Couple pays for wedding with cans

I've probably talked endlessly about how much I hate hearing about people buying stuff they can't afford, so this makes me very happy.

A Spokane couple has reached its goal of collecting enough recyclable aluminum cans to pay for their wedding.

Peter Geyer and Andrea Parrish estimated they needed to collect 400,000 cans, worth about $3,800, to pay for the July 31 wedding. With the help of a 150,000-can donation from Alcoa and 73,000 cans from United Recycling Services, they have reached the goal.



The couple continues to collect cans, this time to pay for their honeymoon. They also plan to donate some proceeds to Doctors Without Borders and Rim Country Land Institute.

Pete and Andrea also have a website, and I found this particularly endearing:

What kind of wedding are you planning? A community-centered, homemade celebration of family and friends. With only $3,800 – $4,000 for a budget (less than 20% of the budget of a $25,000 “average wedding”), we will be keeping it fairly conservative. It will be a handfasting officiated by the friend that brought us together. Oh, and the bouquet will be tossed with a trebuchet.

On top of being money-wise and donating to excellent charities, they also like to sling things through the air! Love this couple!

If you've never taken anything to the recycling center, I can tell you that it is REALLY hard to make any decent money off of it. As a, um, young person, I once filled my car's trunk FULL of glass bottles (from...soda) and I took them to the recycling center and I got about $7. My dreams of a wealthy summer were dashed.

-KB