Our Top Tips For Planning An Eco-Friendly Wedding
Living more sustainably is becoming a priority for many of us. But weddings don’t exactly lend themselves to the eco-friendly agenda, do they? At least not traditionally. From food to the carbon footprint of your guests, lots of elements within a wedding can generate excessive amounts of waste and harm the environment.
That being said, in recent years, lots of couples are making eco-friendly choices when it comes to wedding planning. And here at Lace & Favour, we’re all for it. This is why we have put together this eco-friendly wedding planning guide to help you make the best (and sometimes) easiest eco-friendly choices without compromising on your dream wedding vision.
Eco-Friendly Wedding Ideas
From the invitations and the venue to your wedding dress, accessories and flowers, there are plenty of opportunities to make eco-friendly decisions in your wedding planning. The key is not to put too much pressure on yourself to get it all right. It’s far better to make a few eco-friendly choices than feel overwhelmed by the prospect of getting every element just right. Even the smallest things can make a big difference.
We understand that planning any kind of wedding is stressful in itself. So be kind to yourself! Our list of eco-friendly wedding tips will help you navigate through the planning process with sustainable choices in mind while balancing your needs and wants. So, read on!
Wedding Invites
The use of wedding stationery naturally creates quite a bit of waste. But there are sustainable options. One of these is to use recyclable paper for your invites and steer clear of using glitter or other types of embellishments that aren’t recyclable. Seed paper is becoming increasingly popular as wedding stationery, as the card can be planted in the garden after it has served its initial purpose!
If you’re wanting to go the whole hog, you could also consider sending out e-invites. Electronic invitations and wedding websites are quite commonplace nowadays and RSVPs can be easily sent back with no fear of them getting lost in the post!
Venue
Choosing the right venue for your wedding day is a big deal. You’ve likely got an idea in your head of where you want your wedding ceremony and reception to take place (e.g. country house or church). The good news is, you don’t have to compromise on your dreams when making eco-friendly venue choices.
Travel to and from your wedding venue is probably the biggest part of both yours and your guest's carbon footprint. So, if you’re planning with that in mind, explore local venue options that are close to both you and your guests. If that’s not possible (for example, you have family that lives overseas or far away) you could always suggest your guests offset their travel through a carbon offset scheme.
If you want to go all-in with an eco-friendly wedding venue, there are a wide range of venues ranging from farms and cottages, tipis and country estates across the UK that offer eco-friendly wedding day packages.
Catering
Many venues offer in-house catering as part of their wedding packages, which sometimes means eco-friendly choices are harder to make. That being said, it’s not impossible. If you make your wishes known to the person in charge of your wedding, they will likely be able to accommodate your wishes for the most part. And, as we say, even the little things help!
Ways in which you can champion eco-friendly values in your big day catering include choosing only vegetarian options and avoiding disposable dinnerware, such as plastic cutlery and cups.
Decor
Venue decor is probably one of the easiest elements of your weddings to make eco-friendly tweaks to. While you might not think your decor and favours will have much of an impact on the environment, a closer look reveals a different story. With that in mind, consider more sustainable options for your big day.
Wedding favours and their packaging are a simple but effective way of nailing your eco-friendly credentials to the mast. As well as your choice of confetti! If your venue permits it, biodegradable confetti makes for a lovely, practical wedding favour that isn’t harmful to the environment. Similarly, you might want to consider homemade favours like jam, soap, or flower seeds, which make for a lovely, practical keepsake.
Dresses & Accessories
Your wedding dress and accessories are some of the most important aspects of your big day. No doubt, every bride wants to feel like that Belle of the ball at their wedding and far be it from us to deprive you of that!
That being said, there are ways you can look to preserve your dress and accessories for the future. For example, consider reusing your dress or doing your best not to spoil it on your wedding day so it can be handed down through the generations. Alternatively, you might consider donating it to charity or selling it afterwards to give it a second life. Similarly, hair accessories and jewellery can be stored away and reused, either by yourself or others to increase their longevity.
You could also give your bridesmaids the option to choose their own bridesmaid dresses and encourage them to pick designs they will wear again. Similarly, they could be donated afterwards to your local charity shop.
Planning An Eco-Friendly Wedding
As you can see, there is a whole world of possibilities when it comes to planning an eco-friendly wedding. What’s more, lots of them are minor tweaks to your big day that make a difference.
The trick to planning sustainable nuptials is to not be too hard on yourself. You might not have the budget or the means to make every single eco-friendly choice you’d like, but that’s okay! At the end of the day, it’s your wedding and there’s no point putting unnecessary pressure on yourself. Instead, enjoy the process! Use our tips above to draw inspiration and pick and choose what works for you!
