 Having an earth-friendly wedding can lessen our impact on the environment while preserving its natural beauty for generations to come. A wedding is a beautiful event. Small things like rings, invitations and favors can have a huge environmental impact. EnviroCitizen.org would like to share with you how you can, with some careful planning, lessen the toll your wedding could potentially take on the environment!
- FAVORS - Approximately $400 dollars is spent on favors at weddings. This is a huge amount! Consider donating the allocated favor amount to your favorite charity or try to gift something renewable. Potted plants or giving away packets of your favorite wildflowers or bulbs is a great alternative.
- RINGS - A little known fact is that a small, average-sized, plain wedding band can cause 20 tons of mine waste! Recently, individuals have been choosing silver bands instead of gold, as they have a friendlier impact upon the earth. Another option, is to purchase a pre-used wedding band or to even use an heirloom band. These bands will still hold the importance of your legal union, but will be much friendlier on the environment.
- INVITATIONS - A huge amount of paper is used for weddings. Consider all of the send-outs that you use for a wedding. You have wedding announcements, save the date cards, invitations, registrations and thank-you cards. There are many ways to circumvent the environmental impact of invitations. If you desire to have physical mail-outs you can use either 100% recycled paper, partially recycled paper or tree-free paper. Non-toxic inks can be used, such as soy ink. If you are willing to forgo paper goods, you can consider creating all of your invitations and send-outs on the internet with customizable sites, which will send out all of your mailings electronically.
- FLOWERS - In traditional weddings, flowers play a very large roll. What isn’t often considered is the large negative impact these flowers have on the environment. There are fun and attractive ways to include flowers in your wedding without taking a toll on the environment! Consider using organic flowers or even local, native potted plants. Potted plants benefit the environment and last longer. These plants can be taken home or can be given to guests as favors. If you are willing to avoid fresh-cut flowers, consider dried arrangements or even eco-friendly silk flowers.
- HONEYMOONS - There are many ways to go green for honeymoons. One option is to avoid exotic locations and stay stateside, where you can still visit beautiful locations and spend time with your spouse. If you are unwilling to stay nearby, consider an accredited green lodge or resort. Many travel companies offer eco-friendly travel plans.
Earth-friendly weddings can be every bit as wonderful as traditional weddings and send you off on your green honeymoon knowing that you have made the socially-responsible, environmentally-friendly choice! How much more would you treasure your special day knowing that you not only planned a beautiful wedding, but helped contribute to a beautiful Earth? EnviroCitizen.org wants to make planning your earthy-friendly wedding as simple as possibly, which is why we offer a broad array of eco-friendly wedding favor, decoration and mail-out alternatives!
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