Green Weddings: How to Plan an Eco-Friendly Celebration

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

The wedding is the most beautiful day, and the only instruction given to event planners is to be over the top. Sustainability is right at the bottom of the instructions. However, planning an event around sustainability will only enhance our experience and our impact on the planet. 

Do you think sustainability is cutting out the budget, inviting fewer people, and keeping it simple? Well, no, not entirely. The eco-friendly practices will only enhance the experience of love and commitment without the addition of a carbon footprint. As we are implying, sustainability is not a buzzkill. It is a commitment to a better future for both the events industry and the world at large. But a wedding, a one-day affair, how can it be polluting our mother Earth? 

The guide will focus on the practices that can be used and the reasons behind adopting a greener wedding and upholding the trend of sustainable weddings. 

The remnants of the Wedding Party

After the glorious wedding party, only one thing remains, which is waste, and a heap of it. The statistics on waste are too horrific to ignore. The prepandemic wedding produced one-third of a metric tonne of solid waste and 14.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide. The waste is so much that it will cover more than half of the globe in the coming years. 

The wedding industry is a collage of many industries that are polluting the world in just one day. Wedding professionals are also aware of the waste that is piling up and operate in the realms of luxury and excess. Also, the money-churning industry recks the carbon footprint of the average yearly footprint of a household with just one wedding. 

With more weddings happening per year, each wedding averagely emits 14,500 kg CO2eq (or 14.5 tons CO2e), at least half of which could be reduced by making sensible, considered choices. If we could even half that amount of carbon footprint emitted per wedding and add all the emissions that are being saved, Then there is a potential of taking 866,847 cars off the road for a year!

Didn’t you think that one day of festivity could cause so much carbon pollution and endanger human residences in the near future? Well, even we thought so, too. However, the wedding industry needs to come up with more sustainable ways to help couples make more environmentally friendly choices.

But right now, we are here to give you a snippet of ideas to bring sustainability to your marriage day, making event practices sustainable and greener. Hence reducing environmental impact, sourcing eco-friendly materials, and promoting responsible event management.

Sustainable Practices Which Can Be Included for the D-Day

Hosting a sustainable wedding is wonderful. The nuptials involve eco-friendly practices and utilize biodegradable decor to reduce waste or serve locally sourced meals. The list of options below will help you in planning the event and make it more eco-friendly and vintage with tasteful decor. 

Hire the Right Vendors

The first step in planning is hiring vendors who follow eco-friendly practices. Ask the right questions before hiring by asking about the materials used for sustainability before signing a contract. Having an open dialogue will only confirm their efforts to be more sustainable and what those efforts are.

Choose a Sustainable Venue

The wedding venue sometimes costs a bomb, and it is added with a lot of acrylic embellishments. Choosing a wedding establishment with LEED certification will only help the cause. Also, buildings used for charity events or any educational camps when there is no wedding season only belies the credibility for sustainability. 

Think Locally

Arranging a wedding in picturesque locations is straight out of fairytales. But generally, these locations are near remote areas, and using traditional ways of event planning will only increase greenhouse gas emissions. But surrounding the event with local food, local and in-season flowers, local stationery designers, local musicians or artists, local jewellers, local favours, and local beer, wine, and spirit brands will only add sparkle to the wedding. 

The extra tip: working with local vendors will work wonders as they know the nearby farms and producers. 

Give The Extras to Needy

After the wedding, there is a lot of surplus food and floral decor. Find ways to donate them to be used by non-profits and those in need. They can compost food and flowers, or they can provide them to people in need. 

Use Sustainable Floral Practices

Flowers have always been an integral part of any wedding. So, cut back the amount of flowers without compromising on aesthetics. Also, with flower arrangements, floral foam is synonymous with floral decorations. Floral foam is nothing but a block of microplastic that is hazardous for many reasons. 

Ask the designer to use what is locally available. Seasonal florals work wonders, support local growers, and reduce the flowers’ carbon footprint substantially.

Try Not to Buy

In any economy, wedding attire has always cost way more than the above value. When counting the bill from the little things to the wedding dress, the total amount can feed a house of four for a year. Hence, buy fewer products and focus on renting, borrowing, or skipping products altogether and getting creative with the space. 

There is always a way

Sustainability is not about perfection. As citizens of the planet, we are doing our bit, and how digital media has always given a reality check with our consumption in our everyday lives, and it has surely trickled down into our wedding days. We are always conscious about the economy, society, and natural resources for ourselves and our future generations. 

The above pointers will only help you pick which sustainable initiatives you will incorporate into your wedding. The practices will not only align with global environmental goals but also resonate with an increasingly eco-conscious audience. The event will also be a hit as attendees will only applaud the cause, which is prioritizing sustainability– a key factor in the success and reputation of any gathering. 

Accessibility and affordability are the keys, and companies are willing to provide products and services more sustainably. Hence, the idea of a sustainable wedding is just a click away.