Weddingbee Blog

One of the first things that Mr. Radish and I decided after our engagement is that we would do our very best to have an environmentally sustainable wedding. Weddings are such a big business now. With wedding industry pulling in a whopping over $125-billion per year, and with the average American wedding costing nearly $30,000, we figure that this is a great opportunity for us to “put our money where our mouth is.”

We strive to live a low-impact life on a regular basis, so doesn’t it make sense that we should do this with our wedding, too? It’s probably even more important, in some ways, because it’s probably the only time we will ever be spending this kind of money at one time on consumer good/services.

We really want to see as much of our money as possible go towards environmentally and socially conscious products. This has proved somewhat more difficult than we first thought, at least within the confines of our below-average budget, but we are sticking to it and trying to do as much as we can.

One of the main things that wanted to do was serve a mostly organic menu at the reception. Unfortunately, though, after talking this over with our caterer, we discovered that there is just no way that we can afford to do this. It would nearly double our per-person cost and that is just not a possibility for us.  But the good news is that we can still afford to use local, in-season produce and we are still going to sneak in a few organic items where we can. Our wedding cake will still be organic since it’s being made by my mother’s friend, and she will only charge us a little bit extra for the ingredients. She’s giving us a great deal anyway, so we can afford to spend slightly more on that. 

There are a ton of ways to make our wedding greener, and I’m sure there are a lot of things we haven’t even thought of yet, but here a list of some of what we are doing/have done so far:

- We printed all of our wedding stationery on 100% post-consumer content recycled cardstock and we bought recycled content envelopes as well.

- We chose a reception venue that can accommodate a vegetarian-friendly menu, and they seem to be very open to any other ideas that we throw at them. As mentioned above, we couldn’t afford to do much in the way of an organic menu, but they can totally accommodate it if you can afford to pay more.

- I opted for faux flowers, many of which I’m making myself out of paper (mostly recycled) and some others that I’ve purchased. It’s not as eco-friendly as using organic flowers, but again, I needed to save a little money and I didn’t want to hire a florist. My hope is also that I can re-sell the bouquets to someone through Etsy or eBay, so that they can be recycled and enjoyed by someone else. If I can’t sell them, I will probably break down the arrangements and find some way to re-use the flowers myself (Christmas gifts perhaps).
 
- For wedding favors, we’re baking organic vegan cookies from a delicious recipe that Mr. Radish came up with. We are packaging them in simple wax paper bags with a gift tag. Hopefully everyone will eat them and there will be nothing left to be sent to a landfill (except for the bags but they are biodegradable).

- We are honeymooning on Prince Edward Island, which is not terribly far from where we are getting married and it is certainly a beautiful place. From what I understand, PEI also had a wonderful environmental record.

- After the wedding and honeymoon, we plan to calculate our carbon footprint and buy off-sets. We might not have enough money to do it all at once, but over the course of the next year we will hopefully be able to do it.

- As gifts to the flower girls and ring bearers, I am adopting endangered species through the World Wildlife Fund. It’s actually really cute because you can pick from many animals (penguins, pandas, gorillas, etc.) and it comes with a picture of the animal, an adoption certificate, and a little matching stuffed animal. Hopefully they will think it’s a cool gift to have their “own” panda or whatever animal.

- We are having a mostly vegan buffet reception and we are only offering one meat dish. We have yet to decide if we can afford for at least the meat offering to be organic. Hopefully… but we’ll see.

- We are making arrangements to take all of the leftovers from the reception to a party that we are having afterwards.

- We are planning on using some potted plants in our centerpiece arrangements that can be given away to guests afterward.

- We plan to plant a tree together (we have yet to decide where) the day after the wedding as a little way to celebrate our new life together.

- I plan to re-sell my wedding gown and everything else that is left after the big day.

- I got the vast majority of my vases, decorations, etc. from thrift shops and from everyday things that I already had. I am using a mix of tea tins (an idea stolen from Marth Stewart) and vintage vases for our centerpiece arrangements, for instance.

- We are not having anything personalized so that it is more likely to be reused by someone else someday.

- We’re avoiding anything plastic at all costs.

- We rented out a school bus to serve as a shuttle service for our guests, so that not everybody is driving separately between the church, the reception, and our after party (this is also meant to curb drunk driving). It will still be using gas, of course, but it helps a little. We are also encouraging carpooling as much as we can.

- We have made a rule that we aren’t going to buy anything that we can’t sell or reuse after the wedding. I may have broken this rule once or twice (I plan to keep my wedding veil as an heirloom for example) but I think we’ve stuck to it overall. This is helping us keep our costs down, too.

- Our photographer is strictly digital, as many are nowadays, which reduces the pollution caused by the production and developing of film.

- I tried really hard to pick out bridesmaids dresses that they will actually wear again, or that can at least be sold at a consignment shop as a cocktail dress while also keeping them less than $150. This was a huge challenge, but I think I pulled it off (more about that later).

Okay, so that’s probably enough for now. I’m sure I’m forgetting a bunch of things but I just wanted to give you all some idea of what we’re up to in this regard. I’m sure I will be posting regularly on ideas and tips about this, so stay tuned for that.

Who else out there is trying to have a “green” wedding? What are some ideas that you have? Do you think any of this will really help make a difference?