Green Partying: Five Easy Steps

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2. Setting and Ambience

The ideal place to throw a green party is, naturally, outside. If weather permits, welcome your guests to an evening in your backyard or on your front porch, back deck or rooftop. The surrounding greenery and sky will provide a beautiful ambience.

Candles can brighten any setting and help keep the bugs away. The choices below use fiber wicks free of metals such as lead and are free of synthetic fragrances, which contain hormone-disrupting phthalates. To guard against fires, protect candles from the wind and never let them burn unattended.

*Way Out Wax's natural hemp citronella candles, made of pure vegetable waxes and citronella essential oils, will discourage bugs from infesting your green party ($19.99). Other candles are scented with summery essential oils of rosemary, orange or eucalyptus. In freestanding pillars (from $6.79); encased in cobalt blue glass holders ($11.49) or 8-oz. tins ($6.79); or votive candles that also make nice party favors, sold in boxes of 18 ($30.60; www.wayoutwax.com, 888-727-1903).

*Tall, 100-percent beeswax tapers with all-cotton wicks burn clean ($7 and up; www.candlebeefarm.com). Protect them in Yin Yang holders, made from recycled wine bottles ($39.95/2; www.abundantearth.com, 888-51-EARTH).

*Find a post-consumer-recycled glass holder for votives ($11.50) or a drip-catching saucer for pillar candles ($23.50) in ocean aquas, blues and greens (www.katescaringgifts.com).

*Feeling extra festive? Try stringing LED white lights from Innovative Energy Solutions ($13.95 for a Candlelight string; www.inirgee.com), which use 80 to 90 percent less energy.

3. Food and Drink

Serve raw foods: Fresh salad greens and strawberries are coming into season. To find greenmarkets near you, see www.ams.usda.gov.

*If you don't feel like cooking, there are eco-friendly catering companies around the country. In New York City, The Cleaver Co. uses organic raw materials that come from local family farms (www.cleaverco.com, 212-741-9174). Or chef Jon Tierney will cater a green menu, from savory hors d'oeuvres to dreamy sweets (www.jontierneycatering.com, 917-538-5511).

*City Bakery, in addition to its greenmarket lunch menu, Nirvanic cookies and chocolate and lemon tarts, also caters (212-366-1414, 310-656-3040). Also check out "Birdbath" at www.buildagreenbakery.com.

*Back to Earth, based in Berkeley, California, is known for its organic and local meats, fruits and vegetables (www.backtoearth.org, 510-528-3987).

*Whole Foods Markets prepare handy party platters of vegetables, fruits, breads and dips and cheese--and can customize an organic dinner menu (www.wholefoodsmarket.com).

*Also see www.organicweddings.com and the organic foods by mail list at www.thegreenguide.com.