Environmentally friendly wedding

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John Collier and Tricia Todd are engaged to be married.

The college sweethearts met at Arcadia University in Glenside.

But wedding plans are turning out to be anything but traditional. Both 25-year-olds are serious when it comes to the environment.

To this end, they’ve decided to incorporate their beliefs into their wedding and reception celebration.

“We thought, how can we make it a minimal impact event?” said Collier, a ninth-grade science teacher at Penndale Middle School in the North Penn School District. “That’s just something that’s always in our thoughts.”

So Collier, a Souderton Area High School graduate, contacted teacher Ken Hamilton, who also serves as the advisor to the Souderton High School group SAVE — Students Against Violating the Earth — an environmental organization to which Collier belonged while in school.

“John was one of the outstanding members of our group,” recalled Hamilton, who teaches environmental science at the school.

Hamilton said the two talked and came up with the idea of utilizing SAVE’s biannual community recycling day on Saturday as a way to collect dinnerware for Collier’s reception.

The pair will get married in August and have both wedding and reception in the woods at Collier’s parents’ home in rural Salford Township.

The couple wanted to keep costs down, but also use their day of commitment to each other as a confirmation of their green values.


SAVE “was a huge portion of my life at Souderton High School,” said Collier. “It was a no-brainer to contact them. They thought of things I never would have thought of.”

Instead of using disposable items for the couple’s reception — cups, plates, napkins and utensils — SAVE is asking for donations of real dishware , enough for about 80 place settings, to be donated on recycling day.

After the reception, the dishes will go back to SAVE, where they will be stored and be available to loan to the community.

SAVE also is donating tables and chairs to be used on the pair’s special day, and students will make centerpieces and napkins from recyclable materials.

The food will be vegetarian, using all locally grown produce, said Todd, who works at Coventry First, a life insurance settlement company in Fort Washington.

“We’re also going to encourage car pooling,” she added.

And the ceremony itself will include American Indian prayers that focus on the earth and treating it with respect, said Collier.

Hamilton is encouraged when he hears that those involved in the club in the past have continued to adhere to sound ecological principles.

“One of our goals is that we teach students that learning is lifelong,” he says. “It’s important to stay active, and I love it when former students take the initiative to reduce their impact on the environment.”



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