Love, honor and obey: That was then. Reduce, reuse and recycle: This is now. Brides, grooms and the $73 billion wedding industry that caters to them are paying more attention to the environmental implications of their choices.

Take Maureen Ferguson of Hermosa Beach, Calif., who married Bill Lewis at The Kahala last May. For their wedding, they eschewed using any plastic; and to keep from wasting fuel, rented a trolley to transport guests from the wedding to the reception.

And they found ways to maximize the romantic island setting.

"I really felt strongly that the ceremony site was so beautiful, we shouldn't cut flowers just because," said the bride, an executive with Virgin Entertainment Group, who used seashells harvested responsibly for decorations. "We let nature do its thing. Also, I didn't want to mask the beauty of the wedding site."

The bride incorporated touches from the planning process on, such as recycled-paper save-the-date cards, using telephone and e-mail for RSVPs and digital photos.

"The wedding became green organically — no pun intended," she said. "... It was very painless. Vendors nowadays are in tune with the eco-friendly and green movement, so there are a lot more options out there than five years ago. Whether it's trendy or the right thing to do, it makes it easy to have a choice."

The trend was barely on the cultural radar screen a couple of years ago, but like the Lewises, more couples concerned about global warming are scaling back and thinking green as they plan wedding venues, menus, flowers and transportation, helped by a multiplying array of Web sites, stores and catalogs.

Twenty-something brides blog about dumping mailed response cards for e-mail RSVPs. Some choose biodegradable Ecofetti. Invitations are being printed with soy ink on paper made of 100 percent post-consumer waste.

In Hawai'i, wedding planners have seen a shift.

"The younger generation are more environmentally and socially conscious," said wedding planner Dianna Shitanishi, owner of Hawaii Weddings and Events, who as chapter president of the National Association of Catering Executives is currently at a conference in Houston where many members of the hospitality industry are excited about green efforts.

The trend is picking up steam. In its 2007 February/March issue, Brides magazine carried its first major article detailing how to have a green wedding. (Examples: Serve soup in cucumber cups, leaving no bowls to wash; choose an organic wedding cake carried in on a bamboo platter.)

"Couples are thinking of their future families and how they can do something kind for the planet with this occasion," says Millie Martini Bratten, editor in chief. The new thinking, she says, is "looking at the wedding as a way to do something really beautiful but not waste."

According to a survey in 2006 by Condé Nast, Brides publisher, there are 2.3 million American weddings each year, with an average cost of $27,852.

When the magazine staged a quick survey on its Web site, www.brides.com, 60 percent of respondents said the environment was important in planning their wedding; 33 percent said they were planning to have a green wedding.

Wedding planners and experts here say it's a natural undercurrent in Hawai'i, where residents automatically choose to care for the 'aina.

"A lot more vendors are offering green and social-conscious choices," said Tanna Dang, owner of the Wedding Cafe, a wedding resource center based in Manoa, adding that conflict-free diamonds are a big buzz item among brides.

"Hawai'i is a very ecologically friendly place anyway. ... It's great they're thinking along those lines."