In honor of Earth Day 2019, we’d like to give you 4 easy tips for reducing your impact on the environment as you plan your wedding.

1. Your Catering Choices

The most important thing you can do to reduce your impact on the environment, choose a green caterer. Our top recommendation for full service green event catering services in Oregon is Artemis Foods Catering & Events. If you want to know your caterer is incorporating green principals in every aspect – from locally sourcing seasonally available menu options, to cleaning reusable dishes with environmentally friendly cleaners to cleanup and reduction of waste practices, to paying fair wages, look no further!

The great news is so many of our local caterers and restaurants who offer event catering are also green in their practices. You are not limited! The key is to select a menu that is in season, with local sources for as much of your food and drink options as possible.

2. Send a Digital Invitation or Save The Dates

Our friends over at Glitch Films offer love story edited films for your social media, wedding website and digital Save The Dates and Wedding Invitations. Order a few locally made, specialty invitation suites for those on your list who will save and treasure your invite, and use a service like Paperless Post or GreenVelope to send the rest of your list green paperless invites, you can customize your invites with your film (GreenVelope, out of Seattle, will support custom video invites).

3. Don’t Use Floral Foam

Green traditional floral foam is a freakin magical genius design tool when designing wedding arches, dramatic centerpieces, and backdrops. But wedding foam is absolutely horrible for the environment! You may need to use it in your arch, depending on weather conditions, floral colors, and time of your ceremony vs. when your arch design must be installed. Nobody wants to sacrifice the beauty of their wedding, and you don’t have to. But limit how much your floral designer has to use.

We can always design a foam free backdrop or arch, but unless you use suggested materials that can remain brilliant out of water, this can be difficult. White flowers look dead faster. Brilliant colored florals can hold their color longer or indefinitely. Use hearty greens, no foam is needed with Italian ruscus:

or even greens that dry looking the same – this eucalyptus is locally sourced and DRIED:

Everything in the above picture is dried! This design was built in wooden boxes in sand. There are so many options for dried or preserved or painted florals to be used in your design. Spray painted babies breath clouds are a favorite this year. And individual flowers can be added using water tubes to remain fresh.

It’s easy to design centerpieces without foam. Or there are alternative foams which will biodegrade faster and cleaner than green foam. We offer green designs using as many locally sourced and green principals as possible while not sacrificing the look you want.

If you pay us to handle the striking and clean up of your floral design (extra charges involved) we will recycle and reduce the amount of waste left behind. We also dry most of the flower petals from fresh florals left over. These are re-used for floral confetti, dried floral aisles, etc.

4. Your Wedding Rings

If everyone did this one simple thing the impact on global conflict and ethical sourcing would be unbelievably profound. We have several jewelers locally who offer antiques, conflict free, and other ethnically and environmentally positive options for your wedding rings.

I have not found a better source anywhere near or far than the amazing local company Mia Donna! This story of a local mom trying to do her part to change the world is phenomenal. I honestly don’t know why anyone would look elsewhere for their rings. They have it all from ethical to affordable, to absolutely jaw dropping, it’s all in one place!

If you’d like to learn more about planning a green wedding, contact us!