You Hear About People Sometimes ‘Jumping the Shark’

This time, it’s the planet earth.

Haily Zaki and Brian Tuey trekked four miles up southern California's San Gabriel Mountains with 32 friends, accompanied by pack mules carrying granola bars and organic lamb. There, in a propane- and hydro-powered campsite dining hall bedecked with pine cones, they exchanged wedding vows.

Tara Brown and Michael Selders incorporated 21 "eco-initiatives" into their wedding at Houston's Four Seasons Hotel. To make up for the pollution caused by their honeymoon flight to Hawaii, the Selderses purchased carbon offsets, a means of reducing carbon emissions by contributing money to plant trees or develop renewable-energy projects.

Dana Wilmert wore a 1950s sea foam green prom dress purchased for $1 from a thrift store when she married Johnny Damm in DeLand, Fla. She made the paper for her invitations and stitched magazines together to make the envelopes. At the reception, her guests ate local, organic fare served on biodegradable bamboo plates, which were later composted.

Don’t tell them that the propane is a hydrocarbon. They might turn into a suicide cult.

To apply their philosophy to their lives, and ergo to a truism: may you have short biodegradable lives, and return to the earth sooner rather than later.

Still, there are many shades of green. The Tueys' three-day camping trip wedding cost $6,500. Though Ms. Brown-Selders wouldn't comment on the cost of her wedding, she hired Jessica Zapatero, founder and director of Green Lily Events in Houston, who caters to brides with budgets over $30,000. Ms. Zapatero helped Brown-Selders find an elegant raw-silk dress and yarmulkes made from recycled cardboard.

Cardstock kippas for everyone! And for every one of us TWO names! Count ‘em TWO! In the area of hyphenation, we shall be as aristocratic as possible!

"A green wedding is not just wearing a burlap sack and walking down the aisle barefoot," says Mireya Navarro, author of "Green Wedding: Planning Your Eco-friendly Celebration."

Of course it isn’t. That would almost shed the hypocrity.