Eco Friendly Wedding Invitations

Whether you’re trying to have a greener wedding or just reduce the waste made by a large quantity of wedding invitations, a few helpful ideas should put you on the right track to sending out earth friendly wedding invitations to all your guests.

Recycled Paper

Probably the most common forms of earth friendly wedding invitations are those printed on recycled paper.  While some people may not prefer the look of recycled paper, wedding invitations can actually be made quite beautifully from them with natural dyes and organic soy-based ink.  Using a non-bleached type of paper will reduce toxic waste from manufacturing while saving trees.

Paper Alternatives

Your invites don’t necessarily have to be sent out on paper.  Using other natural materials such as hemp, bamboo, and cotton will not only be better for the environment but will give you some very creative and stylish looking invites as well.  This may be a more expensive option, but your invitations will be biodegradable and eco friendly.  Reusable cloth envelopes are also an impressive addition to your earth friendly wedding invitations, but this may get more costly or time consuming if you have a larger guest list.

Paperless and Material Free

Why mail any invitations at all?  Technology has reduced much of the need for typical postal services and it can help with your earth friendly wedding invitations too.  You can call all of your guests individually or send everyone an e-mail informing them of your wedding plans.  To take it a step further, you can set up a wedding guest mailing list or create an online event with its own webpage.  If you’ve decided you still want to stick with traditional paper invites, asking your guests to respond via phone or e-mail can still cut down on a huge number of paper replies.

Minimize Your Invitations

Your earth friendly wedding invitations don’t have to be drastically different from the beautiful, handwritten, glossy white cards you’ve always dreamed of.  You can still have the classic invitations while reducing trash by keeping the invitations smaller and including all the guests from one area or household on one invite.  Print only as many invites as you’re going to need and be sure you avoid heavily treated or dyed types of paper.  Even making the smallest changes to your wedding invitations can help you protect the environment and prevent further pollution and waste.