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10 Tips On How To Plan a Sustainable Wedding
For most of us, our wedding day is the most important day in our lives, but should it also be the most carbon-emitting day of our lives? According to the latest studies, the average wedding produces between 400-600 pounds of trash and emits approximately 63 tons of CO2. All that, in just one single day! Most of us don’t realize the dreadful consequences that our wedding day could have on the environment.
Climate change is one of the greatest threats facing humanity these days, and it’s time for all of us to take action. Luckily, young couples these days are starting to be more conscious about the environment. They are searching for eco-friendly solutions that will lessen the environmental impact of their wedding day. In this post, we discuss a few useful tips that will help you plan a Sustainable Wedding.
Useful Tips on How To Plan a Sustainable Wedding
1. Choose Ethical Wedding Rings
Did you know that gold mining is one of the most environmentally toxic industries on the planet? According to EarthWorks.org, gold mining pollutes water sources and land with mercury and cyanide, and destroys countless natural habitats.
In contrast, the manufacturing of ethical wedding rings has much less impact on the environment. Choosing ethical wedding rings will make you feel empowered, that you’re helping to save our planet.
If you choose an eco-conscious jewelry designer, like Kristin Coffin, for example, you’ll feel a lot better with your wedding ring choice. Kristin Coffin prefers to use recycled gold and platinum, instead of newly mined metals. The metals used for their items are reclaimed from old jewelry or industrial components and then skilfully polished to equivalent quality as newly mined metals. These recycled and polished metals are in all respects as exquisite as newly mined ones. Kristin Coffin truly believes that beauty and ethos are inevitably intertwined.
Ethical rings by Kristin Coffin. Photo courtesy of Sophie Kaye Photography
Kristin Coffin also produces Moissanite Engagement Rings which are amazing eco-friendly diamond alternatives. They are sought after by many young brides-to-be these days, mainly because they resemble diamonds so much, but not only for that. Moissanite rings are becoming a top favorite because of their unique sparkle, glowing brilliance, rigid durability, and their alluring price. Moissanite is both ethical and sustainable since they are grown in a lab, compared to the devastating carbon footprint impact of mined gemstones.
Take a look at Kristin Coffin’s Instagram page and see how beautiful these recycled and refined pieces of art are, then add the eco-friendly spirit they all behold – and you get perfection.
Another beautiful ethical ring by Kristin Coffin. Photo by Sophie Kaye Photography
2. Choose a Sustainable Dress
Want to look gorgeous and be proud of yourself on your BIG day? Then go for a sustainable dress. What does that exactly mean? Well, it could mean that you decide to buy a 2nd hand dress, or choose a brand that utilizes sustainable fashion (use eco-friendly materials, biodegradable fabrics, deploy ethical production with renewable energy, etc).
There are more and more fashion designers that are doing their best to leave a smaller ecological footprint. Here are some brilliant designers that produce sustainable dresses.
Watch this clip to find more tips on choosing a sustainable wedding dress:
3. Choose to Rent a Tux for the Groom and Groomsmen
In most cases, a groom will never use his tux ever again, so why buy one? The same goes to the groomsmen unless one of them goes regularly to high-end cocktails as part of his job. Most men don’t need a tux laying in their wardrobe for years.
A much greener and more sustainable solution is to rent a tux for both the groom and his groomsmen. This way, you don’t just save money, but help reduce the carbon footprint on our planet. If you’re looking for a place to rent a tux – you can check Generation Tux, for example. There are many more online.
4. Choose Plated Dinners
We all know this. The amount of food that gets wasted at weddings is horrific. This is mostly thanks to Buffet Dinners, which are infamous for leaving behind huge amounts of wasted food leftovers. It shouldn’t be that way. You can reduce food waste at your wedding by planning well. As a more sustainable alternative, choose Plater Dinners to reduce the extra amounts of food that go to waste.
Also, if you’re having your wedding outdoors, you might be tempted to use single-use plates, utensils, and napkins. Please don’t. Be green in your mind and rent a pack of dishware and glassware.
