9 Tips and Ideas for an Eco-Friendly Wedding
Plan a wedding that aligns with your values, and you'll probably save a little money in addition to saving the earth.
When my husband and I were planning our wedding, we knew it had to be low-key, casual and preferably outdoors. To this day, years later, I do not regret one thing about how we chose to say and celebrate our vows. And included in my list of non-regrets are the choices we consciously made to have as eco-friendly a wedding as we could. So as another anniversary approaches, I'm sharing those choices with you.
Vandiver Chaplin
1. Location: Reserve a Preserve
After much deliberation, we decided to have our wedding practically in our own backyard at a nature preserve. Many city and county parks will allow weddings, especially if you plan the particulars, as will state and national parks. The “What if it rains?” question was ever-present (as it is with any outdoor wedding), but at a certain point, we just relaxed, left it up to Mother Nature, and in the end, it all worked out. Choosing a park or preserve not only gives you a beautiful spot to get married, but it also contributes financially and gives exposure to a place devoted to environmental stewardship.
Vandiver Chaplin
2. Arrange Sustainably Grown Flowers
I would like to say that I used a local farm or gardener for our flowers, which is an excellent idea, but I did the next best thing that I could afford and purchased our flowers through the floral counter at Whole Foods (who sources sustainably and ethically grown blooms) and asked a very talented friend to arrange them for us using vases (mainly vintage Mason jars) that I’d collected over the years.
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3. Buy Booze in Bulk
Rather than buying lots of individual bottles or cans for our beer-loving friends, we chose kegs instead, which greatly reduced the amount of trash or recycling (or cleanup!) needed for our fiesta. We did use plastic cups, but luckily, the recycling opportunities available caught most of this un-eco-friendly clutter. If you wanted to take it a step further, you could ask friends who brew to make the beer for you.
Vandiver Chaplin
4. Hire Local Vendors
Our rehearsal dinner and wedding reception were both very casual, and we chose local vendors — individuals who were friends or friends of friends — to provide the food for each. We had barbecue and sides for our reception from — get this — a gas-station BBQ joint that was amazing, and so many people asked for the pit master’s business card that he ran out. We also asked my now-sister-in-law, an avid baker, to make our cakes, which were fantastic. All these choices kept our radius of influence and purchasing small, which is a great eco-friendly practice in general.
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5. Choose Compostable or Recyclable Dinnerware
Like I mentioned before, we went casual (better known as Rustic Chic) for our wedding vibe, so it wasn’t a stretch to use compostable paper plates and compostable flatware for our BBQ dinner. I ordered mine here (and so over-calculated the number needed that we are still using them for parties nearly three years later!). Bonus: Our eco-friendly location already had bins in place for recycling and composting, so that next step was already taken care of for us. If your location doesn’t have recycling bins, you could dress up a few and scatter them about with a friendly reminder to guests.
BOB FARLEY/F8PH0TO.ORG, Bob Farley
6. Grow Plantable Party Favors
While I didn't source our flower from local farms, we did get our party favors — heirloom tomato plants — custom-grown by good friends at Maple Valley Nursery. They were nice enough to customize the plant tags for us, too. The best thing about this was seeing friends post pictures of their plants and tomato harvest later in the season, so it was like the joy of our wedding day was living on in our friends’ gardens all over the country. You could find a local grower to do the same for you, or opt for custom wedding seed packets, such as these wildflower seeds from American Meadows.
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Indulgent Breakfast Kit
After the after-party, your friends and family will be thankful to open up a box of ready-made breakfast. Wrap biscuits and a jam jar in waxed paper, then tuck into a white pastry box and adorn with a strip of burlap, raffia ribbon and a sprig of greenery.
Giant Cookies
Kim Stoegbauer of The TomKat Studio used a CD envelope as a clever wrapper for a giant homemade cookie. Attach printable tags and seal envelopes with decorative twine for favors that both music lovers and cookie monsters will appreciate.
More Cowbell
Get more bang for your buck with favors that double as a send-off! Adorn cute cowbells with a DIY tag featuring your new initials and a thank you note for guests on the back.
Photo By: Amber Lowe Photo
Sunflower Seeds
Kick your nuptials off with a sunny start by sending friends home with bags of sunflower seeds. Get the free printable label and instruction card below.
Photo By: Sarah Busby; Styling by H. Camille Smith
Beautiful Fresh Cuts
These sweet mini arrangements can be used as place settings or as extra wedding decor. Just be sure to let your guests know they can take them home when they leave.
Photo By: Flynnside Out Productions
Infused Liquor
As easy as mixing together a few common kitchen ingredients with standard liquors, these three festive flavors make delicious party favors. For guests 21 and over, of course.
