Tips to add eco-friendly elements to your wedding

With the increased availability of green wedding services, anyone can add a little green to their wedding, without compromising their vision or spending extra. MyRegistry.com‘s Nancy Lee is giving out great tips on how to “greenify” your invites, registry and bridal shower!

The invitations

Consider a paperless wedding. Even if you do not want to give up those beautiful formal invites, you can still go paperless, as many brides do, for the extra events. MyRegistry.com offers easily customizable save-the-date cards and e-cards for bridal showers and registry announcements. These can be sent out not only by the bride, but also by her maid of honor or best friend — sure beats licking stamps and creating more garbage. More and more couples are creating wedding pages and wedding websites where guests can retrieve all of the necessary event details online. This cuts down on your printing and eliminates the need for a direction card, hotel specifics and any other information that would have to be placed together with your invitation. It is simple, good for the environment and actually even saves money.

The registry

Universal gift registries are particularly popular with eco-conscious brides. Since there aren’t really eco-friendly superstores, where everything can be chosen from one location, this option works best. Choose your recycled glass dishes from Viva Terra, your organic linens from Bambeco, and don’t forget those amazing chlorine-free bath towels from Gaiam. If you choose to forgo the traditional wedding gifts altogether, then offer your friends and family the option to contribute to some of your favorite charities or create a cash gift fund for one that is particularly important to you. Perhaps it is to pay for the carbon footprint of your wedding. Using a carbon footprint calculator, brides and grooms are offsetting their impact by asking for donations to benefit environmental groups.