Although I’m in the midst of planning my dream day, I have to admit that the extravagance of weddings often makes them very wasteful. Between invitations, your single-use dress, imported flowers, mined jewelry, aisle runners and other decor, and all the other “trash” that your big day leaves behind, the environmental impact of weddings can be huge.
To combat this, many eco-conscious couples are demonstrating their “green” ways by planning an event with a bit smaller footprint. And with all the resources now available to us, there are many ways to plan an eco-savvy event without sacrificing style or elegance!
How you ask? I’m not claiming to be an expert, but here are a few ways I know of to lessen your wedding’s mark on the planet:
Invitations
Many savvy brides and grooms are choosing to skip the printing altogether and going with e-invites and RSVPs. The Plunge Project recently partnered with a company that provides such a service, Glö, and will be giving away a package for free on July 23. If that’s something you might be interested in, be sure to enter.
If you can’t bear to be without printed invitations, they are many recycled options as well (a Google search will find you tons of options). And if you’re really feeling crafty, you can buy recycled paper and make your own.
Decor and Accessories
If you’re planning an eco-friendly wedding, you need to check out Dream Green Weddings. It’s a great place to find eco-chic decor, favors and gifts, accessories and organic bath and body products. From cake toppers to escort card holder to table numbers and more, Dream Green has all the decor you need to make your green wedding unique and stylish. Just check out some of these products…
Rings
You have a few options if you’re looking for eco-chic engagement rings and/or wedding bands, and Brilliant Earth is a great place to look. Using recycled metals means less pollution than mining gold and silver. Buying your jewelry used is also a great way to help save the planet, and estate/antique jewelry can be an amazing eco-friendly alternative.
And if you’re using a stone, make sure it’s conflict free! Even though I’m not planning a “green” wedding, I refuse to wear a conflict diamond on my finger. The jeweler should have paperwork proving their conflict free diamonds.
Of course, there are tons more ways to plan an eco-chic event. Do you have any more tips for environmentally conscious brides?
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I love that you brought this up! Andrew and I actually asked about the “green-ness” of venues we looked at and made sure they at least recycle and conserve as much as possible. In general, we’re not really focusing on the “green” parts of the wedding, but we’re just trying to make choices that will keep our footprint reasonable.
We’re using printed invites, but I’m hoping to use recycled paper, and I want to put a little “please recycle” note somewhere with everything. I’ve also seen a lot of stuff about plantable paper that has flower seeds in it, which I think is pretty cool, but I feel like most people would end up throwing it away anyhow. I’m also planning to use local, in-season flowers (thankfully there will be a lot to choose from in the spring; this would probably be more difficult in the winter) and as much local food as possible. I’d like to use potted flowers in our centerpieces, so I can take them home or send them with guests to take home and plant; this can get a little tricky with a lot of out-of-towners, so I’m expecting to expand the flower bed at my house :)
LOVE all your green ideas, Elizabeth! It’s important for a lot of brides to realize that there a lot of little things you can do to reduce your wedding’s footprint. You don’t have to plan a 100% green affair to still be responsible. Every little bit helps, right?
A cool green gift that you can give to your groomsmen is the Capcatcher Bottle Opener from http://www.capcatchers.com They’re handmade in Connecticut from New England wood and recycled metal. They can even be personalized!
I love the idea of the potted centerpieces so that the guests can take them home!
You can also create your bouquet from local in-season flowers that don’t need to be imported or shipped from worldwide locations.
Thanks Lauren for all those great tips! :)
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