First photos from Andrea & Pete’s wedding, paid for by recyling 400,000 aluminum cans

Remember Andrea and Pete? I am super proud of the fact that Offbeat Bride was the very first publication to write about their dream of financing their wedding by recycling aluminum cans … the story was eventually picked up by news outlets all over the world.

In fact, Andrea and Pete's recycling story has spread so far that it's come full circle — not a week goes by that I don't get an excited email from a well-intentioned reader, saying “Have you heard about this couple and their recycling wedding?”

Well, not only have I heard of 'em, but today I'm honored to share the exclusive first look at the gorgeous photos from their wedding this weekend, as well as a few details like “How many bags of garbage did the wedding produce?”

Andrea told me, “The day was so much fun, and I don't think, given the chance, we would have done much of anything different.”

Andrea also shared some of the basic stats of the wedding: “We had 125 guests, and went exactly $145 over budget (for a total of $3,945) — which included everything down to the bachelor/bachelorette party, rehearsal dinner, and clothes.”

Since Andrea and Pete are obviously devoted to sustainability, Andrea was clear about one thing: this was a low waste wedding! She said, “Over the weekend, we created one 40 gallon bag of trash, total. We also created about 4 bags of compost and 3 bags of recycling.”

That said, it looks like the wedding produced a metric crapload of LOVE and AWESOMENESS, including the trebuchet bouquet toss.

Andrea promises that once more professional photos are back in a month or so, she'll be sharing her full bride profile with us, although in the meantime you can watch this little vid from CBS news.

Congratulations, Andrea & Pete! Here's to a lifetime of sustainable love — and good luck attaining your new goal of recycling enough cans to pay for the honeymoon. 🙂