Tip of the Day - Eco-Friendly Weddings: Favors & Registry
Giving favors to your guests and receiving gifts from them are common wedding practices. Remember that it’s your wedding and you should do what is important to you. Don’t feel like you have to give out favors or register for gifts, but if you do, make a little extra effort to go green.
Favors
Don’t give out favors just to give something. No one needs a plastic swan filled with Jordan almonds, and if you don’t give out anything, your guests won’t miss it. Do look for something simple, thoughtful, and green.
- Look for something locally made and crafty. A good friend had candle holders made from fallen tree branches. They decorated every table, and went home with the guests as favors. We still have ours, put them on our table at holidays, and think warm thoughts about the couple and their beautiful wedding.
- Check out Etsy for reusable and recycled favors, like the beautiful tin pictured above.
- Give something consumable. Fair trade organic chocolates, maple syrup candies, or ginger chews make perfect treats. So does a tiny bar of natural soap.
- Bundle up some seeds and a small peat pot with some raffia or hemp cord.
The Registry
Back when people moved right from their parents’ house to their new home with their spouse, registries helped the newlyweds get on their feet. Now that more people live on their own or with their significant other before they get married, the need for household goods isn’t as great.
- Don’t ask for what you don’t need.
- Few people actually use their fancy wedding china.
- You can drink margaritas out of a nice set of wine glasses, you don’t need a full set of special glasses for a drink you make once or twice a year.
- Avoid obscure use appliances. You can make quesadillas in a pan just as easily as you can in a special quesadilla maker.
- Register with a store that has a wide selection of fair trade, recycled, eco-friendly goods, like Viva Terra
- Use a wish list site that will allow you to compile your list from different sources instead of having to lock into one store that may not have as many eco-friendly options as you’d like.
- Register for memberships, like World Wildlife Fund, or the Sierra Club.
- Instead of gifts:
- Ask your guests to bring a used book they love to donate to your personal library or you local school
- Request that each guest write down a wish or some sage advice for you and a picture of themselves so you can make a scrap book of everyone who attended and what they wrote to you.
- Pick your favorite tree, and ask your guests to plant one in honor of your union
- Tell your guests that their presence is enough of a gift.
If you’re planning a wedding or another large celebration, I hope this series has been helpful. For more information and ideas, and to see an interview with a green bride, check out Go Green on News 8 Now.
May 9th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Love the idea of registering for gifts on Etsy. Now I want to get married, just for presents!
May 9th, 2008 at 4:33 pm
You’re forgetting about the pretty dress!
May 9th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Thanks for all the great info. I was browsing through a bunch of green websites and blogs and I came across yours and found it very interesting. There are a bunch of others I like too, like the daily green, ecorazzi and earthlab.com. I especially like EarthLab.com’s carbon calculator. I find it really easy to use (it doesn’t make me feel guilty after I take it). Are there any others you would recommend? Can you drop me a link to your favorites (let me know if they are the same as mine).
May 9th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
ugh. the worse wedding party favor are those little containers of bubble mix. yeah, that’s fun — for like 5 minutes. great ideas! they “almost” make me want a wedding
May 10th, 2008 at 1:40 am
I did a post on greening your registry on my blog- http://badhuman.wordpress.com/2008/04/23/green-up-your-wedding-registry/
We used thethingsiwant.com as our wish list site and it works great for putting everything in one place but I’ve found that many of our family members are uncomfortable purchasing there for various reasons so we also made sure to find green options at more traditional wedding places like Macys.
The easiest way to green your registry though just seems to be register for less and don’t get caught in registering for everything recommended in bridal magazines.
May 13th, 2008 at 4:36 am
okay, i am coming out of hiding now to put in my 2 cents.
we got married last year and we tried to have a pared-down, greenish celebration. we didn’t want to do a registry at all but a couple of my relatives reminded us that if you don’t tell people what you want, they will buy you things you don’t want. a sign of our consumer-driven society, yes, but true.
so we put together a small amazon wishlist of useful stuff we’d been wanting, making sure to tell people it was just for ideas and they didn’t necessarily have to go through amazon. we didn’t register for sheets or towels or dishes or any of the stuff we already had–who cares if it doesn’t match? anyway, this was just for the people who wanted to get us gifts–there weren’t that many overall. and we got stuff that we’ll hopefully use for years, like a canning set.
at our party (which was really casual, like blue jeans casual) we asked that instead of gifts, people bring some food for a potluck dinner. we provided drinks. my mom bought inexpensive reusable silverware and donated it to a charity afterward. the food was great (thanks to our friends and family) and better than catering!
we did our invitations on evite to cut down on paper.
it was easy for us because we don’t really go in for all the wedding jazz (we wore clothes we already owned for the ceremony, even) and because we didn’t want to spend an arm and a leg. nice when being green means saving money, eh?