While you don’t need to go to the extremes to make your wedding 100% eco friendly, or zero waste, you can use these tips to have the amazing day you always dreamed of AND reduce your impact on the planet.
Printing your invitations
Today there are more options than ever for printing your invitation. Keeping eco friendly in mind what printing can be hard, but look for terms like 100% post-consumer paper. Or have a great bonding time and make your own paper.
A wedding website.
Enough said for Gen Z. For everyone else tho, a website can be really helpful in getting information out quickly to your guests. It can be one place that all the information that you couldn’t fit on the invite can be housed.
As you might know venues and hotels offer discounts for larger groups, so placing Curated lodging information can help you meet those goals and get free things like a hotel shuttle.
Online RSVP’s are a thing. Most people, have been using computers for the past 15 years and are comfortable navigating their way around a website. Digital RSVP might lack the formality but more than makes up for it in convenience, giving both you and your guest an easy and more consistent way to stay organized.
Coming soon! Book your Wedding Photos (or video) and Engagement shoot with us, we will provide you a free drag and drop wedding website!
Host your ceremony and reception at the same place
By having the whole gathering in the same location, this cuts down on travel time, costs, but also emissions because guests won’t have to travel between locations.
Thrift, buy used or rent
Wedding decor, especially the centerpieces or a hot topic for brides. Centerpieces are always something that you want special to you, you don’t want to buy from someone else, but at the end of the day do you want someone else to buy it from you.
Believe it or not, most people won’t remember your centerpieces, it might be in the pictures, but not in the memories. So ask your venue what supplies they have already, maybe someone left items or they are available for rent.
Most wedding venues now offer a wide range of centerpieces for your special day. Additionally, they will actually put them together and on the table for you, leading to one less thing to remember.
If your venue doesn’t have anything to offer you, Facebook Marketplace or other second-hand shops got you covered.
Reusable dishes
Normally your catering company or the venue will provide the place settings. Just ask what type of dishes they use and if they have the options for glass or ceramic dishes. If all else you can pick up some compostable options like these eco-friendly palm lead plates. Just remember to find a place that will composite it for you.
Foam free floral
Something you might not think about when looking at flowers is how they’re going to be presented, not the look, the actual binding of the flowers. You see a fancy designer bouquet and you don’t even take a second thought of the waste can be generated from the designing, transportation, and presentation of the flowers.
Foam is the standard in the industry, so not using it can be aesthetically and technically super tricky. Expect to pay a bit more for this skill set.
Favor the local
Party favors becoming less and less common, and they tend to get left behind or thrown away. So when planning out your wedding think about a practical gift, and if they are leftover what you will do with them. We chose to go with homemade soap from 1924 Customer Soapery. Other options are native wildflower seeds, handcrafted cookies, or my favorite chocolates.
Shuttle
If your guests are staying locally in a hotel, consider offering a shuttle, sometimes hotels even offer them for free with X number of rooms booked. Doing this will cut back on car emissions, but also provides a safer way home for those that like to party hard.
Food Location
After reading through this you might’ve thought we forgot about food. We didn’t, but this is a tough one. The location of your food varies and generally is very strict. Most catering companies don’t want to change the food vendors as it’ll change the way the food tastes, it adds extra processing time and then affects their liability of food safety. Whether your venue is the one curating the food or you’re hiring an external source, have a talk about their rules and regulations. Better yet look for a catering company that promotes locally sourced food.