Before Wedding Cans

I think it was that castle that really got the wheels turning and drove Andrea Parrish to create the Wedding Cans project.

She had always planned on keeping the costs as low as possible, and at first she set out to find people who’d let them have it in their backyard for free. Meanwhile, she started scoping out vacation home rentals online. And then it hit – The Castle. It would be cheaper to rent the castle for a few days than it would be to rent a reception hall for a few hours. She still needed a few grand, however.

Starting small

So there I was at work one day, writing about payday loans versus personal loans, when I heard that familiar “bloop,” telling me I had a gmail chat message. It was Andrea.

“So… think many cans come through your apartment building?”

“Cans?” I replied. “Like, aluminum cans?”

“Yup,” she wrote, then simply posted this link: weddingcans.com.

Turns out Andrea, who can easily be called an environmentalist, had decided she would pay for her castle in cans. She was going to pay for her entire wedding with cans.

Andrea: This is quite firmly filed in the “crazy idea” category… but I think it’s crazy enough to maybe work

me: Sure why the hell not?

It can’t hurt.

I can collect cans in my office, too.

The staff here drinks tons of soda.

Getting big FAST

That gmail chat exchange took place exactly once month ago, Dec. 7. Today, Pete Geyer and Andrea Parrish, both of Spokane, Wash., are featured in an AP News video that ran in states as far away as New Jersey. The video even got onto Yahoo’s homepage. They even got press up in Canada. It made it to the CBS national news.

Last night, Andrea and Pete were on the local TV news. They were featured in Spokane’s daily newspaper, the Spokesman Review. Tomorrow, they’ll be on the CBS morning show. It wasn’t long ago that the first web site besides hers had Wedding Cans in a story. Offbeat Bride featured the story of Andrea and Pete on Dec. 30, and on Jan. 8th they’ll be interviewed by satellite for CBS.

Andrea and Pete, after Wedding Cans

If all goes as planned, and Andrea and Pete can collect the 400,000 cans they are aiming for, they’ll get married July 31, less than seven months from now. Their hard work will buy them a small, simple and inexpensive wedding, exactly as they wanted. They’ll be wed in a castle in Hope, Idaho.

They’ll hold a handfasting ceremony, during which they’ll hold hands, then their joined hands will be wrapped in braided cords. Pete will shoot the garter with a bow and arrow. Andrea will launch her bouquet with a trebuchet (sort of like a catapult). Wedding guests will feast on homemade beer, a cake Andrea’s mom made and homemade dishes that other guests brought from home. Afterwards, they’ll have the satisfaction of having done things their way, and being environmentally friendly to boot.

In her words, from the Wedding Cans site, “Saving the environment and throwing a killer party… what could be better?”

Tags: Andrea Parrish, Peter Geyer, Spokane Washington, wedding cans

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