How to Organize a Sustainable Wedding

If you’re from Australia, you know that wedding season is upon us. Spring is just a couple of months away and if you’re planning a spring wedding, you’re in a bit of a time crunch.

But don’t worry because we’re here to help you out. You’re in a good spot if you have your eyes set on organizing a sustainable, guilt-free wedding. We have all the ideas you’ll ever need to organize an unforgettable eco-friendly wedding.

Making green choices in this day and age is important. That’s why more and more wedding organizers are jumping on this eco-wedding trend. That means that organizing a truly sustainable wedding won’t be a problem.

Let’s start.

Find a good location 

The first step in organizing any type of event is finding the right location. Since your goal is to make a sustainable wedding, a destination wedding is ruled out because getting to it implies air travel.

Similarly, a remote wedding location requires car transport and transport emissions are what we’re trying to avoid.

That’s why your best option is something local. A location where your guest can come on foot or use eco-friendly transportation.

Choose an eco-friendly venue

Hand in hand with location goes venue. If you decided to organize your wedding locally, it’s time to choose a venue, preferably a sustainable one.

Before you start looking, it’s important to know that a sustainable venue is more than recycling. It’s how the venue operates and how seriously it takes sustainability.

While, yes recycling is a part of it, it’s not everything. A sustainable venue uses renewable energy, and recycling systems, and has no plastic policy (reusable plates, utensils, and glasses only). It also uses natural light and limits the use of electricity, doesn’t waste food, and so much more.

So, when looking for the perfect venue, make sure you find out how they operate before you settle.

Create an eco-friendly menu

The wedding menu can also be eco-friendly. Whether you’re hiring a catering company or your venue provides wedding meals, you can work with them to create a sustainable menu.

One way is to create a strictly vegan or vegetarian menu. However, this is a risk because not everyone is a fan of that type of food. The other better option is to source locally produced, organic food.

Partner up with local farmers and ask them to deliver organic and ethically-produced food and ingredients that will be a part of your menu. Similarly, you can order alcoholic beverages from local distilleries, wineries, and breweries. This is another great way to reduce carbon footprint.

Choose décor carefully

Choosing an eco-friendly wedding décor can give you headaches but it’s not impossible. Fresh-cut flowers are a big waste, so many florists would instead recommend potted plants or herbs as centerpieces. However, if you want flowers, ask your florist to suggest an alternative sustainable idea – dried flowers, for example.

When it comes to the rest of the décor, avoid using balloons because they are harmful to the environment and wildlife. Instead, stick to reusable and green decor options. A good example is confetti, you can replace it with biodegradable confetti options.   

Entertainment can also be sustainable

Wedding entertainment is the key to a successful wedding. If you don’t want guests to be bored on your special day, you need to come up with smart ways to entertain them.

And thanks to technology, sustainable entertainment is no problem.

Karaoke machines, photo booths, wedding carousels, silent discos, etc. For example, photo booths are super popular in Australia. That means that choosing any photo booth hire in Sydney is a great idea. You should also know that there are many different photo booth kinds that you can choose from.

Choose ethical bridal and grooms wear

When organizing a wedding, you can go a step ahead and also opt for ethical bridal and groom wear. One great option is repurposing your mom’s or grandma’s wedding dress.

The other equality great option includes buying a second-hand wedding dress and upcycling and redoing it to fit you. The same goes for the groom.

In case non of those options seem appealing, you can look for designers who create wedding wear in an ethical and eco-friendly way.

The same goes for the jewelry you decide to wear. Jewelry is another great way to make sustainable choices.

Sustainable wedding gifts

Your wedding gifts can be a great way to give back to your community. If you want to, you can ask your guest to donate to a charity of your choosing. Charitable donations are a great alternative to traditional wedding favors.

There are different environmental charities that you could support this way. Or you can donate to different charities for children. Either way, whatever charity you support, you can’t go wrong.

Organizing a sustainable wedding might require a bit more effort and planning but it’s not impossible. With more and more people becoming aware of environmental challenges, and how much one day can be wasteful, eco-friendly weddings are slowly becoming more popular and more frequent.