Posh Swaps Blog

At Posh Swaps, we love this recycled eco jewellery range by Anna Clifton. Anna’s newest work is made using or rather “re-using” aluminium drinks cans and recycled glass beads to create beautiful pieces of jewellery and bridal hair accessories. Anna also takes commissions for bespoke pieces.  

Anna Clifton Jewellery prides itself on being an “Environmentally Friendly” company. It is a family run business where each and every piece of jewellery (including tiaras, circlets and hair accessories) is made by hand in the UK.

Anna Clifton Jewellery is a home run business and has strong environmental beliefs. They re-use, recycle and compost as much as is physically possible, use energy saving light bulbs, don’t leave appliances and electrical equipment on standby, always buy local wherever possible and are a one car family.

By using recycled materials in their work they cut down on the use of raw materials. All other pieces are made using traditional hand silversmithing and wire working techniques and waste material is kept to the bare minimum .

The perfect piece of jewellery to compliment your second hand eco wedding dress.

Second Hand Ivory Lace Wedding Dress

Whether you are an eco warrior or not, having an eco wedding is a great way to show your commitment to the environment and get your married life off to a great start. A wedding is often a time when consumerism takes over and thoughts of the environment are forgotton. The carbon footprint of a wedding is often huge especially considering it is just one day.  Having an Eco chic wedding is also a great way to show your family and friends great ways to live a greener life. Here are some of our ideas for a greener or eco wedding.

• Buy a second hand wedding dress. As wedding dresses only get worn for one day, it is likely to be in great condition and a fraction of the cost of a new dress. Once your special day is over you can recycle it by selling it or donating to charity.
• Serve organic and locally produced food at the reception. Although organic food is a bit more expensive than normal food, it will taste better and you can keep it affordable by keeping it simple.
• Encourage guests to buy recycled wedding presents. You can still make a list of what you need, they can then look on ebay, at charity shops or car boots for something you will love.
• Reduce the carbon footprint of your honeymoon by holidaying in the UK. Just because you are not flying miles away, it doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy a luxurious and romantic break.
• Grow the flowers for the wedding in your garden. This will take a bit of forward planning but will be better for the environment than flowers that have travelled miles.
• For your hen night, why not do something green and fun like some a conservation weekend or for those less outdoorsy types a clothes swap?
• You could even have a second hand / vintage theme or dress code for guests at the wedding.

Eco friendly weddings has a great list of UK suppliers of almost everything that you could need for an eco f wedding. even if you do not manage to make the whole of your wedding eco friendly, every little helps. Keeping things simple is  a really good start.

I hope that you had a very lovely wedding day and have lots of lovely wedding photos to remember it by. Many people decide to keep their wedding dress for sentimental reasons but if you are not that sentimental about a piece of clothing or you don’t have space to store it, then selling a second hand wedding dress is a great way to ensure that someone else gets as much benefit from it as you have done. You also will get some money back and I am sure that most newly weds could do with that.

If you leave your wedding dress boxed up in your loft, there is a chance that it will get moth eaten or ruined. Are you ever going to use it again? I am thinking probably and hopefully not (not as a wedding dress anyway). So why not sell your wedding dress. It is very simple, first of all take three picture of the dress including one full length, plus two more of either the back view or close ups of the detail. Then set up and an account with www.posh-swaps.com and list the dress. Give as much information about the dress as you can.

You will also need to decide on a price . This will depend on how much  it cost new as well as it’s condition. As a general rule, if it is in excellent condition, it would be reasonable to charge about 50% of it’s new price, but it is really up to you.

Don’t forget to link to your listing from any blogs, social networks or forums to give it maximum exposure on the search engines.

What do you do with your beautiful wedding dress once your big day is over? You are very unlikely to wear it again, so why box it up and leave it in the attic to get moth eaten? Here are our favourite ideas for a second hand or worn wedding dress.

1. Dye it, shorten and make it into a prom dress, evening dress or cocktail dress

2. Make it into a christening dress

3. Make it into some gorgeous undies, a camisole or a baby doll nightie.

4. Make it to pretty cusion covers.

5. Use it to decorate a photograph album

6. Sell it on posh-swaps.com

7. Swap it for something completely different on Posh-swaps.com

8. Make it into Christmas tree decorations.

9. Make it into bautiful dolls clothes which you can give as presents to any little girls in your family or sell.

10. Do a good deed and donate it to charity.

For more great ideas on recycling wedding dresses, see this e how video by Julie Barbee of Frocky Jack Morgan.

picture from Flickr