Wedding Planning For Partners That Also Love Our Planet
Article By | Lizzie West
Everyone wants a beautiful and unique wedding as well as a memorable event to look back on during a lifetime of happiness with their partner. You may also be part of the growing population that also really cares about making more eco-friendly choices in all aspect of life. It can be hard to reconcile creating a beautiful wedding celebration while also considering how to be less wasteful throughout the process. The great news is you can have a beautiful eco-friendly wedding that will bring you joy and peace of mind at the same time. Here are a few things you can consider doing to create your dream wedding while also protecting its potentially damaging effects on our environment.
Ways To Save Paper
All the paper products you use for weddings, from save-the-dates to thank you cards, can have a huge environmental impact. Don’t fret; there are a lot of ways to limit the amount of paper you use at your wedding. Many people have started limiting the number of physical invitations they send and rely more on a digital alternative. You can create a beautiful and interactive invitation to send by email or social media to your guest list. You can even use your wedding planning site, like Zola, to collect your RSVPs. They are so versatile, you can even include food preferences in the RSVP process through their site.
If you feel you absolutely have to have paper invitations, there are a ton of sustainable options and Google can really be your friend in finding local and online vendors alike. Some companies have committed to plant trees in return for ordering from them. Some even offer an invitation printed on seed paper that can be planted to grow new greenery or flowers. And you can purchase your thank you cards utilizing recycled paper or send thank you e-cards when possible.
Other paper products that can be avoided are disposables used during the wedding day, like plates and napkins. Try using recycled or using a rental company to limit waste.
Lower Your Carbon Footprint
Speaking of rental companies, they offer so many gorgeous options and colors in their linen, flatware, and place settings. The sky is the limit for customizing your day while also preventing excess waste. This is a great way to lower your carbon footprint, by renting all these items from local vendors like Party Time Rentals, instead of using disposable items out of convenience.
If you are serious about considering things like how much electricity you’re using, you may want to plan an entire outdoor affair. Many venues have covered outdoor options and you can plan a daytime wedding so no lighting is necessary and you can hire an acoustic band or string quartet to truly keep the use of electricity to a minimum.
And instead of confetti or sparklers, you can throw flower petals or invest in an eco-friendly type of confetti that is biodegradable instead. Ask your floral vendor if they have any unusable or damaged flowers that they would like to sell at a discount and you can use the petals from those flowers. You can even check in a few weeks early and dry the damaged flowers and put them all into a basket that everyone can grab a handful from to toss your way and not have to worry about how this will work out last minute. Or – you can also skip this part altogether and request your guests send you off with cheers of love and encouragement.
Wedding Attire
Wearing a family heirloom gown is a beautiful and sentimental way to go eco-friendly on your big day. Another options is to rent or buy a used (but fully cleaned and maintained) dress. Check out local bridal groups on Facebook in your area, they are very helpful and you may actually find your dream dress there. There are also dress vendors that specialize in using recycled materials in creating a one-of-a-kind piece. Instead of going shopping at big expensive stores to have customized dressed made for your bridal party, you can ask them to wear a neutral color that they likely already have in their closet or would also be easy to rent. For men participating in your big day, using things that they already own or renting the proper attire can really go a long way in creating less waste. It’s highly likely that someone in their life may also have something they can borrow that fits, if it’s very important to you that people don’t buy unnecessary clothes for your event.
What About Food?
If you are super concerned with keeping your wedding as eco-friendly as possible, you might try looking into hiring a farm-to-table vendor in your community to create a picnic-style luncheon for your guests with locally sourced products. Often times, people are unhappy with foods that are intended to be served hot at special events or feel that the meal was too heavy. It might be a sweet tribute to your love for each other AND the environment to plan a meal comprised of antique trays featuring locally sourced ingredients for sandwiches, salads, fruit, and other sides or treats. This is also a great way to accommodate a lot of differing palates as well as dietary preferences and restrictions.
Another food option if you heart is set on a more traditional, hot, sit-down meal is to have a full-service plated dinner. It might sound a little excessive, but this is a great way to ensure you don’t have a lot of extra food, because all the plates are accounted for before the food is ordered and cooked.
In terms of the all-important wedding cake, seeking out a vendor that is concerned with using fair-trade, locally sourced, and seasonal products when creating your dessert centerpiece is a great way to produce eco-friendly results. Also consider what their stance is on excessive use of plastic products in their business practices when interviewing a vendor. Eco-friendly can still be delectable!
Lastly, any leftover food items don’t have to go to waste. You can choose to donate extra food to local shelters so nothing is wasted and you’re providing for those in need in the process. Add contacting local shelters and non-profits to your checklist, so you have a plan in place.
Eco-Friendly Flower Options
You may think the big suggestion here would be using artificial flowers to avoid unnecessarily use of real flowers. And you could absolutely do that. An Outdoor wedding may also be a great way to incorporate natural greenery and flowers instead of purchasing and cutting fresh flowers. Also, potted flowers can be a great alternative to buying arrangements.
However, there are also some flower options that allow you to link up with other brides married within a day of you with similar taste. These services allow you to share flowers, so you can still have beautiful real flowers at your wedding and create less waste in the process. You would be paired with another eco-loving bride and re-use the flowers from her wedding (or vice versa). There are some inherent risks with this option, but if you’re the kind of person that cares more about limiting wastefulness than what exact shade of hydrangeas are in your arrangements, you’re probably happy to be flexible. This is still a newer option but is becoming more popular. And it is also a great way for your both to save a little money in the process.
You can also use less or no flowers at all in your celebration in order to meet your eco-friendly goals. Try using candlelight as a form of décor. Find local candle vendors to support that use eco-friendly practices to create their candles, which you can keep and use as a consumable after your wedding is a great option in lieu of flowers.
Consumables for Favors
Most guests either don’t keep or use the favors you have carefully and thoughtfully selected. A magnet or commemorative item with your names and date of your wedding may not be as sentimental to them as it seems to you. But, most people would enjoy a nice treat or snack at the end of the celebration on their way out the door. Try offering a unique treat that is customized to your big day’s colors or theme. Another cute option is having a local food truck setup with a small item to hand out. This is a memorable and fun way to end the event. Another neat favor idea is a plant-able seed packet with a thank you on it with a plant or flower that is in season shortly after your wedding celebration.
If you’re willing to get a little creative with your choices and your true wedding dream is being eco-friendly, then a little flexibility with the details can definitely go far in making that dream a reality. At the end of the day, seek out vendors and planners that share your desire for protecting and sustaining our environment and you will find the process much easier and more pleasant. You will find that when you look back, you will see the joy you felt in not only marrying the love of your life, but doing it in a way that doesn’t compromise your closely held beliefs.