What to do with all the stuff left over after the wedding; Reduce-Reuse-Recycle?
It isn’t much of a secret that traditional weddings use a lot of STUFF and are not exactly known for being earth-friendly or resourceful. But you can change that starting right here! With just a little forethought and some action plans you can make your wedding environmentally friendly, economical and create less waste.
By considering where your wedding food and decorations are coming from and making a few simple choices and changes you can help to eliminate transportation fees and added traffic. Using an on-site caterer for all of your food and beverage needs, as well as having the cake prepared on-site will take a refrigerated truck off of your local roads and you will be saving the fees associated with those deliveries.
Florists usually have delivery fees as well and they cart those gorgeous blooms around in a truck, a big ‘ole refrigerated one, which means more gas and more environmental impact. Consider negotiating with them to deliver a day or so before hand and use the refrigerator on-site to store the flowers until the event, if they are able to deliver at a less traffic-congested hour or when it is more convenient for them, they might be willing to waive delivery fees and you won’t be making any more traffic.
Weddings often give out programs which use several different kinds of paper and often ribbon too. If you put out a collection box near your gift or cake table people can return them so you can save them or dispose of them responsibly at your local recycling center. Or, just skip this step and save yourself the cost and time of preparing programs which usually just result in paper waste.
Jewish weddings usually give out personalized yarmulkes. If you take it home and lay it inside of a drawer you can have the perfect soft and contained spot for a rings or pair of earrings.
Also, consider printing your invitations on recycled paper and print on the back side a request that they be recycled.
Just by taking a few minutes to consider alternatives and other uses for items used in your wedding you can make a big impact on your local environment, and often times, your wallet.
September 5th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
I just had to add a comment regarding florists and your mis-conception regarding our fees for delivery and set-up. We would use the same amount of gas on a Thursday as we would on a Saturday, the day of your wedding. Hotels and venues do not have room for 10 to 20 floral centerpieces in their coolers, as that is reserved for food for their events on the days prior to your wedding, plus, fresh flowers can not be placed in coolers with any fruit (fruit gives off ethelene (Sp?) gas, which kills flowers. Our delivery/setup charge not only includes the gasoline, but to pay the crew that is delivering and the hours to set up, light candles, go to the church to break down, keep those crew members “on the clock” to come back at midnight to break down your event. Don’t know how much you would expect to be paid by your company to work at midnight on a Saturday night, but my crew of designers don’t come cheap. On a positive note, we work with a wonderful charity who take the flowers from the event and re-work them to deliver to Alive Hospice and nursing home patients, so that is not only a way to stay “green”, but a true act of kindness.