Today I walked to work as part of New Zealand’s national Walk2Work day. I walk to work normally anyway – the days I go in to an office to print my braille stuff – but today I got a free breakfast and the chance to win some organic sneakers for my trouble.

I use my walking time to think. Often I think up posts for my blogs, or brainstorm ideas for projects. Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about the impact I – personally – have on the environment. I’ve also been reading No Impact Man, who spent a year living in central New York City attempting to have no net impact on the environment.

I wondered how well ideas of environmental stewerdship cross over into the wedding sphere?

Shop Local

Before you decide to travel two hours away for your bridesmaid dress fittings, or that the flowers you MUST have come from 300 miles away, consider shopping local.

Shopping local means supporting local famers by ensuring the food you serve comes from local sources. Shopping local means hiring a local venue, booking a local band, hiring a local dressmaker, florist and magician. Shopping local means buying local crafts, gifts, flowers and clothing. Shopping local means more money in your local economy, less impact on the environment through manufacture and distribution, and more contact and support for your community.

Buy Secondhand or Rent decorations

Every bride wants her wedding to look fabulous, and you skully brides are no different. You want that WOW factor when the guests first walk into the banquet hall. But shopping for decor items that will be used once and thrown away contributes to waste in landfills.

Rent decorations and centrepieces from local hire companies, theatre prop rooms or costume shops. You’ll be amazed at what you can find for a reasonable price.

If you haven’t seen what you’re looking for, scour the second-hand shops. One of the coolest weddings I saw was an Alice in Wonderland wedding. The bride and her helpers spent months rescuing teacups from secondhand stores and thrift shops, which they arranged in made concoctions at the centre of each table, and they guests could take the cups home as a favor. The unwanted cups went straight into the brides cupboard for future tea parties.

Our wedding centrepieces were pillar candles brought from a local maker, faux red roses and barbed wire (the barbed wire was actually rubber movie props. Thank YOU weta workshop). The roses and wire were given to us by our venue, Spookers, and they use them as props around the attractions. We also donated our candles to them, which they used again for other functions.

Forgo Favors

The wedding favor trend picks up steam every passing year. However, from a guest’s point of view, favors are not a necessary element of a wedding, and they often consist of food that goes uneaten, knick-knacks that are discarded, and pretty cardboard/plastic/fabric packaging that’s thrown away. Multiply by 100 guests, and you’ve added an enormous expense and a huge burden on the landfill to your wedding.

So why not simply forgo favors altogether? I bet you no one will even notice. If you must have something, consider taking the money you would have spent on favors and donating it to charity. I’ve discussed the pros and cons of donating to charity in lieu of favors in a previous post.

Organize a Bus

Carbon emissions from cars account for something like 50% of the pollution individual humans cause. One way to ensure your wedding is as carbon-friendly as possible is to organize a bus to pick your guests up from a central location and drop them off at the end of the night.

At our wedding the bus company even blacked out the windows and hung up spooky decorations to get our friends pumped for the evening! The bus service also meant we had no fears about drink driving.

Recycled invitations

100 invites, 100 sheets of paper, 100 envelopes, 100 reply cards, Save the Daves, registry cards, maps, information sheets, place numbers, programs, menus, thank you cards, favor boxes…

A wedding can use a LOT of paper. And that’s all paper that gets thrown out. Poor trees

When thinking about your wedding stationary, try to by products made from 100% recycled paper. And be dilligent with you paper products – don’t post off 5 sheets of paper with your invitation if you can fit the information onto 2 sheets. Do you REALLY need Save the Date cards?

That’s five ideas for greening up your wedding. Now I pass the torch over to my wonderful brides and grooms. Agree? Disagree? How are you guys keeping your weddings green? Can you recommend places to get green-friendly wedding products? Why should we even be concerned? I want to know!