We love brides and grooms that care about the environment and who genuinely care about living sustainably. What we love even MORE are couples who express interest in going green for their wedding day. So much waste comes out of large-scale events, and at Pacific Engagements, we are more than willing to help couples brainstorm ways to make a wedding eco-friendly. We have compiled ideas to make your wedding sustainable with the hopes that you’ll do your part for our earth while wedding planning.
Marry during daylight hours
Save energy by getting married during the daytime. Not only will there be natural light present for amazing wedding photos, but you’ll be able to enjoy your dinner reception while using less electricity. Dine al fresco in a beautiful setting such as a beach, park, botanical garden, or farm where there are a multitude of incredible spots to say, “I do.” Plus, with your surroundings speaking for themselves, you’ll save money on decorations.
Grow your wedding bouquet
Love to DIY and make arrangements from the flowers in your home garden? Remember that you don’t have to just use full blooms in your bouquet, but you can use greenery, flowers, and herbs in all stages of growth to create a bridal bouquet of your own.
Use farm-to-table caterers
Talk to your wedding caterer about creating a dinner menu using local ingredients. If you want to go the extra mile, try to conjure up tray-passed hors d’oeuvres and menu selections that can be eaten without utensils or vessels. Food items that can be eaten in a single bite or with an edible vessel mean your guests won’t have to worry about throwing away waste, and in the end, there will be less waste overall!
Send sustainable invitations
Create sustainable wedding invitations using recycled or plantable paper (yes, there is such a thing as seeded paper that your guests can plant in their garden afterwards). If you want to make your invitation suite more romantic with ribbon ties, consider using fabric scraps from your hemmed wedding dress to tie it all together.
Utilize organic elements
Rather than using paper for all of your wedding stationery needs, opt for using natural elements instead. Source for rocks, sea shells, crystals, and wood to serve as your table numbers, escort cards, table decoration, throwing confetti, and dinner menus. Spend the months leading up to your wedding collecting natural items. Not only are these items easy to source, they end up being the cheaper option that can appear more unique and romantic in the end.
Something borrowed
Going back to American wedding traditions, consider finding “something borrowed” to decorate your wedding with. Look around your home for decor items that can be utilized in a wedding setting, such as vases, candlesticks, votives, serving trays, and even furniture pieces. Many of these home items can make for incredible design displays.
Also keep in mind that friends may still have wedding decor items from their own wedding days that they may be keeping in storage. Ask first before buying. It will save you time researching, money, and the environment!
Wear versatile attire
When selecting outfits to wear for your engagement, bridal shower, and rehearsal parties, choose versatile clothing that you can wear more than once. Opt for chic, but classy statement pieces that are perfect for all of your wedding celebrations, as well as other events to come.
Living centerpieces that can be planted post-wedding
Decorate your wedding with potted flowers and plants. They not only make beautiful centerpieces and decor, but you and your wedding guests can take them home and plant them afterwards.
Provide hand towels
Provide plush hand towels for your wedding guests in the bathrooms as an alternative for paper towels. Not only does it drastically reduce paper waste, but will make your wedding feel more high-class at the same time.
Offer guest transportation
Arrange for a mode of transportation for guests to arrive and depart from your wedding celebration. Not only is it a safer for guests to get from destination to destination (especially if they’ve indulged in a few cocktails), but it also decreases the amount of vehicles being used on your wedding day.
Use a floral recycling service like Bloomerent
Rather than throwing away all of your wedding florals after 5-6 hours of use, give them a new purpose by signing up to have a floral recycling service (like Bloomerent) pick them up and use them for a different event the next day! Not only are you helping to reduce waste, but sharing your wedding centerpieces can save you 10% on your floral costs. And if you choose to be on the receiving end by reusing someone else’s centerpieces, you can save up to 60%.
Purchase your wedding gown from a consignment bridal boutique
If you haven’t heard yet, there are up-and-coming consignment bridal boutiques popping up in major cities. Over the years, multiple brides have realized that they kept encountering the same thought post-wedding…What do I do with my wedding dress now?
Since that realization, consignment bridal boutiques, such as Blue Sky Bridal, have come into existence. Their model is simple: Help women sell their wedding gowns to new brides at an affordable price, while also helping out the local community economically. They also work with local bridal stores and designers by selling out-of-season sample gowns. If that’s not a win-win, I don’t know what is!
Rent dining ware
Renting glassware, china plates, serving ware, and utensils from a company that has it all is much more eco-conscious compared to the alternatives. Some brides and grooms purchase all of the table ware essentials, but then have no use for 100+ sets of place settings after their wedding commences. Renting is not only cheaper compared to purchasing, but also is much less of a hassle to store away.
Renting also eliminates plastic and paper waste from your event. Rather than guests using 300+ plastic cups once before tossing them out, as well as endless paper cocktail napkins enduring the same fate, please consider how much of an impact on our Earth you can have if you merely rent and strive to keep your wedding plastic-free.
Plastic-free & practical wedding favors
If you’re planning to go the giving-out-wedding-favors route, try to find a way of displaying/packaging the favors without the use of plastic or unnecessary paper wrap. Bonus points if you gift out practical favors that your guests will actually use on the daily.
Make your own wedding candles
If you’re a candle lover, and have countless amounts of candles throughout your home, consider reusing your old candles to create new ones for your wedding. By saving the unused wax that lingers at the bottom of candle jars, you can melt those pieces and pour them into clean, glass containers with a new wick and - voila!
Most venue spaces allow the use of candles, as long as the flame is contained within a glass vessel. So save up glass jars from the kitchen, cosmetics, and old candles (I’ve found that glass baby food jars make for the perfect-sized mini candles) and repurpose them around your wedding venue to add a romantic ambiance, along with a personal touch.
Have your wedding party pick out their own outfits
We all know someone who specifically bought a bridesmaid dress for their friend’s wedding, but it has never left their closet or has already been donated - a waste of hundreds of dollars.
Instead of asking your closest friends to purchase a dress they will only wear once, give them some creative freedom! Tell your wedding party a specific color palette, and to pick out something they feel beautiful (or handsome) in, will be comfortable in, and that they would feel excited about wearing again. They’ll all be grateful that they can show off their unique style save money at the same time.
Use chalkboards, mirrors, or glass decor for wedding signage
If you have awesome framed mirrors or large glass decorative pieces hanging out around your house, put them to use for your wedding! Rather than printing out 200+ paper wedding programs, paper escort cards, and paper dinner menus for your guests to utilize, think statement pieces. By writing all of the information your guests need on chalkboards, mirrors, or glass bottles or pedestals, you’re saving SO much money on paper items that will probably just get thrown away after your reception.
Plus, how much more awestruck are you with the pictured bar menu? Sometimes, repurposed decor items for your wedding add to your aesthetic even more than you could ever imagine.
Alternative guest books
Instead of the traditional hardcover guest book that ends up on the shelf, think of alternative guest book ideas that you will be proud to have on display, or even use frequently. Explore our compilation of wedding guest book alternatives for more creative ideas.
Photography credits
1 Anna Peters | 2 Mary Kalhor | 3 Tetiana Photography | 4 Tec Petaja | 5 Anna Peters | 6 Braedon Photography | 7 Elena Popa | 8 Claire Fleck | 9 Not Available | 10 Char Beck | 11 Anna Peters | 12 Nells Photography | 13 Anna Peters | 14 Allison Harp | 15 Style Me Pretty | 16 Kyle John Photography | 17 Olivia Griffin | 18 Emily March Photography