With the New Year behind us, we are thrilled to welcome our ChickAdvisor readers to the official start of wedding planning season!  The Christmas holidays are typically the busiest time of year for engagements, and we send our congratulations to all the newly engaged brides-to-be. 

If you are just starting your with your planning, you may be seeing plenty of coverage on one of the most visible and important wedding trends right now: the marked shift to producing and designing "greener" weddings. In fact, eco-friendly weddings are now transcending the "trend" factor and are very much mainstream with most couples actively incorporating ways to reduce their ecological imprint in many areas of their wedding plans.

Weddings are notorious for generating enormous amounts of waste - from leftover food, to flower arrangements, to invitation suites with sheet after sheet of paper - that ultimately lands in the trash bin.  There are many easy ways to help lessen the environmental impact your wedding will have.

Eco-Friendly Florals

When meeting with your floral designer, ask about fair-trade and organic floral options.  Flowers are grown all over the world, and in order to keep them healthy and fresh, pesticide, herbicide and fungicide use is widespread.  Having your florist order from fair-trade, organic and local sources lessens the negative impact the use of these chemicals has on our environment, the floral farm workers, and ultimately your guests who take home the flowers at the end of the night.  Two local shops in Toronto that specialize in ecologically friendly florals are Eco Flora and Eco Stems.

Sustainable Invitations and Paper Products

New York-based Smock Paper is the first company to use bamboo paper for their complete line of stationery and invitations. Why bamboo?  According to their website, "Bamboo is a truly sustainable and renewable resource. It's the fastest growing plant on this planet, grows without pesticides or fertilizers, and requires very little water to grow."  It also makes a very luxurious feeling paper!
http://smockpaper.com/sustain/bamboo/

A "Zero Carbon" Wedding 

CarbonFund.org has a nifty calculator that helps you determine the number of tons of carbon (CO2) emitted by your wedding (based on number of guests, flights, cars, hotels etc).  Once you determine how much carbon your wedding has created, you can make a donation in an amount to "offset" the impact that your event had.  For example, a wedding that emits 8 tons of CO2 would equal an $80 donation, a wedding with 15 tons of CO2 would be offset by a $150 donation.  This is a great way to be aware of the impact your wedding has on the planet, and funds go to a number of worthy carbon-offset projects.

Buy local

Wherever possible, look to local suppliers to provide everything you need for your big day.   For example, the local food movement (or "locavore") is picking up steam in most metropolitan areas, with caterers and restaurants actively sourcing their meats, vegetables, fruits and dairy from local growers and farmers.  Sourcing locally means you get a fresher product, less delivery packaging, and lower transportation costs and pollution. You also support your local economy, with your dollars benefiting area producers rather than overseas companies.

Greening your wedding is a simple way to make a difference without sacrificing for quality and cost.  Will you go green on your Big Day?

by Cynthia Martyn