How To Make Your Wedding More Eco-Friendly?

How To Have a Green Wedding in India?

1. Weddings have always held incredible importance in society and it is arguably the greatest day in a person’s life.
2. As a result, people always want to make their weddings as memorable as possible.
3. In order to create this perfect and picturesque day, so that it remains etched in everyone’s minds, people tend to buy impulsively a huge amount of items.
4. Weddings have got extremely extravagant over the years, but what we tend to forget is that this extravagance comes at the cost of a large amount of waste (both biodegradable and non-biodegradable).
5. Paper goods, torn flowers, excess food, hordes of plastic and a host of other waste items, are produced as the byproduct of any wedding.
6. Even though it may be hard to imagine, wedding wastes contribute significantly to the worldwide Carbon Footprint and Landfills.

On average, a wedding lasts for around six hours. During that time, a wedding that has seen a footfall of roughly 100-120 people, will produce around 400-600 lbs of waste material. So, even though it is completely fine that everyone wants to turn their wedding into a spectacle since it is mostly a ‘once in a lifetime’ event, it is definitely possible to make a few small tweaks that will have a major impact in making the wedding more eco-friendly.

The materials used and the way weddings are planned, have evolved with the times beautifully, providing us with a host of options that we can use to turn the wedding into an environmentally friendly affair. There are several ways that you can have a sustainable wedding, like - using “Eco-Friendly” wedding decorations, opting for an engagement ring that has been sourced responsibly, etc. A few of the changes may seem futile, but we must never forget that our small decisions all through the wedding create a ripple effect. The small choices add up to something big and while trying to save the Earth from destruction, every bit counts.

A few ways and means to make your wedding more sustainable

1. Shopping for the ring

Ensure that you track the origins of the ring(s) and wedding bands thoroughly. Using a blood diamond, albeit unknowingly, as the symbol of your endless love, can be disastrous. Always ask your jeweller whether they are committed to ‘conflict-free’ baubles. Despite it seeming “counter-intuitive”, “Lab-Made” diamonds are less harmful to the environment - as explained by Erica Jill Raze, owner of Capiche Events(a wedding planning company specialising in environmentally conscious weddings).

It is also a good choice to simply opt for Estate Jewellery, i.e. recycling a ring. Proposing with a family heirloom shows how much the other person means to you and moreover, there is no waste production in acquiring it. In fact, you can always go one step further and melt the piece down and have it reshaped and/or refined, to your specifications.

2. Wedding Invitations

Wedding Invitations are a huge reason for all the paper waste that is produced in a wedding. An easy fix for this is to simply use Recycled paper, or alternative materials like wood, up-cycled fabrics, leather, etc. When choosing for the stationer, select the one that tries to give back to the environment (eg. Planting trees for orders received, etc.). You can also use seed paper as the material since it is biodegradable and will sprout into a flower when it finds its way into the soil. However, undoubtedly the best option environmentally would be to only send out digital invitations, which in this digital age is quite possible and effective.

3. Charity Registry

In case you are fine with not receiving material gifts on your wedding day, you can definitely look into the possibility of opting for a Charity Registry as a part of your wedding. Not only will you be able to donate a lot to a noble cause, but your guests will also have the option of pitching in, to help foundations that focus on creating a greener environment.

4. Eco-Friendly Venue

Choosing a wedding venue that focuses heavily on sustainability, is arguably the easiest yet extremely effective way of having an environmentally sustainable wedding. Try to select hotels and event spaces that have been certified by LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design). Moreover, with more and more venues becoming eco-friendly, you will also not have to compromise on, in order to have an environmentally conscious wedding.

You can always go to an outdoor wedding since it also gives you a picturesque setting for your special day. For example, organising a wedding at a National Park, allows everyone to enjoy the beauty of nature and the money you spend for booking the venue, helps in the park’s conservation, any necessary clean-up(s), etc.

5. Food Arrangements

Food is an important factor when it comes to lessening the carbon footprint of your wedding. Try to opt for local caterers who prepare seasonal cuisine(s) that are in turn more sustainable. Enquire how the caterers source their proteins like beef and even seafood, as the amount of locally sourced produce is inversely proportional to the carbon-footprint that occurs due to long-distance shipping. In case of drinks, like wine, make sure that you source them from producers who highly focus on being eco-friendly. Eliminate single-serve packaging as much as possible, since that is another source of unnecessary waste.

Just keep in mind that a large event, like a wedding, will almost inevitably have a considerable amount of leftovers. So make plans beforehand, preferably with your caterer too, as to how to use the excess food. Plated dinners can be a good option to cut down on excess food. Donating the excess food is always an intelligent move, but ensure that you properly follow the regulations to do so. Keep all the necessary details handy, so that the food is packaged and ready to go on time.

6. Recycling the Decor

Wastage of all the decorations at a wedding should be kept to a minimum. There are countless ways to recycle the goods used for Wedding Decor. Plenty of Research Organisations will happily pick up the arrangements and then donate them to institutions that need them, like Homeless Shelters, Senior Centers, Hospitals, etc. If you wish, you can also give them to the Venue Service Staff, or your family or even your guests. Thrift Stores are always on the lookout to acquire such beautiful decor and so they can be another good option for donating the arrangements.                        

Opting to have an Environmentally Conscious wedding is a very unselfish and admirable decision. It is definitely not very easy to plan, since there are several small factors for you to consider and it can seem like a lot of work. However, it shows that even on your special day, you did not forget your responsibility to Mother Nature. A few years down the line, you will look back at your wedding and realise that you have no regrets about the way that you handled the entire event. It also makes your wedding stand out from the rest, which is something that people aim for so that it remains etched in the minds of everyone who attends it. The Earth has already been severely damaged and our future generations will have to suffer severely for it. It is a very real and scary fact that the waste from weddings has actually contributed to that damage. Having an Eco-Friendly wedding means that the production of waste is severely minimised, giving Mother Nature the time she requires to heal herself so that everyone can lead a full and happy life.

Also read:

1) How to Make Online Business More Eco-Friendly?
2) Do You Consider Yourself to be Eco-Friendly? Let’s Check!
3) How to Build an Eco-Friendly House?
4) What are Organic & Eco-friendly Products? How to start this business?