How to Plan an Eco Friendly Wedding
Embracing eco-friendly ideas in your wedding planning is not only a celebration of your love but also a tribute to the planet. By incorporating sustainable practices, couples make a powerful statement about their values, showcasing their commitment to environmental stewardship. From choosing locally-sourced, seasonal flowers to opting for digital invitations or selecting a venue that champions green practices, every eco-conscious choice contributes to a lower carbon footprint. Moreover, these green choices can add a unique, personal touch to your wedding, reflecting a deep connection to the natural world and a hopeful look towards a sustainable future together. Engaging in eco-friendly wedding practices is a beautiful way to start your journey as a married couple, ensuring that the celebration of your love also honors the earth that sustains us all. Let’s take a look at some of our favorite ways to do this!
Tip #1 – Greenery + Florals for an Eco Friendly Wedding
You can have a few options when it comes to the greenery and florals used in your wedding. Our number one tip is to avoid floral foam, which oftentimes can be used in a lot of centerpieces. Floral foam contains a ton of chemicals and most of the time is not biodegradable (and even if it is, there are still toxic chemicals in its waste). You will want to use foam free floral design for your wedding day.
Some couples choose to rent faux florals, that way they never go bad; others choose to donate their flowers (to places like nursing homes) after the big day so that others can enjoy them. If you’d like to forgo the cutting of stems, we’ve seen weddings styled strictly with potted plants—which can then be given as gifts or taken home to plant in your yard! Another idea? Dried flowers! You can keep them in your home after the event so no waste is created with these beauties! We put together this helpful guide on where to buy dried flowers if you are interested in DIYing your dried flowers – also many florists will work with them and can create GORGEOUS centerpieces and bouquets with dried florals.
Additionally, if you’re doing an exit toss, opt for petals or biodegradable goods, rather than rice, which can be harmful for birds.
GWS Asks the Experts
Marisa at Revel Petals shares: From a floral perspective, the most eco friendly practices include shopping local, or US grown only, and requesting that your florist not use any floral foam. When you support US grown flowers, or better yet, a local flower farm, the flowers will likely have way less chemicals in/on them because they haven’t been fumigated at the import border crossing. You also avoid any chance of poor working conditions/slave labor as well as sidestepping a hefty carbon footprint from flying flowers in from the other side of the world. The only consideration is that not all flowers are available in every season then, and so if you MUST have a certain flower, pick your wedding date well in its growing season.
The florals above are from Larkspur Botanicals, who was the first certified sustainable florist in the NYC metro area, producing many of her florals, and working with amazing organizations to repurpose or reuse after events.
