Indian weddings are known for their vibrancy and extravagance. Such elaborate affairs come with a heavy price tag, however, given the cost of fresh flowers, food displays, décor, and multiple outfits. As a recent bride, I too felt tremendous guilt thinking about the waste of resources. But then I thought what if the wedding purchases could be invested for a greater good?
Photo Courtesy Safia & Bob’s Pakistani American Beach Wedding via Kimberly Photography
1. Giant Carbon Footprints Are So Last Season.
• We’re not asking you to hug every tree out there, but reducing the toll paper products take on our environment is a huge step. Try making more eco-conscious invites by selecting fancy e-vites!
o E-vites can be dressed up or down and are more formal than an impersonal e-mail. Wedding websites and e-vites are perfect for keeping track of the guest list and making your wedding information accessible 24/7.
o For the elderly and more traditional subset of guests, try recycled paper invites from websites like TwistedLimbPaper.com and BotanicalPaperWorks.com. Print just a few for these selected guests or all your invitees if the budget permits.
• Avoid paper products and plastic utensils for servingware. Select a caterer or venue that provides plates, spoons and the like for all your guests. It looks a thousand times better anyway.
o If budget or resources are limited, look for sustainable dinnerware from sites like www.letsgogreen.biz and http://www.verterra.com/. Both offer really cute dinnerware options at affordable prices.
• Recycling/Composting is HOT. Wasting is NOT.
o If any of your wedding materials are biodegradable, then take these items to a local compost facility.
o For ways to recycle paper, plastic, glass, and much more connect to Earth 911.
o For everything else, there’s Special E to the rescue! Special E converts wedding leftovers into valuable resources for the planet and people in need. They collect items and distribute them to “food banks, homeless shelters, soup kitchens, food pantries, missions, churches, hospitals, nursing homes, schools, and a wide range of relief agencies and charitable organizations around the world.”
2. Leftovers Please!
• Don’t let that biryani go to waste. Look up a local food bank in your area using this link at Feeding America.
o There are guidelines for donations, as the food has to be kept warm at certain temperatures and stored properly. Check with your local food bank, caterer and venue to ensure the viability of food donations.
• Make cute take-home boxes for your guests to pack and snack later! Note to brides: pack some for yourselves too. Late night munchies are real.
• If there is still food leftover that isn’t donation friendly, then look for a local compost facility to dispose of the goods.
3. Stop and Smell the Sustainable Roses!
• Flowers smell best when they’re sustainable and in-season. Unfortunately, many of us indulge in chemically drenched flowers for our wedding day. Avoid pesticide-ridden flowers and opt for arrangements from a local organic florist.
• A budget and eco-friendly solution for summer brides is to take a trip to the farmer’s market and DIY the bouquets and centerpieces.
• DONATE. Emerson once said “the Earth Laughs in Smiles” and it’s amazing how donating flowers conveys that sentiment so beautifully. There are several organizations, including Floranthropy in Seattle, WA and Random Acts of Flowers in Knoxville, TN that take wedding floral arrangements and transfer them to nursing homes and hospice care centers. To make a stranger smile with such a simple gesture can make all the wedding madness worth it.
4. Green is Serene.
• Finding the perfect venue can be difficult, but there’s ways to find the ideal location with all the bells and whistles and still go green! Our first suggestion is to find a combo ceremony and reception venue to reduce the carbon emissions from transportation. Save time, money, and the Earth all in one. Try looking for a “green” venue that offers ceremony space outside to take advantage of Mother Nature’s free lighting. But, do have a backup space and plan in mind in case Mother Nature offers free rain too!
• If the outdoors is not your scene, there are eco-friendly hotels that use energy-efficient appliances and sustainable catering options.
• Another option for green venues is institutions or non-profit facilities that can benefit from your event, such as museums, art galleries, or historical buildings. My valima was hosted at a historically preserved mansion funded and run by the Austin Woman’s Club and it was gorgeous mA!
5. It’s Far Better to Give than Receive.
• Favors
o How often do we actually treasure the token gifts we receive at weddings? Aside from PhotoBooth strips and edible confections, most favors are thoughtlessly discarded. For environmentally-conscious couples, it is best to stick to favors of the edible or charitable variety.
o Edible favors can range from organic chocolates to home-made mithai. Go crazy! In terms of charity, there are ways to donate to organizations and inform guests tastefully without a paper trail. Send a link and information about the organization in your e-vite, sustainable invitations, or follow-up thank you notes!
• Something Borrowed, Something New
o Definitely say yes to (donating) the dress! Yes, I know, saying goodbye to that drop-dead gorgeous lehenga is blasphemy, but are you really going to wear it again? Give your dress to a greater cause and smile knowing you made someone else’s big day brighter.
o Pick a used dress and make it your own! There’s history in wearing your mother’s wedding dress because it carries the love and memories of her own special day. You can continue that legacy or you can create a new one by styling the dress differently.
• Short hair, don’t care.
o Pantene’s Beautiful Lengths program is a wonderful initiative that uses donated hair to create wigs for cancer patients across the country. Cut your hair and send the locks to someone in need.
• Decorating Cents.
o Décor can get expensive and environmentally unfavorable fast. To avoid these issues, try to hire a decorator who reuses items she has in her stock for centerpieces and aisle décor. If there are any items missing from your absolute pinterest-based, must list, then create the décor DIY style and donate them!
o My family and I donated the bulk of wedding materials, including mandaps, thalis, and dupattas galore to friends and family for their weddings. The gratitude these families had for this tiny gesture made all the effort in DIYing worth it.
Well, there you have it folks. This list is by no means comprehensive, but it is a good starting point for those favoring a greener wedding. Thank goodness for environmentally conscious couples… imagine how many leftover samosas would go to waste without them! Actually, never mind, I would totally eat all of the leftover samosas in the world because I’m that environmentally conscious (and gluttonous).