Weddings can be magical, meaningful, and fun. They can also create a heck of a lot of waste. That waste is not only bad for the environment, it’s also bad for your wallet. As a result, many brides and grooms are interested in how to host an eco-friendly wedding that’s still beautiful and unique.
From choosing your rings to planning your honeymoon and everything in between, there are tons of options to make your wedding more environmentally mindful. You can choose one or two options or many of them to defray your impact as much as you can. And bonus! You’ll probably save money by following some of these tips. So let’s go into the specifics of planning an eco-friendly wedding.
Eco-Friendly Wedding Rings and Jewelry
The first place where you can make a difference actually happens before you’re engaged. And that’s what rings you choose. Traditionally, engagement rings have at least one diamond in them. However, that tradition is not the most environmentally conscious. Indeed, traditional diamond mines are highly polluting, contaminating waterways, razing forests, and eroding soil. Plus, they are known for their horrifying labor practices. Not exactly the bright start you want to your engagement!
Luckily, there are an increasing number of alternatives to these tarnished diamonds. For one, lab grown diamonds are more eco-friendly and cheaper. These diamonds are also not visibly different from traditional diamonds, though they do tend to be slightly less durable. You can also purchase diamonds that are sourced from Canadian mines, which have high environmental and labor standards.
Diamond Alternatives
Alternatively, choose a ring that *gasp* does not have a diamond in it! Did you know that the tradition of giving diamond engagement rings became popular because of a marketing campaign by the De Beers diamond mining company in the 1800s? Romantic, I know!
Instead of diamonds, you can pick a ring that uses lab-grown moissanite, a diamond lookalike stone. Or you can pick a ring that has stones or designs that more closely align with your style.
For example, prior to getting engaged, I told my partner that I didn’t want a ring with traditional diamonds in it. Instead, I preferred a ring with blue standstone, a dark blue, sparkly stone that looks like the night sky. It fit well with my style and love of nature, while being much cheaper and better for the environment than a traditional engagement ring. He bought a ring that also had lab-grown diamonds on the sides.
Additionally, sapphires, rubies, and pearls are often less invasive to mine. Plus, you can find lab-grown options for some of these and other gemstone options as well! You can also purchase rings made from fair trade metal, recycled metals like gold, silver, or steel, or metals that are abundant like titanium and tungsten. Regardless of which option you choose, check the sourcing to make sure they use sustainable and ethical practices.
Finally, the most eco-friendly wedding option is exchanging vintage rings! If you have family heirloom pieces, those are a great option. You can also find vintage pieces online. Etsy and Ebay are great sources for vintage items. And, of course, many antique stores and even some jewelers sell vintage pieces.
Eco-Friendly Wedding Venues and Locations
Once you’re engaged, one of your first wedding planning steps is picking a venue. This is a big area where you can have an eco-friendly impact.
Choose a Local Venue
First, consider choosing a venue that minimizes travel for as many of your guests as possible. Most likely, that’s a venue that’s local to you and your partner. Flights and transportation majorly add up in terms of their cost and environmental impact. Not to mention, planning is considerably more difficult for destination weddings so picking a local venue can save you major headaches.
Even for local venues, consider how your guests will get there. Try to pick a place you could use for both the ceremony and reception to lower transportation costs and help save your guests time and stress. If parking is limited and/or a lot of driving is involved, consider offering shuttle services or encouraging guests to carpool. Both options can make your guests’ experience way better while being more eco-friendly. At the same time, shuttle services will cost you money! So consider those unexpected costs before actually deciding on your venue.
And consider venues that have kitchens, chairs, tables, and other valuable supplies onsite to minimize the amount of things you need to bring to the venue. Bonus! This also reduces stress and will likely reduce your overall costs as well.
