Six Simple Ways to make your Wedding more Sustainable and less Wasteful
You're getting married, hooray! Planning a wedding can be both exhilarating and exhausting. But it seems that the secret to the most memorable weddings are celebrations that truly reflect the passions and personalities of the couple in question.
If you and your partner are passionate about the planet, or simply want to have less-wasteful wedding celebrations, here are six tasteful and simple eco-friendly touches you may want to consider for your big day.
1. Keep the Guest List Intimate
Couples are increasingly preferring to trim the wedding list down to only the nearest and dearest. An intimate wedding not only saves on a larger venue cost, but also on excessive invitations, catering, drinks and wedding favours (all things that often get wasted at the end of the night). Easiest way to keep the guest list short? Choose to get married somewhere a little further away, or book a venue with limited capacity (then let the parents fight it out for the remaining seats amongst themselves).
2. Switch to online RSVPs
Prefer the traditional touch of hand-drawn calligraphy on thick card stock invites but also want to save the planet? Consider going halfway with beautiful paper invites mailed to your guests, but request a digital RSVP back via email, phone or a custom wedding website. Savings both the trees and the postage costs? Win-win.
3. Foliage instead of Flowers
Fresh, seasonal and bountiful foliage makes for a sustainable showstopper in your wedding decor. Skip the buckets of imported flowers, and ask your florist for bunches of foliage with just a few eye-catching blooms for a striking effect. An even better idea is to pick a venue that's surrounded by beautiful, local scenery, and let your guests marvel over the mountains, lakes or trees - I promise they won't miss the traditional floral centrepiece.
4. Linen Table Napkins
Linen table napkins are both a functional and elegant addition to a reception dinner that'll be sure to keep your guests happy, come dinner time. TSL's range of pure linen table napkins include bold colour palettes such as Spring and Mocha which can multi-task as part of your wedding decor, or classic hues such as Oatmeal and Rose for a romantic and classic look. Plus you can then reuse, resell or donate the table linen to help make someone else's wedding a waste-free fairytale too.
5. Useful or Edible Wedding Favours
Nine out of ten guests would prefer edible wedding favours instead of other knick-knacks that often get wastefully left behind on the tables. Okay, we made that statistic up but I'm sure we're not too far off. Send off your guests with cupcakes, cookies or a slice of wedding cake and they'll be smiling till dawn.
6. Request an Eco-Friendly Registry
A registry lets you request unique gifts to upgrade your new home together or complement your lifestyle as a newly married couple. Whether you ask for sustainable homewares such as a cosy pure linen throw, a new set of reliable and recycled luggage for your honeymoon, or a voucher for a truly personalised money-can't-buy experience, kick back and enjoy online shopping (without the credit card guilt).
Do you have any tips on making your wedding (or other celebrations) a little less-wasteful? Let us know your ideas and inspiration in the comments below.
