5 Great Ways to Have a More Eco-Friendly Wedding This Year

Eco-friendly weddings are becoming a lot more popular these days. Bridal Guide cites data showing that 70% of weddings had green elements in 2017 and this figure is expected to rise. You can have your own green wedding, but you need to know what steps to take.

Guidelines for Having an Eco-Friendly Wedding

Over the years, weddings have become much larger and grander affairs than ever. Understandably, there is always some stigma around wedding budgets and managing everyone’s expectations for the big day, but in a world that is experiencing so much pressure in terms of the environment and other socio-economic challenges, having an extravagant wedding can seem frivolous. If you are looking to have a more low-key affair that keeps everything sustainable without dampening the celebratory atmosphere, here a few ideas that might just provide some inspiration for the big day:

Eco-Friendly Wedding Stationery

Avoid wasting paper or fuel by doing all your wedding correspondence digitally. Creating a website with all the necessary information is a far more modern way of doing things. If you are a traditionalist, you can select items to be printed, such as the invitations, table plan or menus. Furthermore, most stationers will offer customers the option of having their wedding stationery created using recycled paper.

Opt for a Plant-Based or Vegan Menu

Regardless of whether or not you are vegan, creating a wedding menu that features no animal products will certainly play a significant role in reducing your carbon footprint. While it may not be everyone’s cup of tea, most people won’t object to missing meat just for one day. Go the extra mile and donate any leftover food to a homeless shelter to ensure there is no waste.

Ethically Sourced Wedding Jewelry

This may be a highly contested matter, but your jewelry choice can have a huge impact on the overall impact of your wedding, especially when diamonds are involved. There are many jewelers now that can provide a decent choice of ethical engagement rings. Another alternative would be to recycle a family heirloom or getting a tattoo instead of a ring. After all, there are no hard and fast rules about how two people should represent their commitment to one another.

Grow Your Own Flowers

One way of keeping your flower choices sustainable is to work with a local florist who sources seasonal flowers locally, so they have a limited impact on the environment. If you’ve got a green thumb, it may be fun to grow your own wedding bouquet, although it may just be a little too stressful for some.

A Recycled Wedding Dress

This might be a bit controversial, as a wedding dress is a highly personal element of the big day. However, rather than spending a small fortune on a brand-new wedding dress that may need to be imported from abroad. Why not try to find a secondhand dress? After all, it’s an item that has only usually been worn once. A popular trend is for a bride to alter and upcycle her mother’s former wedding dress, which can add an element of nostalgia to the day.

Your wedding day is one of the biggest days of your life, and naturally, you want it to be special and memorable. However, this doesn’t have to mean you can’t go the extra mile in ensuring that your event has limited its carbon footprint. Making a few ethical choices when it comes to your wedding can make a huge difference when it comes to the environment.