Things to Look for In a Sustainable Venue
Also consider venues that prioritize sustainability. For example, if you get married at a park or botanical garden, you’re supporting valuable outdoor spaces financially. Plus, these kinds of venues tend to be more eco-conscious in terms of their energy use and sourcing as well. Outdoor venues may also save you on energy costs, though that argument could go out the window if you end up needing to supply heaters, generators, transport a lot of supplies to the venue, etc.
You might also look for venues that use renewable energy and sustainable materials in their building design and décor. On a simpler level, look for venues with good natural lighting to minimize the electricity use.
Eco-Friendly Wedding Invitations and Stationery
Invitations and stationery are another area where you can easily have an environmental impact. The most eco-friendly and cheapest option is to forego paper save-the-dates and invitations and send e-invites instead.
If that sounds unappealing, consider just sending invitations instead of both invitations and save-the-dates. Keep in mind that if you go with this option, you’ll likely want to send out the invites at least a few months ahead of time or even earlier. This option will save you money and time and will halve your paper usage. Plus, your guests may RSVP earlier than they otherwise would, reducing planning stress.
And if you want to send invitations and save-the-dates, you still have lots of eco-friendly wedding options. Many printers offer recyclable paper as an option. You can even find invitations that are made with plantable paper embedded with wildflower seeds. Likewise, look for printers that use environmentally friendlier options for printing, whether its naturally-sourced ink or more minimalist designs that require less ink in the first place.
Environmentally-Friendly Wedding Decorations
Decorations are one of those sneaky places that can cost way more than you expect and be super wasteful. At the same time, they can transform your venue into something really magical and personalized. So how do you balance those? The key is to go back to the 3 Rs we learned in elementary school: reduce, reuse, recycle. Think about how you can apply those to your decorative elements.
Eco-Friendly Wedding Flower Options
Flowers are one of the biggest decorative components of a wedding. For flowers, you can choose blooms that are seasonal and local. Like many of the other eco-friendly wedding options, doing so is a win-win for the environment and your budget. Seasonal, local blooms don’t require as much energy to grow and transport. Consequently, they’re generally much cheaper.
Composting dead plants or preserving them and reusing them is also more eco-friendly then relegating them to the trash. While you might think things like plant matter decay quickly, that’s rarely the case. For decomposition to occur, you need oxygen. And often landfills are packed so full of garbage, there’s no oxygen to help things decay.
Similarly, you can choose potted plants (like succulents) for some of your flowers and centerpieces. Bonus! They can then be given away as party favors.
Finally, you might consider renting artificial flowers. Artificial flowers are shockingly lifelike. Plus, you don’t have to worry about wilting. Another benefit is that you can generally rent these flowers a la carte. In other words, you can buy only the pieces you want. Relatively few florists offer this kind of option so renting artificial flowers is often much cheaper than hiring a florist.
Other Sustainable Decor
Aside from flowers, what other eco-friendly wedding décor options do you have? Any décor that you can rent, rather than buy, will generally be more eco-friendly, especially if you can rent those items locally. For example, you can often rent arches, photo booths, lights and décor for photo ops.
Similarly, look for décor from thrift stores. You can often find fun, vintage options for photo booths at places like Goodwill and Salvation Army. You may remember from the post on money-saving wedding décor that some couples have used wooden ladders, stacks of books, and other reusable items as creative arches.
Also look for décor that is made from natural and compostable elements, like flowers, greenery, and wood. Unlike plastic or synthetic items, natural elements can (generally) regenerate. And you can often compost these items too. For example, you might consider eucalyptus branches, moss, or vines as beautiful table runners. Similarly, you can use these items to create wreaths and nestle candles, table labels, framed pictures, floral arrangements, and so much more in the middle.
And similar to the points about invitations and stationery, you can use recyclable paper for print items and use less ink or more environmentally-friendly ink sources. Think critically as well about how many print elements are actually improving on your décor. In many cases we could probably be following Coco Chanel’s fashion advice when it comes to decorations: “Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take at least one thing off.” Going with a less is more approach can save you time and money, while reducing waste.
