Green is everyone’s favorite color these days. You’ll hear “green” used to describe a vast variety of different products for your body, home, and now even wedding. Here are a few suggestions to making your big day fantastic with a smaller, healthier footprint on the environment.
Rings— If you buy your rings new, be sure to purchase “conflict free” diamonds. This means the diamonds require an origin certified to be free from violence, human rights abuses, child labor, or environmental destruction. Most of these diamonds are mined in Canada, which being close to the United States, also saves money and oil associated with transportation costs. Great conflict free engagement ring options can be found at www.BrilliantEarth.com. You can also search out man-made diamonds, such as at www.DiamondNexusLabs.com, and save a lot of greenbacks as well.
Flowers-While exotic cut flowers flown in from across the globe are beautiful at your wedding, they are not the most practical thing for the environment. Try to search out cut flowers that are grown on local organic farms in your community if possible. Living potted plants, such as herbs, succulents, and miniature roses, can easily be used in place of cut flowers on your table centerpieces. Herbs, for example, can be used after the wedding for cooking, aloe is a natural skin soother, and all living plants replace harmful carbon dioxide with fresh oxygen. You can skip the floral look all together and use soy candles, fresh fruit, shells, nuts, or anything else that you can find locally.
Stationary—Recycling is obviously a great way to help the environment. Try to find invitations and programs that are made from at least 25% post consumer waste. www.TwistedLimbPaper.com has invitation options that are 100% PCW and processed without damaging chlorine. Encourage guests to recycle your invitation by putting a small “Please recycle” line on the back. Seeds can also be embedded in the paper so that your guests can plant the invitation and enjoy the gift of wild flowers in its place. Natural based inks, such as soy or linseed oil, are also much better for the environment that old petroleum-based inks. As everyone becomes more tech-savvy, you may also want to consider an online only RSVP instead of the traditional reply card and envelope. You can put all of your wedding details, such as maps, hotel information, etc. here online to save on paper and stamps.
Favors—Your wedding favors can be just about any small trinket that you’d like to give. Consider giving your guests a packet of seeds, a living evergreen tree seedling from www.GreenWorldProject.Net, or the living components of your centerpiece. Instead of a physical gift, you can also let your guests know that you have donated money to your favorite environmental protection organization, such as www.GreenPeace.org, www.EarthJustice.org.
Travel—Off-set all of your honeymoon and guest travel CO2 pollution by having a climate-neutral wedding! Invest in renewable energy initiatives with www.TerraPass.com and www.CarbonFund.org.
There are many great green things that you can do to on your wedding day. Hiring Exquisite Events, an experienced wedding coordinator, is your fist step to planning the event you desire. We are full of great ideas for green weddings and events and will work with you to see that they are followed through. We are passionate about creating the best environment for you on your wedding day and beyond.
