If you follow me on Instagram then you will know that I got engaged this past December to my high school sweetheart! We’ve been together for over 7 years now and couldn’t be more excited to plan the low waste wedding of our dreams! Planning a wedding is a challenge in and of itself but planning a wedding in the midst of a pandemic is a whole other story. A lot of the detail will have to be played by ear depending on how our province is doing and how many guests will be allowed closer to the date.
Nonetheless, we’re kicking off the “low waste wedding” series here on alittlerosedust! I’ll be chronicling the wedding planning as well as how I intend to keep waste to as much of a minimum as I can. All while saving money.
So while there are more than enough “wedding must-have” blog posts, I wanted to turn the tables and talk about a few of the wasteful things I will no be including in my low waste wedding.
Things I won’t be doing for my low waste wedding:
1. Lots of flowers
Most weddings are utterly adorned with flowers and there’s no arguing that they’re beautiful. But flowers often come with a pretty hefty environmental price tag. Flowers are intensely farmed and heated in greenhouses that release high amounts of Co2 into the atmosphere. Not to mention the massive carbon footprint it takes to transfer them and the water it takes to keep them alive. It’s simply not a price I’m willing to pay to have a large number of flowers for just one day.
Instead, I’ll be having a small bouquet and maybe, MAYBE a single flower per table. I haven’t nailed down what I want for centrepieces yet. However, my wedding will not be covered in or heavily decorated with flowers.
2. Plastic decor
Speaking of decor, I won’t be having any plastic/non-natural material decor. Including any kind of glitter or sparkles. (Hello, microplastics!) I know to save money a lot of couples will hit up the dollar stores but instead, I’ll be thrifting as much decor as I can. Not including plastic decorations. Balloons are also a HUGE no-no that will not be seen at my wedding.
3. Wedding favours
Honestly, wedding favours seem very pointless to me. It’s just another thing to pay for and more often than not they get left on the table or thrown in the trash. And we’re not about making extra waste and spending extra money here.
4. Name settings
I don’t find the need for individual name settings at each spot. There will be a sign at the front of reception letting guests know which table they’ll be sitting at but as far as who sits where at the table, I could care less. It’s an extra cost and an extra thing that gets thrown out after one day.
5. Programs
While we’re on the topic of things getting thrown out after one day, let’s talk about programs. Yes, I know paper is recyclable. But our recycling systems are so flawed that recycling is barely even an option anymore. What it comes down to are things we can live without. And I feel very strongly that not only are programs a bit unnecessary but that I won’t look back on my wedding day and regret not having programs.
6. Invitations
Invitations are another added expense and waste that we will gladly be doing without. Instead, we will be sending out digital invitations. Simple as that.
Related reading:
How to become a conscious consumer
Keep in mind that this is just me and what I’m doing to reduce waste. This post isn’t to make any feel bad for choosing differently. That being said, if you’re planning a wedding I hope this gave you a few ideas to reduce trash at your own low waste wedding!
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Congratulation!!! Thanks for this post and the boost I got thinking about our wedding. We had a traditional wedding and didnt go no waste (it was 15 years ago and that wasnt such a thing then). We wanted to spend as much of our budget on what we considered important and wanted to be stylish. At the actually ceremony we had roses as plants in pots. Close family took them home and planted them in their gardens. They are still being enjoyed. I dried the roses from the tables (as the only momento, no extra boquet or anything that needed to be kept and get moth eaten) and most of glass vases were given to guests. Place names (seating was important because of language barriers) were on slate we collected from the woods. People could take them or they could go back to being plain stones. Wedding favours on the tables were gobbled up. Only the invites left. I loved them and would do them exactly like that again. I think you can have most of them trimmings of a big wedding, if you want and still be low waste. I think you just have to be clever about it.
I wholeheartedly agree! Sounds like a beautiful wedding! 🙂
These are such great ideas! When I got married, I went for succulents for decor in lieu of flowers (though I did have a small bouquet) and the succulents were grown by a family member and guests could take them home at the end of the night, thus having them serve a purpose as both decor and party favor (that’s quite eco-friendly too!) We also found an old window frame that someone had thrown out so we fixed it up and used that as a sign for guest seating instead of having individual name settings. After the ceremony, we wiped off the seating chart and used it as a frame for our wedding photos! Can you tell I love multi-functional products? Next, for our guest book, we had an old atlas in the family (we had a travel-themed wedding) and we had people sign there instead of buying a blank book. Finally, for programs, we had them printed on seed paper that could be planted after the day was over. We needed programs because we had an interracial marriage with people coming from abroad who didn’t speak the language so we needed something for our international guests to help them understand what was going on. I didn’t love having another thing to print, but I was glad it was at least on eco-friendly paper!