Sustainable Food Options
If you want to create an eco-friendly wedding menu, look for caterers that specialize in local, organic, and/or seasonal menus. Any of these options will make a big difference in the environmental impact of your menu.
Even for caterers that don’t offer these options, you can often request menus that include less or even no meat. Meat contributes at least 11% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions (the percentage is probably higher)! And going meat-free or with less meat will likely save you lots of money, as vegetarian options are often much cheaper.
Another big contributor to greenhouse gas emissions is food waste. Throwing away food might not seem like a big deal, it just decomposes in the landfill, right? Unfortunately when it does it releases methane, which majorly pollutes the environment and contributes to climate change. And it wastes all the effort and resources that went into making the food in the first place.
So work with your caterer to reduce food waste. You might donate leftovers, provide guests with takeout containers or Tupperware to take food home (this can also serve as a party favor!), take food home yourself, or compost it. Andrew and I are having a brunch wedding. We are also hosting a breakfast the next day for close family and out-of-towners to spend more time together. Consequently, we’ll be able to reuse leftover food at the breakfast the next day!
“Green” Wedding Drink Options
Next, evaluate your drink options. Avoid serving individually packaged drinks like bottles of water and opt instead for a hydration station where guests can refill their cups with water or other drink options. To the extent you’re able to, get larger bottles of drinks and alcohol to further reduce that packaging waste.
Additionally, alcohol products are generally not great for the environment. Production processes often use a lot of land and energy. Wine and beer may be better than many kinds of hard alcohol. However, your best bet is checking the practices of individual companies and going local if possible. The same goes for mixers like juice!
Eco-Friendly Wedding Dishes, Napkins, and Flatware
Also consider your plates, napkins, and flatware. Try to go with options that are reusable, recyclable, or compostable. And if you’re going with the recyclable or compostable option, make sure you understand your local areas rules for what is recyclable and compostable in your area. As a Seattleite, I’m lucky. We are able to recycle and compost a whole lot of stuff. But that isn’t the case in a lot of areas. You don’t want to specifically purchase recyclable flatware only to find it has to go in the garbage anyway. For our wedding, I’m strongly considering these cutlery options made from agave. They look kind of awesome and are compostable.
Finally, provide recycling and composting bins for your guests (if you’re able to recycle and/or compost in your local area). And make sure that guests are aware of what they can recycle and compost. This will make cleanup way easier for you and your team, while also being more eco-friendly.
Environmentally-Friendly Wedding Attire
Like meat, clothes are another big contributor to global emissions. The clothing industry contributes 4-10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Fast fashion options (which are unfortunately often the cheapest options) are the worst offenders. That means you can make a big difference in your environmental footprint by choosing sustainable, eco-friendly wedding clothing options if you can afford to do so.
You’ll generally save money and help the environment by renting dresses and suits or buying them second-hand. While there are generally tons of options for men in this area, finding wedding and bridesmaids dresses is often trickier. Rent the Runway is one popular option. However, if this option doesn’t work for you, take a look at local designers (less transportation required to bring your dress to you) and/or designers that use eco-friendly materials.
For example, some designers now use materials like recycled and organic fabrics. The designer I bought my wedding dress through (Grace Loves Lace) creates dresses on demand. That means they only produce dresses as orders come in so that they don’t have waste. Plus, they use 97% recycled materials for their dresses and they recycle all dress off-cuts.
Often companies with great environmental standards also have great labor standards. You can therefore be more confident that your apparel was made in a way that prioritizes people and the planet.
And when you’re done with your wedding and/or bridesmaid dresses, consider donating them or selling them to second-hand bridal stores. Doing so means that you’ll reduce clutter in your home and help future brides feel both beautiful and eco-conscious. You can even write off clothing donations on your taxes and save some money! It’s a win-win-win!
