How to Select Eco-Friendly Wedding Vendors and Venues

When planning an eco-friendly wedding look for vendors and venues who share your vision. From location to decor, there are many ways to go green for your wedding.

Every newly engaged couple dreams about the perfect wedding day.

Hours and hours of careful thought go into planning, with many factors to consider to ensure the wedding day matches the couple’s perfect vision.

• Large ceremony or intimate?
• Destination wedding or local?
• Vibrant colors or subdued?
• Fresh flowers or artificial?

But whatever your vision of a dream wedding looks like, there’s one thing it likely does not ever include: piles of trash and high carbon emissions. And yet, unfortunately, the hard truth is that the wedding industry produces a massive amount of waste annually.

Kate Harrison’s The Green Bride Guide: How to Create an Earth-Friendly Wedding on Any Budget finds that a single wedding produces approximately 63 tons of carbon dioxide and 400 lbs of garbage.

Considering how The Wedding Report estimates that by 2022 the wedding industry will return to its average of over 2 million weddings a year in the U.S. alone, calculating annual emissions numbers is definitely daunting.

While we don’t need exact statistics to be aware of the impacts of the unfolding climate crisis—just turn on the news any given day for reports of continent-wide fires, superstorms, and dangerously bipolar temperatures. The evidence is startling.

So, eco-friendly choices are simply not a luxury option anymore.

Wouldn’t it be great if you could proudly say your wedding didn’t add to the environmental burden? The good news is you can! Start by opting for eco-friendly wedding vendors.

Look For Eco-Friendly Wedding Locations

Of course, choosing the right venue for your wedding is pivotal to your aesthetic. But it’s also key to going green for your wedding. One of the best (and simplest) ways to decrease your wedding’s carbon footprint is to choose a location near your guests. A shorter distance to travel cuts back on air and car travel, which in turn cuts back on carbon emissions. If you happen to mostly be located in the same city, look for a venue there.

However, just because you’re intentionally looking for eco-friendly venues doesn’t mean you have to rule out a destination wedding. With the right setting and location-specific decor—think reclaimed driftwood for a beach wedding, or the natural scrub of a mountain or desert setting—any venue can be transformed with minimal waste left behind for a leave no trace themed wedding.

Think about tightening the guest list too, so fewer people have to travel. The COVID-19 pandemic spurred a rise in digitally-streamed weddings: consider keeping the in-person list tight, and setting up a live cam for those who can’t make it.

The point is, keep it tight and environmentally conscious. Instead of hosting multiple events that would require your guests to commute continuously, combine some. There’s no rule against having your shower and bachelor/bachelorette party on the same day. Those with a tight-knit tribe should look to book a venue with lodging for the entire wedding party. Keeping everyone under the same roof makes it an intimate affair!

Hold the Ceremony and Reception In One Place

Likewise, brides looking to make their wedding more eco-friendly may want to consider cutting back on the number of venues by holding the ceremony and reception in the same place. Not only does this reduce the amount of travel (and thus, carbon footprint), but it also makes coordinating and managing everything easier. It’s more cost-effective, as you are likely to get great discounts for booking the same venue for longer hours. And there will be less trash to dispose of at the end as well since as you won’t be switching venues or paying for two sets of decorations.

If it’s not possible to organize both events at the same place, you can look for nearby locations and arrange shuttle services. You can also encourage your guests to carpool between venues to save energy and help you host your eco-friendly wedding.

Choose Vendors and Venues Who Encourage Eco-Friendly Wedding Practices

Greening your wedding isn’t entirely on your shoulders though: you also need vendors and venues who have an eco-friendly state of mind. Seek out venues that explicitly encourage sustainability during the wedding planning process.

For example, many hotels these days have moved in a more energy-efficient direction, using solar panels and power automation systems to keep a check on energy consumption. Venues that offer filtered water dispensers instead of plastic bottles or use recycled paper products also signal an environmentally conscious mindset.

Along with choosing the right venue, seek out environmentally-conscious wedding vendors. To create your ‘green team,’ start by hiring as local as possible. Since they won’t have to travel a lot, transportation will be kept at a minimum.

Look for suppliers who advertise using eco-friendly or biodegradable material. For example, check if the vendor creating your wedding invitations offers recycled or eco-friendly stationery. Ask your decorator to work with reusable linen and source flowers from organic farms. These changes may sound small, but they have a big impact on your wedding’s overall garbage and carbon dioxide production and help make your big day more environmentally sustainable.

Go Green for Your Wedding With Afarose

Of course, the biggest focal point of the wedding is the dress.

While truly zero-waste dresses are still not terribly common, there are definitely ways to ensure your attire is at least green-conscious. For example, buy wedding dresses from vendors who source material ethically, and who recycle fabric as well. There are many vendors who even donate used fabric to reduce waste.

Vendors like Afarose go out of their way to support sustainable practices whenever possible. By choosing to have an entire e-commerce business model instead of a retail store, the team cuts down on water waste and energy consumption. And since every dress is made to order, the fabric is used more thoughtfully than in bulk-production operations. Custom fits and dedication to detailed styling appointments ensure minimal waste is produced through the alteration process.

Afarose even reincorporates leftover fabrics into other dresses and designs to operate as close to zero-waste as possible!

And perhaps best of all, the eco-friendly practices don’t compromise dress quality. Afarose stocks a wide selection of gorgeous gowns for every style, from the delicate and minimalist lacy Ada to the timeless Regina with its mermaid silhouette and never-ending cascading train.

Incorporating eco-friendly venues and vendors into your wedding preparations helps reduce your carbon footprint.

Ensure your wedding day is as sustainable as possible—after all, you want to spend your happily ever after on a healthy planet!

Partner with environmentally-conscious vendors like Afarose to ensure your wedding is green every step of the way. Book an appointment with a virtual bridal stylist today!

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