By Connie Mabin

The Associated Press

The bride chose a gown that could be worn again to parties, the groom organized guest car pools in hybrid vehicles, and the couple picked an outdoor Japanese garden over a big, energy-sucking reception hall.

Everything about Kristy Wang and Nik Kaestner’s big day in San Francisco was decidedly “green” — from locally grown, organic vegetables and sustainably harvested fish to homemade tablecloths that were later turned into dinner napkins.

“Every time we make decisions, we’re trying to decide what would be the least wasteful,” Wang said recently. When it came to the wedding last May, “We didn’t want it to be about consumption.”

Going green is a growing trend in the multimillion-dollar wedding industry, and businesses are cashing in.

New York’s OZOcar offers hybrid limousines; Boulder, Colo.,-based Organic Vintners helps wine lovers find all-natural vintages; and the Houston-based Green Hotels Association can find accommodations at places committed to saving water and energy and reducing solid waste.

Around the nation, caterers are offering pesticide-free menus, and fine china and linen napkins instead of throwaways.

Web sites help newlyweds set up donations to charities that benefit the environment, so guests have an alternative to heavily wrapped presents.

“It’s exploding,” said Johanna Kaestner, Nik’s mother and owner of the Berkeley, Calif.,-based Weddings by Recommendation Only, which helps pair event planners with green businesses.

“Finally, people understand our environment is in danger and the more you can do, the better.”

The potential to earn green is huge, too.

“Going green is one of the great business opportunities of the 21st century, and the rapid growth of green weddings and green wedding consulting groups is not surprising,” said David Cooperrider, a business professor at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland. “In fact, wedding advisers that are not going green are going to be at a competitive disadvantage.”

Eric Fenster, co-founder of Back to Earth Inc., an organic catering and restaurant business in Berkeley, Calif., said his company can plan everything from flowers to lighting.