Eco Friendly Weddings and Events
Going green or making eco friendly choices in our everyday lives is something we should all be striving towards these days. Things like recycling, walking or riding a bike whenever possible and replacing disposable products with reusable ones should become common place.
But what about other areas of our lives — areas that, individually, we may not be involved with all that often, but collectively, produces tons of waste and leaves a heavy carbon footprint each year?
What about eco friendly wedding and event decorating? According to GreenBrideGuide.com, of the 2.5 million weddings this year, each will produce 400 to 600 pounds of garbage and and average of 62 tons of carbon dioxide. What can we do to help?
Chances are you are attending, if not hosting, an event this year. Whether it is a wedding, rehearsal dinner, shower, birthday party, corporate event, awards ceremony or even a holiday get together, these events can produce hazards to our environment — waste and a large carbon footprint.
Starting small can be a great beginning to decorating with the environment in mind. Something as simple as replacing cut flower centerpieces with vintage items used as a centerpiece can lower the carbon footprint of an individual event by a sizable amount.
Most flowers grown for commercial use have had pesticides, fertilizers and other chemicals used in their production. Additionally, the shipping of the flowers from the grower to the customer can include trucks, planes and/or ships that rely on fossel fuels: thus, increasing the carbon footprint for that product. Organic flowers are out there, but not mainstream as of yet. Staying local is a step in the right direction. Shipping tulips from Holland to the U.S. is less eco friendly than purchasing from a local farmer.
How can you make a difference? Good question. It is actually easier than you think. Consider some of these simple options. For weddings and larger events:
- Instead of using foil or latex balloons, go for the biodegradable variety.
- Instead of bargin basement candles, choose candles made from a sustainable resource such as soy or beeswax.
- Replacing conventional event special lighting with eco friendly l.e.d. lighting can reduce the power requirments of an event drastically. You can even forgo the candles all together (flames can be hazardous) and use l.e.d. battery powered or solar powered lights.
- Use what you already have. Ask grandma, aunt Mabel and the neighbors if you can borrow linens, dishes, vases or chairs. Vintage is in and that is very green.
- Rent instead of buying decor. Rental is the ultimate in reusing and kinder to the environment.
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