How Do You Plan an Eco-Friendly Wedding?

As beautiful as weddings can be, they can end up generating a lot of waste, including food waste, and single-use decorations.

A lot of couples today are becoming conscious of the need to treat the planet better, so they are going out of their way to find green wedding ideas to minimize waste and save money in the process. They arrange for an eco-friendly wedding and prefer eco-friendly decors to minimalize wedding wastes.

Due to these facts, the demand for sustainable weddings is on the rise and the young couples are looking more for eco-friendly wedding favors.

If you’re one of those couples who want to have an environmentally and socially conscious wedding, you’re in the right place.

In this post, we’re sharing tips on how you can plan out your very own eco-friendly wedding.

Tips and ideas for an eco-friendly wedding

1. Choose an ethical ring

An eco-conscious or eco-friendly wedding can begin as early as engagement ring shopping.

Make sure to use jewelers who are using fair-labor gemstones that have a clean ethical background and traceable origin.

Some rings, like the popular sapphire engagement ring, have gemstones that come from smaller mines run by local families and groups, so buying these rings can mean supporting ethically-conscious mining.

2. Reduce the guest list

We know how it sounds, but a considerable contribution to your eco-friendly actions is reducing the guest list as much as possible, especially for those guests who need to travel great distances to attend the celebration.

Being strict with your guest registry also minimizes the waste and will free up some budget to possibly spend on food or drinks for those remaining guests, who are now going to be a part of a smaller but more intimate wedding.

When it comes to inviting guests, you can do all invitations electronically. Or if you really prefer actual invites, try using recycled paper, i.e., sending out eco-friendly invitations.

3. Go for local, in-season food

The best eco-friendly option for food is to choose a local catering company that can tailor your menu to the foods available seasonally and that sources its supplies from local organic providers.

Once the celebration is done, make sure to take care of the leftovers appropriately. If possible, donate extra food to a local food bank or homeless shelter.

4. Choose a nearby location

Traveling to your wedding venue can leave a major carbon footprint, so it’s best to find a place you love near the majority of your guests. The best eco-friendly location would be the natural environment as you can rely on natural light.

However, if you prefer celebrating indoors, consider venues with lots of natural light, or use candles as they will add to the romance and reduce electricity consumption.

Quite a unique idea for organizing an eco-friendly wedding!

5. Consider renting instead of buying

Anything that is single-use is not environment-friendly, so consider renting as there are plenty of options out there for your own eco-friendly wedding. You can rent anything from a wedding dress to decor, equipment, and even linen, tablecloth, and runners.

If you’re going with the straws in mixed drinks, go green and pick paper over plastic.

6. Choose seasonal flowers

Flowers can really alter the whole appearance of your wedding.

We suggest you go for seasonal and local ones as it will reduce the carbon footprint and be easier on your wallet too. Whatever arrangement you decide on, make sure to avoid floral foam as it contains a lot of chemicals and it’s mostly non-biodegradable.

This is one of the many ways to plan an eco-friendly wedding.

7. Support your favorite causes as a charitable favor

Instead of favors, you can let your guests know that you have donated a certain amount per guest toward one of the many environmental organizations.

You can then encourage your guests to do the same by letting them donate to the same organization, or by letting them choose one they’d like to support.

Let your wedding inspire others to take action

Your plan of holding an eco-friendly wedding already shows that you are taking steps in the right direction and that you care about our planet.

The fact that you’re making the environment a priority on one of your most special days is sure to inspire others around you and spur them to start making changes that contribute to a better, safer, and cleaner earth.

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