Sustainable Weddings: Tips for Planning an Environmentally-Friendly Celebration

The content in this blog post first appeared in my monthly newsletter in May of 2023. Sign up here for first access to more content like this!

This month’s newsletter is all about sustainable weddings. This is a topic that I could honestly talk about forever (and will never stop talking about, to be honest), and I’m hoping to keep the conversation going with you! After reading, let me know what questions you still have on the topic, and I’ll be sure to answer your questions either in a future newsletter, blog post, or Instagram caption! I’m here to serve you, and I want to create helpful and relevant content that helps you.

Sustainability

Okay, first of all just so we’re all on the same page, when I say “sustainable wedding”, I’m using the word “sustainable” to encompass everything that has to do with protecting the earth – from “Zero Waste” to “Leave No Trace” to “Environmentally Friendly” to “Clean” to “Minimal Impact” … you get the picture. 

Intentionality

So what does that look like? It can look like a lot of different things – and I’ll go into that more in a minute, but mostly it looks like intentionality (another kind of vague term, I know). To help you understand, here’s an example of an intentional mindset: 

Imagine a beautiful and wild place you love so much that you want to get married there. You must love that place enough to want to protect it so that others can continue enjoying it for generations to come, right? I bet you would do anything to keep your wedding from harming the place that you love. Now imagine that you’ve researched your wedding location and learned specific actions you and your wedding guests can take to protect the area. You’ve educated your guests. You’ve chosen wedding vendors who prioritize sustainability just as much as you do. Every step of the way, you’ve made decisions that will decrease the impact your wedding has on the environment – glass instead of plastic, thrifting instead of buying new, local instead of imported (and so many more things!).

Now that you have an idea of what a sustainable wedding looks like, you might be wondering why it’s important to have a sustainable wedding. One of my favorite quotes is by Wendell Berry, an American novelist and environmental activist: 

“The Earth is what we all have in common.”

“Just one wedding …”

You might be thinking “What difference can just one wedding make?” Well, it’s estimated that the average wedding has the same carbon footprint as one household does for one whole year. Luckily, the wedding industry is starting to change for the better, and it’s thanks to couples who have decided that their wedding day wouldn’t be the day of their dreams if it isn’t sustainable. 

Location

A major factor to consider when planning a sustainable wedding is the location. Intimate weddings and elopements in remote locations, national parks, and wilderness areas are extremely popular right now (for good reason), but unfortunately with an increase in human traffic also comes an increase in the destruction of those wild and beautiful locations. In order to recreate responsibly we must learn ahead of time how we can best protect and steward the land we will be visiting, and I find it helpful to also learn the why behind the rules of an area – sometimes they can seem so arbitrary, but they’re always there for a reason. 

Steps You Can Take

So what can you do to have a more sustainable wedding? I’m so glad you asked! Below I have listed four things you can do (and don’t worry, no matter where you are in the planning process – even if your wedding is tomorrow – there are still steps you can take):

1. Read the blog post I wrote last week “Leave No Trace (LNT) Wedding Guide: Tips & Resources“. It’s a beast of a blog post, and there I listed actionable steps to take to make sure your wedding or elopement follows the seven principles of LNT and is as sustainable as possible.

2. Not engaged yet? Start researching ways to make your (future) wedding sustainable. Google, national and state park websites, and blog posts written by sustainable wedding vendors are all great places to start!

3. Newly engaged? Sit down with your fiance and talk about what things you’d like to prioritize when planning your wedding. 

4. Getting married tomorrow? Let your vendors know that you’d like them to donate, reuse,  recycle, or compost anything that they can after your wedding. 

Hopefully these steps are a starting point for you as you begin your sustainable wedding journey. I’d love to hear in the comments what else you have done to make your wedding more sustainable!

Final Thoughts & Encouragement

I hope this email has been helpful to you, and I just want to leave you with a word of encouragement. Back when I planned my own intimate wedding in Rocky Mountain National Park, I was still in the beginning of my sustainability journey. Looking back, are there things that I could have done better? Of course! But I am so dang proud of myself for all the efforts I made – I thrifted, borrowed, and locally sourced everything that I possibly could. And that’s what I want for you! I want you to feel proud of the wedding you planned, knowing that you minimized the impact it had on the earth and that you did everything you could to plan your dream wedding while not sacrificing any of your values! 

Don’t forget to sign up for my email list to get access to all of my freebies, including “Leave No Trace Wedding Guest Guide”, “Buffalo National River Elopement Guide”, “Wedding Planning Dream Date Worksheet”, and so many more!

*All my blog posts contain a selection of images that I’ve taken. If you are interested in booking a wedding or session with me, I am more than happy to send you a full gallery upon request!

I’m a wife, a dog mom, a foodie, a wanderer, a registered nurse, and a couples/intimate wedding/elopement photographer … and this blog will cover it all! If you enjoyed this post, first of all thank you, and second of all please follow me on Instagram + Facebook and sign up for my monthly newsletter to get exclusive wedding planning advice and access to all of my new (and old) freebies! If you have any questions about elopement photography, my journey from nursing to photography, or my time spent as a full-time RVer, drop a comment and I just might write a blog post answering your question (but I definitely will)!

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