Mini LP Coasters
Share your love of music with your guests by turning mini LPs into drink coasters. Search for small vinyl albums or toy albums approximately 4 inches in diameter. Choose an assortment of colors for a playful look, or choose albums with the same coloring for a more cohesive feel. Go one step further and print custom sticker labels featuring the couple's names and wedding date.
Candy Kit Bottles
Give just the right amount of something sweet by filling small glass vials with various candies. Nerds, Sour Worms and Snowcaps are great options for catering to different candy preferences.
Dahlia Bulbs
Green up your party guests' thumbs with these take-home surprises that truly are the gift that keeps giving. Following the free, downloadable instructions, your guests can plant these pre-packaged dahlia bulbs for an abundance of beautiful blooms.
Photo By: Cassidy Garcia: Styling by H. Camille Smith
Love Letters
Create several gifts from one vintage license plate with cut metal keychains. Search antique stores for old steel plates ranging in different letters and numbers. Use metal snips to cut out the letters and numbers, then sandpaper the edges. Add a hole along the top with a drill and a 1/8-inch drill bit, then attach a metal key ring into the hole.
Photo By: Brian Patrick Flynn
Pick a (Plaster) Posey
Dip inexpensive faux flowers and succulents into plaster to create delicate mini sculptures that look like pricey porcelain.
Photo By: Sarah Busby; Styling by H. Camille Smith
Hot Chocolate Spoons
Great for a colder-season wedding, these delectable coconut chocolate spoons are a delicious way to say, "Thank you."
Garden Markers
Upcycle utensils into herb markers for your guests' garden with help from a letter and number stamp kit.
Sweet Orange Ginger Tea
Combine your favorite spices in adorable glass bottles to create a custom tea blend for wedding guests.
Mini Evergreen Trees
Leave guests with a gift that they can plant and watch grow. These evergreen seedling favors will grow into full-sized Christmas trees in the right conditions. DOWNLOAD THE FREE PRINTABLE TAG
Place Card Journals
Save money by combining your favors and your place cards. You can buy inexpensive blank journals in bulk and add stamped labels bearing each guest's name. Voilà, a terrific two-in-one gift.
Mini Pinecone Firestarters
For your guests who have fireplaces or love camping, these homemade firestarters are quick and easy to make. They smell yummy, too, thanks to pine and eucalyptus essential oils. Fill a glass jar with the dried, wax-covered pinecones and tie on a hand-lettered label with twine.
Peanut Butter Chocolate Cups
Give guests a warm, sweet drink to enjoy during the holiday season, plus a felt drink sleeve they can use all year long. Add peanut butter and chocolate chips to a disposable coffee cup, then guests just add steamy milk and enjoy!
Rose Body Scrub
Make your own rose body scrub that your guests are sure to appreciate. Mix together equal parts coarse sea salt and almond oil then stir in two tablespoons of dried rose petals. Place the mixture into small jars for guests to take home.
7. Pick Wear-Again Clothes
My bridesmaids might beg to differ, but overall, my husband and I tried to pick clothing for our small bridal party that would be wearable for many years and many occasions. He chose khakis and a simple navy sportcoat, along with white Chucks that he actually caught one of his groomsmen wearing before the wedding. I picked red dresses (that may or may not be considered wearable again) and let the ladies pick shoes they would be comfortable in and would definitely wear again. I actually wear my wedding shoes all the time and it always makes me think of that day (and how I flipped them off post-ceremony and danced barefoot most of the night).
Eco Idea: Restore a Vintage Wedding Dress
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8. Register for Give-Back Gifts
I hear some version of this from brides in their 30s and beyond: “I don’t feel like registering, because I already have all the dishes I need.” One bit of advice is that people are going to get you gifts no matter what, so you might as well pick some stuff you want. In our case, we did register for some nice kitchenware, but we also registered at REI for camping and outdoor gear we needed or wanted. Unconventional, I know, but our guests actually really enjoyed buying the random backpacking egg holders, headlamp batteries and such on our list, knowing they’d be a part of our adventures to come and would help us enjoy the outdoors, which is a major part of living an eco-friendly lifestyle. However, we also asked for donations to various charities in lieu of material gifts, including donations to the river conservation organization through which we met.
9. Make a Mindful Exit
When thinking about our getaway after the reception, my friend, naturalist and fellow blogger Michelle was adamant that we not throw birdseed, as the mixes can often contain seed for non-native plant species. Instead, she created a mix of native seed that guests could scoop up and toss (only in designated areas) to preserve the native-planting plans at the preserve. You can buy bulk seed from places like American Meadows and do something similar — just check with your location to make sure you’re not seeding anything they’re trying to keep out. You want your wedding to be part of the solution, not the problem.
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