Well I'm glad you asked! Here's 10 easy tips for a green wedding:
1. Have your ceremony and reception at one location. Not much, I know, but you're saving your guests from having to drive to another location, and you only have one map you end up needing to put with the invitation. Saving on gas, trash, and money!
2. Have your wedding during the day. Use that natural sunshine as your lighting, and you're using less electricity to keep your party running.
3. Serve a family-style meal at the reception. Family style means less plates being used, which is less water and soap for washing, less chemicals in the water. And if you are using one-use plates and utensils, serving family style means less garbage after everything is over.
4. Use digital invitations. Websites like evite.com are coming up with more and more lovely email invitations that are definitely wedding-y. Everyone's on their email anyway, so be creative, surprising, and save money and paper.
5. When you have to buy something, buy it from a local, low-impact vendor. Weather it's your gown or aisle decorations, if you have to purchase an item, find a local vendor that uses organic and low-impact processes to create the item you are buying. Organic doesn't always mean they recycle, so find reviews on companies and make and educated decision. Local also means you're not paying for an item to be shipped from a separate location, which means less pollution from trucks and airplanes.
6. Use recycled rings and jewelery. Something borrowed is a great tradition, saving you money, and saving the environment from pollution caused by mining, chemicals, and the processes it takes to create jewelry. For your wedding rings, look to your family heirlooms, or buy rings made from recycled gold and stones by artists such as GreenKarat.com
7. Use local flowers for your bouquets and decorations. Work with a florist that will use organic, locally grown flowers that are native to your wedding's location. And don't use out of season flowers either as they are force-grown in hothouses with lots of chemicals and 24 hour artificial sunlight. Yuck.
8. Recycle everything. From leftover food (give to a local shelter) to your dress (give to Brides Across America, a program that donates gowns to couples in the military), the flowers (use for both the ceremony and the reception then gift to your church, cemetery, etc). And ask your vendors to do the same - ask your caterer to recycle his leftover foil, and your florist to use a compost for leftover clippings.
9. Don't do a huge wedding. It'll also save you money. Simple and sweet is a great way to go, spending less on decorations and custom this-and-that's. The environment gets less needing to be cleaned, trashed, transported, and stored.
10. Actually make the effort! Don't just set out to do it, actually do it! And tell your guests all about it! Tell them that you're planning an eco-wedding and you'll be surprised at the amount of help and support you'll get. Your family may end up coming up with some great ideas you never thought of!