Sustainable Wedding Favors
When it comes to favors and gifts, you have tons of environmentally friendly (and inexpensive!) options. For one thing, you can skip favors entirely. You might remember from the post on wedding favors that lots of guests don’t even like wedding favors! So you can save yourself time and money by doing the most eco-friendly wedding option and just skipping this tradition.
If you want to give out favors, you still have lots of great sustainable options. For example, you can gift seed paper that guests can plant. Similarly, small potted plants can make both great decorations and favors. Favors made from natural materials like wood and plants can also be both beautiful and sustainable. Wooden coasters or wine charms are great examples of this.
Consumable items like chocolate, candy, popcorn, hot sauce, tea, coffee, and so much more are all great items that guests will actually use and not throw away. Bonus points if you package them in recyclable or compostable materials!
And finally, consider favors that you can use both for the wedding and as favors. As mentioned above, you can use plants as décor and party favors. Or you can give away food leftovers. Alternatively, you might use wine charms that are printed with each person’s name both to label seating and as favors. Similarly, you can customize seed papers or other favors with each person’s name. By using favors as seat labels, you can avoid spending the time, money, and resources on additional seat labels.
Creating an Eco-Friendly Wedding Registry
When it comes to your gift registry, focus on asking for gifts that you will actually use and need. Then, consider gifts that can have a positive impact on the environment. For example, a composter, rain barrel, planters, efficient sprinkler system, smart home products, solar-powered batteries, and more are all great gifts that can also improve energy efficiency and resource usage.
Alternatively, consider registering for money (I have tips on how to tactfully ask for money in another post), experiences, or charitable donations. Many couples set up a honeymoon fund. Through this, guests can contribute to specific elements of your honeymoon like spa days, hotel stays, and more. Not only is it fun for your guests to pick what experience they want to contribute to, you can also get money for experiences you’ll enjoy. And don’t worry! If you decide you don’t want to do an activity guests donate to, all of the money is pooled together into one fund. So you can use it any way you want.
Planning an Eco-Friendly Honeymoon
Last but not least, your honeymoon is a place that can have a huge environmental impact. One of life’s great tragedies is that travel is so amazing for us as people and a society, while also often having a big negative impact on the environment. For example, air travel is responsible for 2.5% of greenhouse gas emissions.
Luckily, there are a wide variety of ways you can defray the impact of your vacation. For one, consider destinations that are closer to you and require less travel. Closer destinations will often be cheaper and save on the stress that comes with travel.
You can also look for destinations that support eco-tourism. For example, some hotels, resorts, cruises, and even cities, regions, or countries are more sustainable to visit. The BBC has a great article on the top sustainable destinations to visit. For example, you might go to Valencia, Spain, which generates most of its energy from renewable sources! Or you could go to Singapore, which has incredible parks, public transportation, and so much more!
Speaking of, as you’re traveling, consider choosing sustainable transportation options like public transportation or electric vehicles. Money saving tip! Electric vehicles are often cheaper to rent!
You can also offset your carbon footprint by purchasing carbon credits or supporting environmental causes. By purchasing carbon credits you basically pay for a company to reduce their carbon emissions. You can check out this carbon credit guide from the appropriately-named CarbonCredits.com for more info on how to do this.
Final Thoughts on Planning an Eco-Friendly Wedding
Weddings can create a lot of waste. And with that waste often comes a lot of time and money. However, with a little intentional planning, you can have a much more eco-friendly wedding. And what’s good for the planet is often good for your finances as well. From choosing a local venue to renting artificial flowers to foregoing favors and so much more, every choice you make can have a positive impact.
You by no means have to follow every step listed here to make a difference. Even one shift to a more eco-friendly option is important and valuable. So I hope this post provides helpful inspiration for making your wedding beautiful, ethical, and totally you.
Which tip do you like most? Are there any tips I missed here? Share them in the comments!
And if you’re interested in related content, check out my posts on saving money on your wedding, my wedding planning guide, how to plan a backyard wedding, and my guide to micro weddings and elopements!