When Maria Lourdes Boschuk began looking for someone to plan her wedding, she was not thinking about saving the planet.

"We were looking for modern and chic-looking," when her sister came across the Web site for 5Senses Events Design. They contacted proprietor Simone Hudson and found that besides meeting their criteria, Ms. Hudson offered something extra.

	Doreena Balestreire Maria Lourdes Boschuk, second from right, and David Reese discuss options for planning an eco-friendly wedding with event planner Simone Hudson, left, owner of 5Senses Events Design, and flower designer Emily Baehr. The couple decided against flowers on the bridal party table and instead opted for vases filled with water and candles. Click photo for larger image.

Ms. Hudson, 30, has found a niche for the firm she runs from her home in Crafton -- "green," or environmentally friendly, event planning. While she says this approach makes her unique in Pittsburgh, it also places her in the thick of a trend of planning events to minimize waste, both of energy and of materials.

The $70 billion wedding industry is seeing more and more signs of eco-friendly sensibilities taking root. Books about green weddings are sprouting -- Michelle Kozin's "Organic Weddings," Carol Reed-Jones' "Green Weddings That Don't Cost the Earth," Emily Anderson's "Eco-Chic Weddings" -- and the current issue of bridal magazine The Knot features a special section on green weddings.

So what makes a wedding, or any event, green?

"It's not any elaborate overhaul," Ms. Hudson said. "It's little things that can have an impact overall -- recycle here, carpool there." You don't want to push people too far out of their comfort zone so that they rebel or resist, she added.

With the average wedding reception costing $25,000, Ms. Hudson said couples who go green also can save some green in the process.

"There's a lot of things that actually affect people's bottom lines," she said. For instance, the altar floral arrangements used in the ceremony, which start at $150, can be reused for the reception, instead of having separate floral arrangements there. Or the wedding and the reception can be held at the same location, saving up to $700 on limousine transportation, as well as rental fees for the space.

Going green also can increase costs, depending on the extent to which it is carried, Ms. Hudson said. A totally organic menu at the reception would be more expensive than a nonorganic one; likewise, a gown made from organic cotton would carry a premium.

Green weddings are only part of a larger trend of green event planning, which encompasses everything from private parties to conventions, where even small changes can produce big results.

For instance, Ms. Hudson said, if large business gatherings would replace three-ring binders full of paper documents with "thumb drives" -- miniature computer drives containing digital versions of those documents -- "There would be so many boxes that don't have to be shipped."

One of the most remarkable instances of green event planning was the 2005 Construct Canada show, which drew 23,000 people to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

The 2004 show generated 23 metric tons of waste, but in 2005 by recycling 95 percent of the materials used in the show, the convention center diverted 26 metric tons of waste from the landfill. Because some materials cannot be recycled, a 95 percent recycling rate is considered to be zero waste.

Ms. Hudson attributes her own eco-friendly emphasis to "a little bit of nature and nurture." In her native Jamaica, "The majority of what we had on our plate was from our yard. In retrospect, you realize the benefits that were embedded in a rural upbringing," she said.

Her early, practical awareness of the environment was strengthened as a student at the University of Georgia, where the first campus group that she joined was Students for Environmental Awareness.

That also was where, as president of the Caribbean Students Association, she began to learn event planning: "Everything ends up on your shoulders."

After completing her degree in linguistics, she landed a job as a simultaneous translator, which took her to Los Angeles and then London. In both cities, she continued doing event planning on the side. Only after settling in Pittsburgh did she make the leap to doing it full time, establishing 5Senses in September.

Ms. Boschuk's wedding to David Reese, scheduled for July 22, is the fifth Ms. Hudson has planned since establishing 5Senses. The bride-to-be said she was quite satisfied with the planning process so far.

"For my vision that I wanted for this wedding, she found things that were environmentally friendly," Ms. Boschuk said. That includes renting centerpieces rather than buying them, using bridesmaids' bouquets in the reception and rearranging other items of decor from the wedding for the reception, which will held in the same room -- a trick accomplished by having folks go into an adjoining room for cocktails after the wedding while the transformation occurs.

"People associate green with recycling," Ms. Hudson said. "But being eco-friendly is in everything you do."