Couples today are extremely informed and concerned about the degradation of the planet, and want to see sustainable inputs at their celebrations.

As the world takes an unexpected turn, eco-friendly and sustainable weddings are the new trend in town. Environmental awareness is becoming increasingly common and essential, becoming the need of the hour. Couples today are extremely informed and concerned about the degradation of the planet, and want to see sustainable inputs at their celebrations. Planning an eco-friendly wedding is conceived as a task much more challenging than traditional wedding planning, but it isn’t necessarily so. 

There are numerous ways to make sustainable changes at a wedding, right from the decor to the food, venue, invites and more. We as a creative studio have experimented with a lot of fresh ideas to bring in this change, and we’re glad to say they’ve all turned out to be a lot more stunning than we could have imagined. Jute bags, locally grown flowers, outdoor venues and repurposing existing decor has a magic of its own, and brings sacks full of meaningfulness to the table. All in all, sustainable, environment-friendly and organic weddings definitely have a unique charm to them.

Prerika Puri, Founder, To The Aisle

Tips & Tricks To Include Sustainability In Your Wedding Decor

1. As much as we may struggle thinking of ways to incorporate them, unfriendly materials are easily replaceable. One of the most common ways of replacing plastic is with glass, that can be reused in the future in multiple different ways. Try to use elements from the designers inventory and style it in distinctive ways that help to cut down cost and reduce scope of wasting new materials at the same time. There are numerous ways and opportunities available to recycle and donate items from an eco-friendly wedding. Accessories like flowers, lanterns and hangings can be reused at home, given to friends, or even saved for later use if not perishable.

2. Cut down on the use of flex made from PVC (polyvinyl chloride). The chemical combination is entirely non biodegradable and can not be recycled. This harmful material can be easily replaced with sun fabric, which is known to be extremely environment friendly.

3. Ideate on ways to replace halogen bulbs and tubelights with LED lights to save power and last longer. These options are also cost friendly, so it’s a total win-win situation!

4. Indian wedding invitations are known to be lavish and larger than life. But after the festivities, they are almost always discarded. Moving forward, e-invites should be the first option. However if a client is strongly rooting for physical invitations, aim to use seed paper of recycled paper. Seed paper leaves behind nothing but fruits or herbs once potted in a planter, causing no wastage.

5. Small giveaways are a must-have at many ceremonies for clients. To make these look pretty and merge into the decor, we often find them packaged in materials that can not be used again. One-time use plastics and paper are highly detrimental to the environment, so experiment with putting small presents in reusable pouches, hanging by key chains, or simply displayed as is to reduce the amount of packaging waste involved.

6. Lastly, pick an outdoor, open air location that is adorned with lots of greens and natural decoration so that the amount of artificial decor needed is reduced drastically. Green and plush surroundings always make for a great setting! Locally grown flowers hanging from trees or sown together into garlands as decoration also serve as picturesque backdrops for weddings, more so when surrounded by luscious green plants and trees. This hack also saves money while being extremely environmentally affable, being a great pocket friendly tip!

Humans have found multiple ways to heal, but it’s time we healed our planet too. After all, Earth is the only place we all have in common. Let’s save it!

Disclaimer: The views expressed in the article above are those of the authors' and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of this publishing house