Your wedding day will be one of the most special days in your entire life, making memories with your partner, friends and family that will last a lifetime. However, the wedding industry is notoriously one of the most wasteful, with it being estimated that one wedding can produce as much as 20kg of plastic waste, and considering there were an estimated 2.5 million weddings in 2022, the amount of waste is absolutely phenomenal. So, we are here to introduce some ways that you can make your wedding day more sustainable, from your wedding outfits to invitations, flowers and food, so you can have an incredible day without it leaving a stamp on the environment.
Choose Second Hand or Vintage Outfits
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The first thing you can do to make your wedding day more sustainable is to choose secondhand or vintage outfits! Making wedding dresses in particular requires a significant amount of materials and resources, and if they are only worn once, this is extremely damaging. So, a great alternative is to shop second hand or to choose a vintage wedding dress, which will look particularly beautiful if you have a vintage engagement ring to tie your special engagement into your big day. You can then pass this onto another bride, helping them to enjoy a beautiful dress too, reducing your waste even further.
Not only is this great for the environment, but it will also help you to choose a dress that you might not have been able to afford if it were brand new. The same goes if you want to wear a suit, you could choose second hand or if you do choose to buy new, make sure that you choose something that you will wear again in the future. The same goes for your shoes. Rather than choosing ones that you know won’t go with much else, choose shoes that you can wear at least every year on your anniversary to remember your special day.
Send Out Virtual Invitations
Sending out paper invitations is not only wasteful in terms of the paper itself, but you’ve also got to take into account the transport for taking your invitations across the country, or even across the world. Not to mention, invitations can be absolutely extortionate! So, instead, perhaps you could send out virtual invitations instead. You can tailor them to fit in perfectly with your theme, in terms of everything from design to font and colours. Then, you can send them out either via text message or email, and your guests have them ready to keep until the big day. This is another benefit of virtual invitations, as there’s no risk of them getting lost! There are so many companies out there who offer this, with some even having free templates you can utilise, or you could get a design platform like Canva and use the free premium trial to design your invites for free!
Choose Local Flowers
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Another really simple and beautiful sustainable change you can make for your wedding is to choose local and in season flowers. Importing exotic flowers is very expensive, and damaging, not to mention quite unnecessary. Local and seasonal flowers are so beautiful and will perfectly reflect the season of your big day. So, speak to your florist and explain that you only want to use local flowers and ones that are seasonal. From forget-me-nots and lilacs in Spring to roses, dahlias and daisies in the Summer, sunflowers and hibiscus in Autumn then calendulas and camellias in Winter, your options really are endless. Like many of our other tips, this will also help to make your wedding more affordable. Your florist should be able to provide examples of local and seasonal bouquets that you can use for inspiration!
Shop Local For Edible Wedding Favours
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Our last tip to help you make your wedding more sustainable is to shop locally for edible wedding favours. If you buy random gifts just to fit into your theme, it’s likely they’ll either be left behind or won’t get used when they’re taken home. Instead, you should shop locally at bakeries or sweet shops and get edible wedding favours! Choose something that everyone will like, like chocolate or candied nuts, then package them in fully biodegradable snack bags. Again, this will likely be cheaper than buying random favours, as well as being better for the environment!
Final Thoughts
We hope that we’ve shown you with these tips that you don’t have to compromise on how you want your big day to be for it to be sustainable. When making decisions about your wedding, take a minute to think about whether there is anything you can do to make it more considerate to the environment, which often also makes things much cheaper! We hope you have the most special day and you will be helping the planet by making a few of these small changes.
Special Weddings 