Green Wedding Invitations

The wedding invitation you choose sets the tone for your celebration, and through it you can emphasize the eco friendly nature of your wedding. Choosing a green invitation lets your friends and family know from the start that your wedding is going to be a little different.

photo credit: zenobia_joy

The most eco friendly option is to forego paper invitations altogether and instead use online invitations. Since online invitations may seem much less formal than traditional invitations, let your guests know why you’ve chosen this option. To make things easier for your guests, you can also put together a website to provide all the details they need from details about the eco friendly choices you’ve made for your wedding to information on the bridal shower, rehearsal dinner, and bachelor/bachelorette parties.

If you do need to send out paper invitations, you can still make them eco friendly. The first step is to design an invitation that uses as few resources as possible. Though multiple envelope invitations do look good, they use much more paper than necessary. A simple postcard can serve as your Save the Date card.

If you choose paper invitations, limit the number of invitations you send out. Use paper invitations only for those guests who need one, or for whom it would be especially meaningful. Once you know how many paper invitations you need, choose a green paper option such as recycled paper or a paper made from renewable sources and try to use an eco friendly ink too. Whichever option you choose, buy local to offset the environmental problems that shipping creates.

After the wedding, keep the eco friendly tone to your correspondence and consider sending out thank you notes online rather than on paper. For those guests who need a paper card, keep the same guidelines in mind for their thank you cards as you did for the invitations.

Though your invitations may not be traditional, your guests will appreciate the care that you’ve shown for the environment, and your eco friendly wedding will be off to a great start!