11 Sustainable Wedding Ideas For An Eco Big Day

Getting married soon? Here’s how to plan a sustainable and eco-friendly wedding that’s not only memorable but also leaves a lasting, positive impact on the planet.

If you’re looking to tie the knot sustainably, planning your big day can be tricky business. From picking the location, sending the invites, deciding what to wear, and how to decorate, it can feel stressful trying to marry up your dream wedding with the environment in mind.

However, planning a sustainable wedding doesn’t have to be stressful. To help you out, I’ve put together 11 easy ways to have an eco-friendly wedding. Whether you adopt them all or pick a few key areas to focus on, every step you take helps to ensure your big day leaves a lasting positive impact on the planet.

Easy & Achievable Eco-Friendly Wedding Ideas

From your dress to your wedding favours, here are my top tips for having the green wedding of your dreams:

• Give Some Love To Preloved Wedding Dresses
• Opt For Ethical Bridal Shoes
• Pick The Right Location
• Ditch the Wedding List
• Opt for Locally Grown Flowers
• Use Eco-Friendly Table Displays
• Ditch The Wedding List
• Offer Sustainable Wedding Favours
• Embrace The Something Borrowed Tradition
• Consider The Menu
• Go Electronic

Give Some Love To Preloved Wedding Dresses

At a time when the average cost of a wedding is £18,000, opting for a pre-loved wedding dress isn’t just good for the planet, but good for your pocket too. Plus opting, for preloved means you’re giving a beautiful garment that was only once a second chance to shine. Vintage dresses, in particular, often boast intricate detailing, such as beautiful lacework, delicate beadwork, and high-quality fabrics, that deserve to be worn and shown off again.

Oxfam Online, eBay, and Etsy all have fantastic selections of both vintage and secondhand dresses in a vast variety of styles and sizes. You can use each site’s clever filters to help you hone in on the exact preloved dress of your dreams.

If buying a wedding dress online gives you the fear then try charity shops. Oxfam, for example, has 5 specialist bridal charity shops up and down the country dedicated to wedding dresses. You could even get a talented tailor/dressmaker to customise your preloved dress for something really unique and special.

If you’re set on a vintage dress, there are even dedicated vintage bridal shops in cities across the UK. For example, near me in Edinburgh, you can find Those Were The Days, dedicated to stunning vintage wedding dresses spanning a range of eras. Check out my dedicated guide to vintage wedding dresses for more ideas.

Opt For Ethical Bridal Shoes

Your dress isn’t the only way to green your wedding. You can opt for ethical bridal shoes – such as from Emmy London who offers a beautiful collection of vegan bridal shoes.

These cruelty-free and eco-friendly footwear options are crafted without any animal-derived materials, it’s one way to embrace ethical fashion without compromising on style.

Pick The Right Location

As someone who specialises in sustainable transport, I would recommend picking a wedding venue with accessibility in mind. After all, one of the largest contributors to your wedding’s carbon footprint is the emissions from travel. So when picking a venue, one question to ask is if guests can easily access your potential venue by public transport, such as by bus or train.

If your heart is set on a more remote location, encourage your guests to car-share. Or you could consider hiring a bus to transport guests to your venue, to help minimise your wedding’s carbon footprint.

Ditch The Wedding List

Wedding lists traditionally sought to help young couples set up a home together for the first time. Nowadays most couples live together before tying the knot and own all of the big and small ticket items that wedding lists once sought to provide.

For an eco-friendly and sustainable wedding, I suggest ditching the traditional wedding list. Particularly if it doesn’t make any financial or environmental sense for you to ask guests for a toaster, kettle, bed linen, or dinner service when you already own those items.

If you’re like any of my friends who have tied the knot, then their financial concerns are either saving for a honeymoon or saving for a deposit on a property. Why not, therefore, consider asking guests for a contribution to one of these things?

Alternatively, you could skip the gifts altogether and instead ask guests to donate to a charity close to you and your partner’s hearts. Whether that’s an environmental charity, a bee charity or something else altogether, it’s a great way to ensure your wedding has an ongoing positive impact.

