Pulling Off The Most Beautiful Sustainable Wedding

Tips & Tricks

Sustainable weddings. What does that mean? Is that just a buzzword for eco-friendly weddings? Sustainable wedding planning is about making the best decisions you can make to limit the amount of waste and your environmental footprint during your wedding day. If you want to be a conscious and eco-friendly couple, I’ll share how to make the best sustainable wedding decisions throughout each step of the planning process.

Tip 1: Consider a donation as a wedding gift option

A wedding registry doesn’t have to be just for household items and kitchen utensils that you don’t need or even want! Wedding registries can be as creative as you want. Look for creative ways to include a donation in your wedding registry.

Consider a donation to a nonprofit in lieu of a traditional wedding gift. The recipient organization will send out a donation receipt, and that receipt can be used for tax purposes.

If you discover you have a few extra dollars on your hands, consider donating toward a good cause in your guests’ names. For example, if your wedding is $30,000 and your invitation list includes 100 guests, you could donate 3% of your wedding budget ($300) or $30 to each guest.

If you include a donation in your wedding registry, make sure it includes a description with information about the amount of the gift and who the lucky recipients are.

You could also create a wedding fund or an account at a charity of your choice. A wedding fund or an account at a charity of your choice allows you to share your gift with friends and family members who can’t attend your wedding.

My pick of charity would be The Smith Family. Just to get you going!

Tip 2: Provide eco-friendly wedding favours

Instead of traditional favours, give your guests something they’ll actually use, and something that won’t end up in a landfill.

For example, you could give a reusable shopping bag or reusable water bottle instead of candy or disposable paper plates. You could give out a reusable drink cup instead of bottles of water.

Here are some other ideas for eco-friendly wedding favours:

Seed packs (double this up with seed paper invitations!)
Bamboo straws with your names engraved
Tea blends or fair-trade coffee beans
Edible gifts from the region. i.e: local honey or candles

Tip 3: Create a website for your wedding instead of sending paper invitations

Many couples opt to save trees and save money by making wedding websites instead of sending out paper invitations.

In addition to saving trees — paper invitations use a lot of paper and produce a lot of waste — a wedding website allows couples to easily share the schedule of events with friends and family. It also gives guests the option of saving the schedule to their phones and finding directions more easily.

A wedding website can also be a convenient, affordable way to share photos of your big day and keep in touch with guests.

Here are a couple of Wedding website services to check out:

As you plan your sustainable wedding, keep in mind that the most important part of throwing a beautiful event is to enjoy it. It’s not about what other people think or how much money you spend-it should be all about the love between you and your partner. If this sounds like something that could work for you, give me a call! I’m happy to chat with anyone who wants advice on planning their special day without breaking the bank or hurting our planet.

November 10, 2021

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@mikeatchisonphoto

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I live and work on Wathaurong country.

I acknowledge the Wathaurong people as the traditional custodians of the Geelong region and pay my respects to Wathaurong elders past and present, as well as the Aboriginal Elders of other communities who may be here.