wedding

Guest post by Katie Martin of Eco-Beautiful Weddings

The first question we get from every bride that walks in our studio is: “How can I green my event?” They know it is our specialty and they know they want to go green.  However, they have found it difficult to find examples of how to make a wedding beautiful, fun, and interesting while keeping eco-friendly components.

The solution to greening your event is to make sure you work with the right vendors.  The wrong vendors are the ones that are simply in the wedding industry to make a buck.  Some wedding professionals are having a difficult time learning how to go green and it is up to you, the consumer, to educate them. Here are three questions to ask potential vendors:

1. Do they give back to the community or the environment?

2. Where are their supplies coming from?  For caterers, find out if their food is sourced locally. For florists, ask about where their flowers come from.  Remember, transportation is one of the major components of waste produced by a wedding.

3. Are they listening to you or greenwashing?  Be careful of those vendors that simply want you to sign on the dotted line. Ask your wedding professional if they have a green mission.  Also, if they keep trying to change the subject about eco-friendly practices, that’s a sign to keep walking.

Green Wedding Tips

• Reduce the amount of out-of-town guests that will be traveling to your wedding.  Transportation is the biggest “eco-sin” when it comes to weddings.
• Don’t serve red meat at your wedding.  Serve fish, chicken/fowl and/or vegetarian/vegan options instead. The amount of energy it takes to produce and digest red meat is staggering compared to the other options.
• Choose décor and fashion items that come from renewable and free-trade and fair-wage resources.