Backyard Wedding
I have the professional shots from the backyard wedding I coordinated in the spring. Click on the photo below to go to the photo gallery for this wedding.
Photo courtesy of christytylerphotography.com.
Eco-Friendly Weddings Re-Run: Location
Try a beautiful outdoor location for your celebration.
I’m thinking about locations for eco-friendly weddings and events. There are many choices you can make to have a sustainable location for your event. The place you choose can have a large impact on how sustainable your celebration is.
For example, you can choose a LEED certified building, or rent from and support a location that has an environmental mission, such as a botanic garden or organic farm. You can also look at the Green Hotels Association to find a hotel with an environmental commitment. Or you can find an eco-friendly restaurant through the Green Restaurant Association. Celebrating outdoors, of course, reduces the power needed for lighting and air conditioning. If you’re having more than one event on the same day (such as a wedding and reception), you can have them in the same location to reduce the amount of transportation needed.
There are lots of easy things you can do to make your wedding or other celebration more eco-conscious. Every little bit helps!
Back Yard Wedding Photos
Here is a tiny taste of a wedding I did early in the summer. It was in the back yard of the bride’s parents’ home, and it was lovely. Professional photos are coming in a couple of weeks. This is just a teaser.
The guests entered from the side yard.
This is how the tent looked after it was set up for the reception.
The centerpieces were potted herbs.
The guests took home the individual plants from the centerpieces.
The back yard setting was a beautiful place for a wedding.
Eco-Conscious Invitations
Give some thought to all the paper products you want for your wedding. Photo by Paul Grigonis, pplusgphoto.com.
While venue, food, and transportation are going to have the largest environmental impact, the amount of paper involved in invitations makes it a worthwhile way to green your wedding. It’s pretty easy to have eco-friendly wedding invitations.
Here are some easy ways to minimize the impact of your party invitations:
- Use postcards as your reply cards;
- Keep the invitations simple;
- Use recycled paper for your invitations;
- Ask for replies by e-mail or online.
- If you feel comfortable with it, you can even send online invitations.
There are also invitation suppliers who specialize in eco-friendly invitations. Look around in your area for designers and printers who use environmentally friendly techniques. (I know a few in the Chicago area.)
While you’re thinking about invitations, you can also give some thought to the other paper products you might want for your wedding: place cards, menus, programs, etc. Using recycled paper and non-toxic inks, or finding ways to use less paper are ways you can green your wedding.
Eco-Friendly Gift Ideas
What can you to green your giving and receiving? Image by theblondephotographer.com.
The gifts you receive and give on the occasion of your marriage might not be the largest contributors to environmental degradation, but they may give your guests an opportunity to contribute to your eco-conscious wedding.
Instead of a gift registry, you might ask your guests to make donations to your favorite causes (including environmental ones), instead of giving material gifts. There are even ways to set up a donation gift registry. Sites such as the Green Bride Guide have green gift registries, as well. For those who give material gifts, ask them to use recycled wrapping paper–and then reuse it when you give a gift. If you have a stack of presents, be sure to recycle the wrapping paper, boxes, and packing material.
If you are giving gifts to your wedding party, members of your family, or each other, think about eco-conscious gifts. There are thousands of websites devoted to green, eco-friendly, sustainable gift-giving. There are also artists in your community (and on websites such as Etsy) who use upcycled materials. Buying local also reduces the carbon footprint of your gift.
Green gift-giving is one of the easiest things you can do to green your wedding.
Eco-Friendly Ideas on Food and Catering
Mmm: An organic, local cheese tray. Photo by Magical Moments Photography.
Your food choices every day have an environmental impact, but they have an even larger one when you entertain guests. Here are a few ideas for how to green your special event’s food and beverages.
The most environmentally friendly choice is to serve food and drink from local sources. It is also important to serve organic food and drink, where it is available. Meat, dairy products, and eggs have more adverse environmental consequences than fruits and vegetables.
A truly sustainable meal is an organic, local, vegan meal, but that is not the only choice! Opting for organic, local food, including meat or fish, will provide your guests with a tasty meal that has a lesser environmental impact than a meal that is trucked in from distant conventional farms. Choosing either organic or local is also a way to make your celebration more sustainable.
Whatever you serve, arrange to have the leftovers picked up by the local food bank instead of going into the trash. Check your local ordinances first, though. Not every municipality permits re-serving of prepared food.
Greening your meal is easiest if you can choose a caterer who will make environmentally friendly choices. If the caterer composts food waste and recycles as much as possible, that will have a positive effect. Also, consider renting dishes instead of using disposables and finding a rental company close to your event location to minimize trucking time. If you must use disposables, use compostable disposables and be sure that they are composted afterwards. And you can reduce waste and save money at the same time by serving beer in returnable kegs instead of in bottles or cans.
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