Your wedding is supposed to be the greatest day of your life. And it’s possible to have an amazing wedding while still reducing your carbon footprint in the process. You do not have to sacrifice aesthetics, damage the environment or exceed your budget in order to throw the wedding of a lifetime.
Green credentials can be added to your design choices, food, travel and more, in order to reduce your carbon footprint while also providing your guests with a memorable wedding experience.
Here, our focus will be on how to set up an eco-friendly wedding that you and your loved ones can be proud of without breaking the bank in the process.
How to Plan an Eco-Friendly Wedding
Are you interested in setting up a wedding that will help promote eco-sustainability and reduce your guilt in the process? If so, an eco-friendly wedding is the way to go. There are certain factors that you should focus on in order to ensure that your wedding goes off without a hitch.
Eco-friendly Wedding Planning
Eco-friendly wedding planning will also help reduce the amount of waste that is produced on your special day. A precise plan should be designed which features every detail of your wedding. Leave nothing out.
You also need to do some research in order to help you come up with some wedding planning ideas that are exciting, while also being environmentally friendly and budget-conscious. The venue that you choose should also promote ecologically friendly measures.
Event leftovers, for example, can be donated to a local soup kitchen. The event should promote composting and recycling as well. The reception and ceremony should be held in the same venue if possible.
Holding both at the same location will not only help make your planning more manageable but will also save you some money in the process.
Eco-friendly Wedding Decor
Eco-friendly wedding decor ideas are also paramount. Your wedding will be an elegant and classy soiree that will also help protect the environment with a little creativity and effort. Incorporate natural elements and motifs into the style of your special day.
Avoid the temptation to print several hundred paper menus. Instead, multi-purpose signs should become the gold standard. You should also recycle your wedding decor materials, and it also wouldn’t hurt to decorate your entire venue with reusable and sustainable materials.
Single-use plastics, such as plastic forks, spoons and knives should also not be used at your wedding. We would also recommend that you host your wedding outdoors if possible. An outdoor wedding will help conserve electricity.
Candlelight can help create a warm and welcoming ambiance while also reducing energy consumption rates if the wedding is being held at night.
Eco-friendly Wedding Catering Options
Eco-friendly wedding catering is also a must if you want to throw an eco-friendly wedding. Most of the waste that is generated at a wedding is actually caused by the catering.
Catering supplies, the food at your reception and related suppliers all need to be considered before the wedding. Techniques that help reduce waste should be implemented if you want to throw an eco-friendly event.
For example, you should look into hiring caterers that work at farms in your area. The dinnerware that you use should also only be made with materials that are biodegradable.
What matters, at the end of the day, is the presentation and taste of the food, and not the dinnerware itself. Another easy way to help reduce waste at your wedding is to go vegan.
Meat products actually increase waste, and are hazardous to the environment, so serving meals that are meat-free can help reduce the production of greenhouse gasses.
If you are worried about the flavour of your meals, then relax, as there are many plant-based alternatives that taste like meat but do not contain any meat or meat byproducts.
Eco-friendly Wedding Gifts
Eco-friendly gift ideas should also be considered before the big day.
The gifts that are chosen should have a minimal impact on the environment. However, they should have an impact on the lives of your guests. The gifts should encourage your guests to recycle and practice other eco-sustainable activities in their day-to-day lives.
Being eco-conscious should be a daily part of your life in order to reduce your carbon footprint and help make the world a greener and healthier place for future generations.
Taking the First Step
An eco-friendly wedding should be big on ideas and creativity while being low on costs and greenhouse emissions. We hope that the tips that we have provided will help you arrange a wedding that your guests will never forget and will help make you feel good about your lifestyle.
Everything from catering and flowers, to wedding attire and jewelry, should be made with sustainable materials in order to help reduce your carbon footprint and help provide peace of mind.
Even the hotel that your guests stay in before the big day should be following good environmental standards. Check out local hotels and find one that is eco-friendly.
Carpooling should also be strongly encouraged. Guests that are flying in can carpool with other guests in order to reduce their fuel consumption.
Carpooling will also help save your guests money and can serve as an opportunity for loved ones to bond and catch up before your wedding. The venue itself should also be Energy Star or LEED certified.
The venue should, at the very least, recycle. If they do not meet your requirements then continue to shop around for one that does.
Eco-friendly initiatives have become the gold standard in many countries, so it should not be too difficult in order to find a venue that helps actively promote eco-friendly practices and other ethical services.
You deserve the best, and so does Mother Nature, so do not compromise when it comes to your once-in-a-lifetime event.
