There are so many fun and easy things that you can do to minimize waste for your wedding, so start with decorations and buy them pre loved. Things like table, number holders, signs, frames, cardboxes easels, all these little things that get bought for one day and they have no other purpose but to be used for a wedding. Get them pre loved instead of new on Amazon and Etsy, there’s so much of this stuff already floating around out there, and you can find it in Facebook groups or here in Chicago, we have the Green Wedding Alliance ReCyclery, which is a big wedding decor garage sale with stationery. A lot of sustainable couples will go the digital route, and that’s great for save the dates because it’s just an announcement like, hey, we’re engaged. We’re getting married in this city on this date. But with invitations, you run the risk of people opening these invites, and then they get busy and they forget to open it again and respond. So you might have to do some more work getting those rsVPS. So I recommend going paper. Just make sure you’re using paper made out of recycled materials, biodegradable materials like cotton, handmade papers, seed papers, and for both of them with the elders, make sure you are sending paper copies for them, because we don’t want to make things hard on them. If you are giving your guests favors or gifts, make sure it’s a consumable item like foods, drinks, candles, plants, things that are actually going to be used instead of some decorations that have your names and date on them. And only provide enough for about 50% to 70% of the guest count because most people don’t take these things home at the end of the night. If you’re having a wedding party which is bridesmaids and groomsmen, or you’re people of honor and you’re not particular about the look of your wedding, or you want to get creative, have them go into their closets and reuse things from past weddings or just things that they have in their closet already. So many of us, by the time we’re 30, have dresses from past weddings, suits, tuxes. So just give your wedding party guidelines on color, formality and seasonality and let them have fun with it. And then your wedding is going to have a look that is so unique and not found anywhere else. All right, that’s it. Bye.

And they should have a micro wedding. Just kidding. Everybody deserves to have a great big celebration and it does not have to be super wasteful. Hey, what’s up? My name is Megan. I’m a vintage curator and stylist at Lucid Ladybug. And today we’re talking about reducing waste at your wedding. So first thing I can think of is evites. It’s all the rage right now. There are beautiful templates online where you can create your save the date, your bridal shower invitation, your wedding invitation. And guests can reply right online. This reduces paper for envelopes, for the invites, postage, all of the above. Another great option to reduce waste is to rent your wedding decor. There are amazing companies out there that rent everything from tablescapes and glassware place settings to furniture backdrops. All the beautiful things to your day. So special, but without the environmental impact or waste. Right? Because we’re renting it, it’s going to get used again. It’s not going to end up in the landfill. Cheers.