Many thanks to Jeannine Avelino, editor of Vancity Bride who provided us with some wonderful tips
Going Green Saves Money Too!
One of the best ways to save a buck on your wedding is to be green. Not only do you help the environment, you also get to keep some extra cash for other things! Here are 5 eco & budget-friendly things you can do for your wedding:
- Re-use – borrow or buy used items from past brides, scour forums and buy and sell sites like Craigslist and Kijiji for brides who are selling wedding decor and other items… they most likely want to get rid of them for cheap! If you have a friend that you can borrow from, even better!
- Use 1 venue for your ceremony & reception – reduce travelling and increase convenience for you and your guests… with this you can get away with not hiring an expensive car service
- Use online Save the Dates – save some trees as well as the date (and money for stationery and stamps)! I suggest Paperless Post.
- Consider an intimate wedding – less people means less cost, but more of catching up and hanging out with everyone
- Hire a vendor that can multitask – if your vendor plans, coordinates, arranges flowers and provides decor (and there are a many here in Vancouver), that will mean less deliveries to your event – not to mention they may be able to give you a deal when you bundle all their services
For more tips on having a green wedding, visit the original blog post on Vancity Bride here. Good luck with your wedding planning!
Jeannine Avelino is the editor of Vancity Bride, a blog that helps Vancouver budget brides plan their big day without breaking the bank. Visit her website, be a fan on Facebook and follow her on Twitter for more news and updates. Many thanks to http://boutiquestudios.ca for the images
Eco/ Local grown flowers: Bridal Beginnings believes in Support local farmers, reduce carbon emissions from transporting long distances, and reduce pesticide and preservative use. Choose flowers that have been cultivated in sustainable ways. . Thankfully for Vancouver and Fraser Valley couples, we have a huge local floral growing industry right here. We work directly with many growers/farms and will pick up bulk orders directly from their location. As well due to our amazing local weather conditions, local growing seasons are almost year round for many products; Alstromaria, gerbera, chrysanthemums, tulips, calla lilies, Hybrid Lilies, peonies and many many more
Potted Flowers: Instead of cut flowers, potted flowers grown close to where you live can make a great addition to your home or garden after the big event and could be taken home by your guests. A wonderful trend right now is to included succulents in floral designs, theses can easily be potted ahead of time (as seen below) or removed from your bouquet and replanted in your garden.
do as Kara and Matt did, and have potted Herbs, that she had the Catering company use in the preparing of their food, and then her guest took them home for their gardens
If you plan ahead, you can even grow them yourself or ask family and friends for donated plants from their own homes. This is what Alex and Davin did for their wedding
Give away: Consider when your reception is over, donate the flowers to a local hospital, senior citizen center, nursing home or send them home with your guests. I had one bride last year collect up all of her centerpieces, and delivered them to her Grandmother’s assisted living residents, and had the staff use them as centerpieces in the dinning room. Then she had lunch with her grandmother, and they looked over the photos and video together, which made her grandmother feel like she was part of the day.
Double duty: Reuse the ceremony flowers at the reception space. For Megan and Sean’s wedding we did a TONE of double duty – for her ceremony the archway was then a backdrop for her desert table
To line the aisle, we hung recycled mason jars (from Grandma’s canning cupboard) from the chairs, and then used them as part of the centrepiece collection
Compost: All floral material can be composted after the event. Bridal Beginnings compost all of our waste material, from beginning to end. You should see how many green waste bins that go out during the middle of the summer
Rent: Vases and accessories can be rented instead of purchased to avoid extra cost and waste. Also, consider suppliers that use minimal or reusable packaging for transporting the rented items. With a large selection of glassware on hand at Bridal Beginnings, you never will need to buy that one-time use vase/centerpiece, we have it all here
Beg, borrow or steal 😉 – Centrepieces made from vintage items, heirloom pieces collected from friends and family will add unique personality to your tables, and give your wallet a break, too. I love what a few clients have been doing lately, thinking a bit outside the box; Alex and Adam used their grandmother’s antique singer sewing machine for their guestbook
Jennifer Stafford Events used beautiful side table for the candy buffet display,
Give Green: for favors, potted plants, seed-paper, herbal kits, and other homey, garden style gifts are a great way to drive the whole eco-concept home, while still providing a gift that keeps on giving. Buy honey from a local beekeeper and give it to your guests in a jar with little honey dippers tied with twine! Megan and Sean made sure their wedding favours served triple purpose; as a favour, place marker and as a reusable glassware so there was no disposable glassware at the end of the night
Matt & Kara had tea made just for their wedding, and Alex & Adam made homemade jam for their favours
Recycle your wedding decor -Once your settled into your home together, don’t forget to restyling some of those pieces as part of you new home decor. We absolutely adore what Jessica did with her Chevron Runners, making them into pillow for their dinning room
