Eco Friendly Wedding Ideas: My top 7 tips

Looking for eco friendly wedding ideas? You’re in the right place. Let’s face it, weddings aren’t generally the most sustainable of occasions. Single use decorations, outfits worn for just one day and the inevitable food waste all contribute to making a wedding celebration not very eco friendly.

Now, I won’t for one minute suggest that to fix the climate crisis we all need to stop celebrating, but there ARE lots of little things you can do, changes you can make that will help to ensure your big day has a little less impact on our planet. Here are my top 7 ideas for an eco friendly wedding.

1. Hire or buy second hand, vintage or upcycled decor and props

We all know that for that perfectly ‘Instagramable’ wedding tablescape you’ll need props. Candlesticks, glassware, linens, photograph frames and more often feature on beautifully styled wedding tables. But before you rush out to buy them all new, have a hunt around your local buy and sell groups, charity shops or even second hand markets. You’re bound to find some pieces you can reuse or upcycle. If you can’t then think about renting or hiring instead.

2. Choose sustainable or plantable seed paper invites and stationery

Of course, the most sustainable option would be to not send invitations at all and go completely paperless. But, I’m a stationery designer, so I can’t go recommending that too much can I!? What I can offer are beautiful, elegant invitations and stationery made with recycled and sustainable materials. Or how about my brand new plantable seed paper range, made switch completely tree free paper, embedded with thousands of bee friendly flower seeds.

Click here to read about plantable seed paper wedding invites & stationery

3. Shop local for your eco friendly wedding goods and services

You’ll not only support local, often small business owners, you will help to reduce the miles traveled and thus keep carbon emissions down. Don’t be afraid to ask your wedding suppliers about their eco credentials too. How do they manage waste in their business, do they use sustainable energy providers, do they avoid plastic and unrecyclable packaging?

4. Seasonal wedding menus will be more eco friendly

Choosing a seasonal menu using locally sourced ingredients is a great way to reduce food miles. While I wouldn’t suggest you go all out vegan with your wedding breakfast menu (unless you want to of course!), you can make your meal more eco friendly by including more plant based options.

Serving plated portions rather than a buffet style spread or grazing table will also help to keep that food waste down.

5. Opt for sustainable wedding outfits

Same applies here as to the decor and styling. Before you rush out to buy a brand new dress that will only be worn for one day, have a look and see if you can find a second hand or vintage gown. If you simply can’t resist a ‘something new’ then search out a local or British designer and perhaps a handmade frock

6. Eco friendly wedding ideas for your flowers

Flowers are usually a big part of any wedding, and there are ways they can be made to be a little more eco friendly too. Check with your florist and avoid floral foam in any arrangements or installations. Select local, British and seasonal blooms and foliage, this will help to reduce the miles your flowers will travel.

And how about opting for potted plants, herbs or succulents instead of cut stems. They can be given as gifts to your bridal party afterwards, or just kept by yourselves as a reminder of your big day.

7. And when it’s all over, recycle, recycle, recycle

All those bits and pieces that you will undoubtedly accumulate over the course of your wedding planning. When it’s all over what do you do with them? Well, the best option is to sell or donate them so that more use can be made of them. Can you give away floral arrangements as gifts, donate them to a local charity or nursing home?

Check out sites like Freecycle and Gumtree to rehome those props and styling bits, or see if there’s anything that can be upcycled into something new for your home. And if there’s anything left after that then be conscious of how you dispose of things. Recycle wherever you can.

Remember, you don’t have to be planning an ‘eco wedding’ to make your big day more eco friendly. Little changes can make a big difference, especially if more and more people do it. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my top 7 eco friendly wedding ideas. You might also like these other blogs

If you’d like to have a chat about how I can help you to create a suite of beautiful, sustainable and eco friendly wedding stationery, get in touch – I’d love to hear from you.