Opt For Locally Grown Flowers

Cut flowers have a surprising carbon footprint. Instead, for a more sustainable wedding, consider sourcing British-grown seasonal flowers for your bouquet. According to The Guardian, the carbon footprint of locally grown and seasonal bouquets can be 10 times less than that of imported flowers.

It’s important to opt for seasonal flowers though. The same Guardian report notes emissions from non-seasonal flowers grown in the Netherlands and flowers grown in Kenya were broadly equal. This is because the Dutch flowers need significant amounts of artificial heating and lighting to grow, while the Kenyan emissions come mainly from air-freighting flowers to the UK.

Use Eco-Friendly Table Displays

For table displays, cut flowers are still a popular choice. But why not consider using potted plants rather than cut flowers? These look just as pretty. Plus you can then take them home after your wedding, or offer them to guests as a greener, and long-lasting reminder of your special day.

As well as looking pretty, the plus point is that living plants will absorb carbon dioxide. Whilst they won’t offset a huge amount of carbon, it’s better than cut flowers that have a very short lifespan.

Offer Sustainable Wedding Favours

It’s traditional to offer wedding favours to guests. I say no one will mind if there’s not a box of sugared almonds sitting on their dinner table! Does anyone even eat the sugared almonds anyway? Save your effort and save your money whilst you help the environment.

Another green wedding favour alternative is to plant a tree in your guests’ names. To make it easy, you could donate to one of these tree-planting charities rather than actually physically planting a tree. Or you could make a charitable donation in your guests’ names to a good cause of your choice, using the money you would have spent on favours. This will leave a positive legacy that lasts longer than those sugared almonds!

If you really want to offer favours, one sustainable idea to is offer packets of bee-friendly native seeds. Etsy has so many to choose from, or you could DIY your own.

Embrace The Something Borrowed Tradition

‘Something borrowed, something green’ – that’s how the tradition goes, doesn’t it? Ok, it’s something borrowed, something blue, but embracing the something borrowed tradition is one great way to green your wedding.

From the decoration to the tableware: rather than rushing out and buying items new, instead, see what you can borrow from friends and family. No one is going to mind if the wine glasses don’t match – just as long as the glasses are full! If you can’t borrow from friends, try places like the Party Kit Network or your local Library Of Things where you can borrow all sorts of items perfect for throwing a big green bash.

If that doesn’t work out, then try hiring what you can.

Consider The Menu

If you want to green your wedding, another easy way to do this is to carefully consider your menu. You could make like Natalie Portman, Ellie Goulding, Anne Hathaway or Miley Cyrus and serve a vegan feast to make your wedding as cruelty-free as possible. Here’s a handy list of vegan wedding menu ideas to prove vegan food isn’t just mung beans and chickpeas.

Go Electronic

Finally, for a truly eco-conscious wedding, I’d recommend cutting out any unnecessary paper. Electronic invites are lighter on the environment and lighter on your pocket, and don’t have to be poorly designed Microsoft Paint affairs!

Sites like Canva have beautifully designed templates you can customise to make professional-looking wedding invites that can be sent by email. I use Canva all the time and really rate it for its ease of use.

Meanwhile, sites like Paperless Wedding allow you to create a wedding website along with e-invites. Other sites, like Paperless Post, have some stunning wedding e-invite designs from designers such as Rifle Paper Co, Kate Spade, Oscar De La Renta, and more. What’s more, they also offer a service that allows you to track your RSVPs with ease. There is also a handy option to print invites for relatives who may not be so internet savvy.

Your Ideas For A Green Wedding

Do you have any other ideas for having an eco-friendly and sustainable wedding? I’m sure readers would be interested to hear them so do share!

Finally, if you are buying wedding rings, do also check out my guide to ethical jewellery. It outlines the greenwashing to be wary of. For example, did you know that recycled gold is a form of greenwashing? Everything you need to look out for is in there, so do take a read.