They admit they're sappy romantics.

And why not? They were introduced thanks to a friend's prophetic dream. The introduction was via e-mail, but Mark Robinson lived in Houston and Stephanie West in Greensboro, N.C.

Five days later, the couple visited four hours on the phone. In a second four-hour chat that followed, West, a 30-year-old physical therapist, and Robinson, a 32-year-old business consultant, began to discover shared interests — a strong faith, a desire to make a social impact, volunteer work with youths and concern for the environment.

Intrigued, the couple met face to face, and soon they knew it was love. Six months, six cross-country dates and 13,239 cell phone minutes later, it was love heading toward a faith-based, eco-friendly wedding, an event that proved appropriate for an upcoming Earth Day.

West moved to Houston last spring, and the couple continued recording their courtship journey in a bulging datebook. A second book was in the works. In early October, Robinson proposed on a sunrise walk on a foggy lakeside beach near Branson, Mo. The photographer he'd secretly hired walked through the mist to capture the moment Robinson dropped to his knee.

The engagement ring? An Apollo diamond, an environmentally friendly, made-to-order cultured stone that sparkles with the brilliance and has the identical chemical makeup of a traditional stone. Man-made diamonds are processed without the wear and tear of mining the earth.

With this stone, the couple solidified a joint mission as faith-based stewards of the planet. They wanted a wedding to honor God and reflect their wish to "take care of what we have."

"Our story is unique. Our engagement is unique. Our ring is unique. So our wedding should reflect us," Robinson says.

"Green is no longer a fad," they say. "It's a force that fits our faith and our pocketbooks."

"You end up doing the work anyway," Stephanie says of making wedding plans. "So why not do it in a socially responsible way, an environmentally friendly way?"

Wedding costs vary greatly, but many fall in the $18,000-$25,000 range. Cultured diamonds (www.apollodiamond.com), run 15 to 25 percent percent less than mined diamonds, a company representative says. And thanks to West's skill at detailed organization and Robinson's bottom-line know-how, the couple were able to further keep costs down without scrimping on the rehearsal dinner, wedding and reception.

Through www.weddingchannel.com the couple set up a personal wedding Web site to share their story and post a gift registry that included donations to Habitat for Humanity International.

"We registered as creatively and frugally as we could, with long-term use in mind," they say.

They will use Stephanie's great-grandmother's china and grandmother's silver, but they did register at www.replacements.com, a company that replaces missing pieces of old china patterns. And they registered for organic linens and eco-friendly household items at www.gaiam.com.

Invitations, printed with environmentally friendly ink on recycled paper, announced an April 1 ceremony and reception at Houston's Christ Evangelical Presbyterian Church. It was a celebration that embraced sustainability, from the organically grown sunflowers in the bride's bouquet to the organically grown food at the wedding reception.

He slipped a band with five small cultured diamonds onto her hand. In the spirit of reusing, she placed his late grandfather's wedding band on his left hand.

She wore a gown she'll donate to www.idofoundation.org to be sold to raise funds for charity. He and his groomsmen wore used tuxedos.

Stephanie gave her bridesmaids natural products from Burt's Bees, and Mark gave organic-cotton handkerchiefs from www.hankettes.com to his groomsmen. The couple gave all guests packets of Texas wildflower seed to sow in their home gardens.

Sunflowers set a cheery theme. Stephanie, who spent her childhood in Kansas, the Sunflower State, carried a blue-and-yellow cornflower bouquet with six organically grown sunflowers, eight organically grown roses, star of Bethlehem and agapanthus.

"The sunflower is one of my favorite flowers," she says. "They are happy flowers, and they're phototropic; they turn with the sun. As a Christian, I turn and follow God's Son, so the flowers are meaningful to me on a deeper level."

The couple had hoped for potted sunflowers, grown by a local wholesale nursery, to be used at the ceremony and reception. But nature didn't cooperate, the buds didn't set, and Brenda Epstein of Flowers by Brenda placed a rush order from an organic grower to ship 130 large- and small-flowered stems. Organic blooms were important because they are grown without environmentally harmful chemicals.

This tacked an extra $1.50 per stem onto the normal $1.50-$1.69 per stem cost, Epstein says. Even so, the bridal bouquet was a bit more than $100, the low end of typical bouquet costs, which vary from $50 to $1,000, Epstein says, depending on the blooms and the designer.

Cut sunflowers inserted into colorful pots and used as reception decorations were delivered to a women's shelter after the reception.

Permanent florals from Distinctive Designs, Mark's former employer, were used for church altar sprays. And donated cowboy hats served as centerpieces at the post-rehearsal barbecue dinner.

To save gasoline and time driving elsewhere, the newlyweds and 220 guests walked across the church grounds to a pre-reception mixer featuring fruits and cheese from Sandy's Market, a supporter of local farmers.

The reception food, primarily organically grown, was served on reusable china and eaten with dinnerware that could be washed with biodegradable detergent.

Linda West of www.melangeevents.com designed reception buffet menus representing the couple's lives and Christian mission work. The African buffet featured bush chicken and curried grilled vegetables. The Old South buffet offered Carolina pulled pork.

The organic produce did drive the food cost up slightly, West says, but a little business bartering by Robinson helped soften the price jump and prevent the couple from compromising their principles.

Uneaten reception food was delivered to a homeless shelter.

Guests sent the happy couple off in a flurry of bubbles rather than tossed rice.

After a honeymoon in New Zealand eco-lodges, Stephanie and Mark returned to Houston, where she'll keep working as a physical therapist and friendship partner with International Students Inc. He works as a strategic-growth consultant focused on construction and green industries through his company, Momentum Bay, and as a Young Life volunteer.

The couple started their new life together just in time for Earth Day. But every day will be earth day at their place as they settle into their light-filled, smoke-free leased home found through a holistic home hunter company. They'll use their energy-saving appliances. They'll shop green.

And the couple will enjoy Mark's new garden. It's environmentally friendly — naturally.

Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle