5 Top Tips for Throwing a Carbon Neutral Wedding

Words by Utterly Printable

Are you looking to host an environmentally friendly wedding? Well we’re here to help. We pride ourselves on our range of eco-friendly wedding invitations, and sustainably sourced stationery. And the article below if here to help you with some of the other finer details involved in hosting a carbon neutral wedding.

Traditionally, weddings are one of the biggest events you will ever throw in your life. Naturally this makes them grand affairs and often very little attention is paid to whether the wedding is kind to the environment or not. However, with global warming and the state of the environment hitting the headlines over the last few years, it has become more normal for weddings to be planned with the environment in mind. So, here’s our list of 5 great ways for you to lower the carbon footprint of your wedding:

The Venue

Whilst it is a nice idea to dream of a destination wedding on a beach somewhere, the carbon footprint for this sort of event is going to be high. It is better to select a location that is within your hometown or county, as a large percentage of your guests are likely to be in a similar area. There are also a good selection of green wedding venues opening up, where you will find things like solar panels and wind turbines powering the event, and recycled materials used where possible. In other words, search out venues that have the same eco-friendly ethos that you have. You’ll also want to look into a venue that enables you to have the ceremony, reception, and have guests stay overnight all in one place as this cut down on the amount of travelling anyone has to do.

Transport

Everyone driving to the event immediately suggests a higher carbon footprint. There are various things you can do such as encouraging people to use public transport, although this may feel strange if people are dressed up for a wedding. Carpooling is certainly an option and asking people to share vehicles. How about putting on a wedding bus? There are plenty of companies offering to run a local collection service in the area and this also means that people can have a drink at the evening party and not worry about how they’re going to get home at the end.

Eco-friendly Printing

Environmentally friendly wedding invite

Eco-friendly printing is something we know a fair bit about. In recent times, we have aimed to produce the most environmentally friendly wedding stationery around. From sustainable wedding invitations, to environmentally responsible but affordable wedding ceremony programs, we’ve got you covered. All of our paper is printed on FSC certified paper stocks. This means they come from sustainably managed forests. Likewise, we give you the option at checkout to offset the carbon footprint of your print order using our micro-offset scheme. Check out this page for more information on our environmental efforts as a printer.

Food

The buzzwords when it comes to catering and food are local and organic. By reducing the amount of miles the food has to travel before it reaches your destination, you are cutting down the carbon footprint of the meal. You will also find that many of the eco-friendly wedding venues will be offering a catering service which includes making sure that the food is locally sourced.

Disposables

At all points during the process you should be looking to avoid anything that is disposable. You should also cut down on the number of things that will be thrown away so everything should be re-usable or be able to be repurposed. This means that you don’t want things like balloons, paper plates, table decorations that will be thrown away at the end. Even things like table linens and chair covers have a carbon footprint as they will require laundry afterwards which is not a particularly eco-friendly process. Anything that can be recycled all that has been pre-loved is a perfect way to help cut down on the overall impact your wedding has on the planet.