Spokane Couple Pays for Wedding with Proceeds from Recycled Cans

Pete Geyer and Andrea Parrish wanted to raise money for their wedding and help the environment. So they funded their upcoming wedding through redeeming over 400,000 recycled cans.

By Kathryn Hawkins. Posted on June 29 2010

As you well know as you’ve ever walked down the aisle or even heard an engaged friend complain about her upcoming nuptials, weddings can cost a fortune. Add up the cost of catering, cocktails, the wedding dress, the flowers, DJ, and everything else that goes along with the I-dos, and you could trade it all for a pretty swank new car.

In these times, many couples are cutting back on the wedding luxuries, and finding ways to raise the money on their own. A Spokane, Washington couple, Pete Geyer and Andrea Parrish, decided to keep their wedding budget down to $4,000—and they decided to raise all of the money by recycling cans for the deposit money.

400,000 cans, to be exact.

Yes, that’s a lot to drink, but the cans didn’t all come from their personal stock. The eco-minded couple decided to scour their city for stray soda and beer cans, soliciting their friends and families for help. They also put a call out on a new website they created for the purpose, weddingcans.com. They offered to pick up recycleables from anywhere in the city. Long-distance fans of their mission could recycle their own cans, then donate the proceeds to the couple’s PayPal fund.

“Americans throw away 1,500 aluminum cans each second, so we knew that the opportunity was there,” Parrish told Offbeat Bride. “Depending on the state you’re in, each can is worth anywhere from 1-5 cents each, which means we could actually build up enough cash quickly to actually pull this off.”

The couple launched the site in December, and last week, they completed their mission with help from family, friends, and lots of perfect strangers. But the can donations are still trickling in, so the couple is putting 40% of the surplus towards their honeymoon fund, with the remaining 60% going towards non-profit groups Doctors Without Borders and the Rim Country Land Institute. They’re also planning to create their own guide to help other frugal couples pull off a wedding budget based on recyclables.

Pete and Andrea’s wedding is booked for July 31st, and has been paid for in full: and the plans sound just as unorthodox as their savings: it’s being held at a castle in Idaho, and the ceremony will include an ancient tradition known as “handfasting,” in which the couple’s hands will be braided together with cords. We’re not sure what refreshments they have planned, but we’re sure if anything’s served in cans, they’ll definitely be recycled.

Filed under: Green, Weird,

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