3 ways to have a more sustainable and eco friendly small wedding or elopement.
Among the many reasons that having a small, intimate wedding or elopement can be an amazing idea, helping to save the environment is high on most people’s lists. It’s no secret that big weddings create a ton of waste. Below are some ways you can make your small, intimate wedding more sustainable and eco friendly.
Less food consumption and waste
Big buffets and huge catered events create a ton of food waste. Usually this food isn’t locally sourced and can travel thousands of miles contributing to greenhouse gas emissions but most large catering companies end up tossing leftovers. Not to mention what your guests will toss out when there seems to be a never-ending supply of 2nds. By going small and limiting the number of heads, you will have so many more options of local, farm to table meals that larger companies feeding hundreds can’t always provide. You could go a step further and either donate or compost any leftovers as smaller companies or hell, even provide sustainable to go boxes for guests to take leftovers home!
Going paperless
Eloping or having a more intimate ceremony with only your closest friends and family means you can forego the fancy formal invites and either use email lists, E-vites or just invite your guests in person! Invitation suites include not just the invite itself, but RSVP cards, food choice cards, hotel and lodging info, gift registry info and enveloped for sending and returning. All added up that’s a lot of unnecessary paper that will just end up in the trash. While it may be hard to communicate all things wedding with a hundred plus guests, when you limit your guest list, you open yourself up to alternative methods of communicating all details and cut back on all of that paper waste. If you still love the idea of traditional paper invites. There are many companies that offer recycled and eco friendly invitations that may be in your budget if you don’t have to purchase hundreds! here’s just a couple my favorites…
https://www.paperculture.com - and bonus? every order plants a tree!
Another great idea is invitations that contain seeds your guests can plant for beautiful flowers.
The best part of this is you know your invites won’t end up shoved in a drawer or even worse, the trash <clutches pearls>!
https://www.greenfieldpaper.com/AWSCategories/c/12/WEDDING-COLLECTION
https://botanicalpaperworks.com/catalog/wedding-collection/plantable-seed-wedding-invitations/
And of course, online invitations…
Flowers
Easily one of the most beautiful things you will purchase for your wedding. But most people don’t know or understand the environmental impact of purchasing thousands of dollars worth of flowers for your day. Unless you have a source to obtain organically grown and locally sourced flowers, most will be grown using lots of chemicals and stored and shipped super long distances using heavily refrigerated greenhouses and vehicles. All of this lends to energy eating and more greenhouse emissions just to have beautiful plants at your wedding.
By going small you can cut the amount of flowers you need from dozens of bouquets, centerpieces, arches and decorations to just a few select arrangements and a couple bouquets. All of which can be used for both the ceremony and reception. You’ll not only save money but because you scale down, you may be able to give this business to a small local flower shop or garden. Or even better? Use a local greenhouse and potted plants and succulents that you and your guests can take home and enjoy for years to come!
Do you have other ideas on how to make your wedding the eco friendly event of the season? Let us know in the comments!
