Your wedding day should be one of the best days of your life; full of love, happiness and amazing ambiance. And just because you have refined taste, it doesn’t mean you can’t have a beautiful and environmentally conscious wedding. I tried to work in as many green choices as possible on my big day, and I just loved the outcome. Here are a few tips on how to make your celebration more eco, from my wedding to yours.
Food & Beverage
One of the biggest things you can do to make your big day eco, is start with the food you serve. Try and source as locally as you can. This will cut down on the carbon emissions used to get your food to you and also means that your food will be super fresh (and yummy). Also pick ingredients that are in season, they are better for the planet and I promise they will taste better. Keep this in mind for your booze too…our champagne came from down the road.
Candles
I am a sucker for candle light. But most candles are made from petroleum, polymers and worst of all unsustainable palm oil. The latter is a horrendous business that is responsible for destroying the jungles that are home to our disappearing orangutans. Opt for natural candles, my favorite being beeswax. While these candles are a bit more expensive, they are brighter and have a longer burn time. So you won’t have to replace them even if the party goes late night. We stayed up dancing till 2am, and the candles were still going strong.
Cork Card Holders
I was constantly trying to think of ways to upcycle during my planning. I came up with the idea to use old corks as the holders for the table numbers. I just had my Dad cut the corks in half long way and then cut a little slit in the top for the paper to go in. They were cute, worked with our décor and the best part was they were free and recycled when we were done. You could do this for name tags, place settings and more.
Invitations and Paper
I opted to do an electronic Save the Date to save paper but then I went all out on my invitations. It was my amazing calligrapher, Laura at Yellow House Calligraphy, who found me the best paper company. Smock Paper is a beautiful letterpress company who uses 100% bamboo paper, runs on wind energy, uses only vegetable base dyes and donates surplus to local schools. And I can honestly say that my invitations with the by hand calligraphy were more beautiful than the ones I have received from the White House.
