainable farming!

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