3 minutes to read

As you plan your wedding, you may be shocked to see both the cost and the carbon footprint of your celebration mounting. With services and suppliers available for every detail of your day, from your makeup to your cutlery, hiring or buying everything can get expensive quickly. Plus, many items marketed for weddings are unsustainable and unethically sourced, so it pays to choose your suppliers carefully. If you’re looking to host an eco-friendly wedding and save some money too, here are three tasks you can do yourself.

Summary

• Making Invitations
• Wedding Favours
• Arranging Flowers
• Planning ahead

Start with the Invitations

Sending out your invitations is so exciting, but it can be easy to overlook the environmental impact of these beautiful little cards. Not only are many invitations created from virgin trees, which contributes to deforestation, but the transportation emissions from their production and shipping process all add up. 

Instead, create your own invitations either from eco-friendly materials or digitally. You could draw them all by hand, but if you have a large guest list you may want to speed up the process with a little technological support. There are several free design apps you can use to quickly customise professional invitations online, which you can then either send to your guests via email or print out and post. If you want to print and send your invitations the traditional way, be sure to use recycled paper to keep the impact minimal.

Wedding Favours

Wedding favours come in many different forms. Whilst some are useful, many are left behind at the end of the night and end up being wasted. Rather than spending money on hundreds of small, unsustainable gifts, why not make some eco-friendly favours?

Ask your friends and family to collect any small glass jars and dishes they use, such as those from individual cheesecake or dessert pots, and fill them with sweets or chocolates as favours. Edible favours tend to be wasted less than any other type, and can always be taken home and used by yourselves. Make some fabric circle lids, decorate the jars or tie on some hessian ribbon to complete the look.

Arranging Flowers

You don’t need to be a florist to do your own wedding flowers. In fact, you can grow your own seasonal blooms to use with just a few supplies and a bit of patience. By cutting out the middleman, you emit some of the carbon emissions typically associated with wedding flowers (due to transporting them from overseas) from your bouquets. You’ll also avoid being a part of any unethical labour practices that go into growing exotic flowers, as well as saving money.

If you don’t want to grow your own flowers, you can still DIY them by selecting bunches from a sustainable florist and curating your own bouquets and arrangements. Check that the florist has certifications from organisations such as Veriflora or the Rainforest Alliance, which regulate the quality and ethicality of flowers coming into the country. Better yet, opt for seasonal flowers that have been sourced locally. 

Planning Ahead

When wanting to get creative and complete some of your wedding tasks yourself, the key is to start early and plan ahead. You don’t want to be staying up all night the day before your wedding tying cute ribbons onto 200 favour jars. With a little creativity, you can help to lower the carbon footprint of your wedding day by implementing these tips.