An eco-friendly or sustainable wedding is a celebration that is aimed at reducing the impact of the event on the environment. Nowadays, there are almost limitless ideas for green weddings with greener options for catering, invitations, attire, food, drinks and decorations.
The wedding day is among the most significant and greatest day of a person’s life, but with a ton of thrown-away paper goods, excess food, and leftover flowers, it’s certainly one of the most wasteful. This doesn’t mean you should give up your celebration altogether, but if you’re eco-conscious, you could plan and organise an eco-friendly wedding.
Planning such a wedding doesn’t have to be more difficult than planning a less environmentally-friendly event, it just requires more attention to certain details. Here are several suggestions on how to pull it off.
Opt for eco-friendly invitations
Start by sending invitations made from recycled paper. Recycled paper can be gorgeous and unique-looking, so each guest will be treated with a one-of-a-kind invite. Instead of printing the details on recycled paper, hire a local calligrapher to write out the invitations. This will eliminate the use of energy and toxic chemicals typical for the printing process, but it will give you stunningly delicate and original invitations.
If you want to eliminate paper, send electronic invites that can also be creatively customized to contain pictures, links to destination maps and even the happy couple’s special romantic song.
Choose a Venue That Prioritizes Sustainability
For the event itself, pick a venue that prioritizes sustainability. It doesn’t need to happen on a farm or in a field to be eco-friendly. It’s about reducing energy and material consumption on that day. The biggest carbon footprint of a wedding comes from travel, so try to find a place nearby so that the majority of your guests don’t have to travel great distances.
Also, opt for a permanent building like a hall, barn or country house.Make sure they use florals from a local greenhouse or their own estate. Finally, being strict with your guest list will reduce waste as well but it will also give you the benefit is a lovely intimate wedding. This will save you money and leave more room for other expenses.
Go for eco-friendly wedding attire
Wedding attire can be costly when you consider how many outfits you’re buying. One option is to rent the suits, which is a common practice and will reduce the environmental impact a bit, but you could also opt to have a great wedding suit tailor make the groom’s unique linen suit that can even be worn afterwards on many occasions.
As for the bride’s dress, go for a vintage or a pre-loved dress. You can choose to wear your mother’s or grandmother’s wedding dress but you may also opt to have it made for you by a designer committed to using organic, sustainable materials and fabrics and ethical production.
Pick vintage jewels
There’s a lot of controversy linked to jewellery due to the disastrous environmental impact of the mining of precious metals and gems. When choosing your wedding rings, it’s best to ensure they’re ethically sourced and produced so choose jewellers that offer sustainable wedding jewellery.
Another excellent idea is to use a family heirloom as it has both sentimental and historical value in your family. If this is not an option, consider purchasing your jewellery at an estate sale or antique shop, and if the style doesn’t quite fit you, have it reworked by an expert jeweller.
Choose your food and drinks
One of the important aspects of a green wedding is finding solutions for zero-waste catering. In addition, you could look for not only zero-waste options but also for those businesses that can source all of the food from local, organic farms.The same goes for drinks as well – source them from local distilleries, breweries, and wineries.
Ultimately, planning a wedding according to eco-friendly principles and your standards will make you feel good about it and that matters a lot. Whatever you decide, a “perfectly sustainable wedding” doesn’t exist, but you can plan a wedding with your values at the core.