Choose a plated dinner. Photo by Pablo Lancaster Jones on Unsplash.com
5. Choose Green Wedding invitations
This is probably the easiest way for you to take that step closer to being a green bride and broom that held a sustainable wedding. There are endless options out there for ecological-friendly wedding invitations. Be it the ones made from leather, upcycled fabrics, recycled paper, and more. There are even plantable wedding invitations made from seed-infused paper which your guests can later plant in their garden. There are plenty of these on Etsy.
However, to my personal opinion, the greenest way is to go absolutely paperless. This way, you can put all your energy into designing the most creative e-Invite, which could potentially go viral all over the net :).
6. Choose to Get Married Outdoors
Most indoor venues will either use air conditioning (if it’s a summer wedding) or heating devices (if it’s a winter wedding). These result in plenty of gaseous emissions that harm the ozone layer and fuel global warming.
Why don’t you get married outdoors? If you can schedule your wedding during the autumn months, when it’s a bit cooler – everyone will enjoy the party more. Especially our planet. And heck, celebrating your BIGGEST day outdoors with nature, surrounded by green trees, and birds tweeting all around you, can be an unforgettable day.
If the above is really not an option and you absolutely need to have your wedding indoors, at least choose an eco-friendly venue. These are venues that have LEED certifications, which means Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design.
Get married outdoors. Photo by Rafael Alves on Unsplash.com
7. Choose Local Wedding Vendors
This is not always the easiest thing to do and depends on your location. However, if you can, try and go local with your wedding vendors. Choose the catering, florist, DJ, and all the rest – from your town (or the closest nearby). By doing this, you’ll be cutting a lot of CO2 emitted by cars driving all the way to your wedding.
8. Choose Reused Flowers or Dried Flowers
We all agree that Flowers can make or break a wedding. They’re the ones that can truly beautify a venue. However, most wedding flowers are harmful to the environment, as they’re usually imported, grown with the use of pesticides, transported with lots of plastics and are grown in a very un-ecological way.
So how can you minimize your carbon footprint in this case? First, you can make a “reusing plan”: Use the same flowers from your reception also for your main ceremony, reuse the flower bouquets from the bridal party and use them on the grand table for a wedding cake, and so forth. Reuse, reuse and reuse again, that’s the motto.
If you plan to ditch flowers in favor of greener alternatives, you can try dry flowers, wildflowers, fabric flowers, and more. Here’s a great list of Petals for Hope.
Watch this clip to learn how to make a sustainable brides bouquet:
9. Choose Green Wedding Favors
I’m sure you want to surprise your dear guests with some fancy wedding favors, but believe me – most people nowadays will appreciate an eco-friendly wedding favor that helps sustain our planet.
How about a small box of flower seedlings as a green wedding favor that actually helps the environment? Or how about some homemade preserves made from homegrown ingredients?
Another popular eco-friendly idea for a wedding favor is a small box of organic coffee beans. These are produced by companies that put lots of care into soil health, recycling, and environmental protection. For more ideas check this post on Confetti Daydreams.
10. Choose an Eco-Friendly Honeymoon Destination
Finally, for the beautiful honeymoon days following your wedding day, try to keep a green mindset. I’m not saying you should choose a camping place in the middle of the forest, but you can definitely find eco-friendly honeymoon destinations that practice sustainable tourism.
What are eco-friendly honeymoon resorts? Well, in general, these places try their best to preserve the habitat around them, engage in sustainable practices, and have a zero carbon footprint. This means they use renewable energy, reduce water consumption, and use only eco-friendly products.
Here’s a good list of some of the loveliest eco-friendly resorts in the world. Choose one of these and you’ll feel much happier at the end!
Conclusion
Remember, your BIG day doesn’t have to be wasteful. With a few green eco-friendly ideas and solutions, It can still be the most beautiful day of your life.
Want to read more of our posts? Check out this modern tropical wedding that will inspire you to be more sustainable.
