Main photo by micheile dot com on Unsplash
Your upcoming wedding will be a dream, but it may also produce tons of trash. Decorations are an important way to bring your wedding vision to life, whether you DIY or buy them. But what happens to everything when the evening ends? Use these tips to avoid waste after your ceremony and have a green wedding that aligns with your sustainable values.
1. Recycle Paper Decor
A US study showed that couples spend an average of $2,141 for wedding decor, which lets them create the wedding aesthetic they’ve always wanted. It also leads to tons of single-use purchases.
Header image by Jaye Peg Photography
Sustainable weddings, to us, means a happy experience and stress free planning. Sticking to a comfortable budget is a huge part of that.
If you haven’t been following our sustainable weddings series, you might want to check back or bookmark our recent months’ features:
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- Weddings & Planet – don’t let your day be about ‘stuff’
- Weddings & mental health
- The elephant in the room: weddings’ carbon footprint
- Finding (or being) a sustainable wedding supplier
Let’s talk about wedding budgets
Emmeline Smith explores 5 ways to make greener choices for your big day – without making compromises – which can even save you money!
1. The Dress
Whatever you chose to wear on your big day, wedding attire is a great place to start making more considered choices. With clothes worth £12.5 billion being chucked into landfill in UK each year, buying less is a great way to start helping the environment. A wedding dress costs up to £3000, so it’s also a great place to save money too!
Weddings with plastic and waste are on the way out. It’s time for the industry to catch up: a mini revolution is on the way, and this time it’s not just about trends.
As redundant as polyester chair covers and barbie tiaras, single-use wedding items are starting to sit uncomfortably with couples and suppliers these days. We’re all looking for planet-friendly alternatives, and there are plenty if you just know where to look!
Image credits: Clare Randell. Stationery by Chloe Ainsley Creative – Styled shoot and full credits here
No one is really talking about the waste generated by big weddings. It almost feels as though you can’t have a big wedding without a huge impact on the environment… as if most of the wedding media are implying it’s just one day: what harm can a wedding really do, and do you even need to think about sustainable wedding planning?

All images in this feature are by the terrifically talented Luke Flint Photography. Discover more from Luke at https://www.lukeflintphotography.co.uk