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. She started looking at vacation rentals online. And then it hit - The Castle. It is cheaper to rent the castle for several days than it is for a few hours in a reception hall. But she still needed a couple grand.
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. Lo and behold, 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. In fact, she was going to pay for her whole wedding in 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 both in an AP News video that ran as far away as New Jersey. That video also spent some time on Yahoo’s homepage today. They even got press up in Canada. It made it to the CBS national news.
They were on local news not that long ago. 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 even featured a story on Andrea and Pete. 30, and on Jan. 8 they’ll be interviewed live via satellite on 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 even have a handfasting ceremony, where they’ll hold hands and the joined hands of the couple will be wrapped in braided cords. Pete will launch the garter using a bow and arrow. Andrea will launch her bouquet with a trebuchet (sort of like a catapult). Wedding guests will be treated to homebrewed beer, a cake made by Andrea’s mother, and home cooking from other guests. Afterwards, they’ll have the satisfaction of having done things their way, and being environmentally friendly to boot.
In Andrea’s own words, from the Wedding Cans web site, “Saving the environment and throwing a killer party… what could be better?”
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Tags: Andrea Parrish, Peter Geyer, Spokane Washington, wedding cans