Green Weddings
May 3, 2012 Leave a comment
Stephanie Berry
It’s almost that time of year again. When wedding bells will be ringing, brides will be planning, grooms will be hiding and bridesmaids will be secretly hating their friend for forcing them to wear an atrocious yellow dress. Yes, that’s right. Wedding season is almost here! When most Las Vegas brides start planning their wedding, the first things they think of are the dress, location and reception, but what they don’t consider is the impact their wedding can have on the environment. These are 5 great ways that brides can make their Las Vegas wedding a little more eco-friendly (and maybe even save them some money!).
1. Location, Location, Location!
Picking a venue for your wedding is probably one of the most important decisions you will make. When looking for an eco-friendly location you will want to find a place that implements environmentally safe practices into their daily routines. Some green locations in Las Vegas include Eva Longoria’s restaurant Beso and the Springs Preserve. Each of these sites has different elements to provide your wedding with just the right atmosphere. If you are looking for a swanky city vibe, then Beso would be a perfect place to book for you! According to Beso’s website, the restaurant meets the Leadership in Energy and Design certification requirements and utilizes recycled and eco-friendly upgrades throughout the entire restaurant. If you are looking for a more outdoorsy feel, the Springs Preserve is another great choice. With many different options for ceremony and reception sites in the park, the Springs Preserve can meet the needs of any bride. The Springs Preserve is founded on eco-friendly business practices and incorporates many different techniques to reuse old materials to make new ones.
2. Catering
Catering is a must for any good wedding and a lot of brides spend money on tons of food that will never get eaten. While most venues toss the rest of the food, you can do something better with the leftovers. There are many homeless shelters or community outreach programs that would gladly take the leftovers from your reception. Programs such as Three Square will arrange with you to pick up any left-overs from your wedding and provide them to families in need. This is a great way to contribute to your community with money that you have already spent! Also there are many catering companies that use eco-friendly guidelines to cater your wedding. Masterpiece Cuisine Catering is a local business that offers eco-friendly linens and catering along with options for the vegetarian and vegan crowds. Don’t let their environmentally savvy techniques fool you; these guys make some delicious food and stunning presentations. Don’t believe me? Check out their showgirl cookie display!
3. Invitations
If you are having a large wedding, chances are you and your future hubby’s tongues are exhausted from licking all those envelopes for wedding invitations and using all that paper to send out invitations can really take its toll on the environment. When ordering your wedding invitations look for companies that use recycled paper for their stationary. There is a company here in Las Vegas called Paper and Home. This company creates beautiful wedding invitations made of eco-friendly materials. One of their invitations is even able to be planted once finished with! Using green materials is not only smart for the environment but also smart for your wallet. Since you are using recycled materials, the cost of the invitations is actually lowered significantly!
4. The Dress
The number one worry for every bride is finding the perfect dress without breaking the bank. When purchasing a wedding dress it is important to remember that while you want to look perfect on your big day, this dress will most likely only be worn for that day and forever remain hung in your closet. If you are genuinely on the hunt for a budget and eco-friendly wedding, one thing to consider is that you can wear a dress second hand. If your mother hasn’t saved you her dress or you wouldn’t be caught dead in her puffy sleeve eighties disaster, you can always find current dresses on sale second hand. There are many thrift stores in town such as Goodwill or Salvation Army that sell all sorts of stylish dresses at ridiculously low prices. If you can’t find anything at a thrift store, you can also try local clothes recycling stores like Buffalo exchange. You would be amazed at some of the awesome designer dresses you can find there for less than half of what they originally cost. For those brides who would never wear a second hand dress remember to choose a wedding dress made out of earth safe materials. Designers like Vera Wang have begun to release many different lines made with these materials and can be found in your local David’s Bridal (if you haven’t noticed these have begun to pop up like Starbucks around Las Vegas).
5. The Bouquet
No wedding ensemble would be complete without the bouquet. Many flower shops waste a lot of water and paper to keep their business running that is why many brides are now turning to more unique ways to create the traditional bouquet. It is becoming quite the trend for brides to create bouquets out of used materials such as old broaches, buttons, or even Coca-Cola cans! These bouquets are neat because they can last forever as a keepsake and actually cost significantly less than flowers. If you are looking for supplies to make your own bouquet, stop by the jewelry booths at First Friday downtown and check out what they have to offer. If you want to go down the more traditional route, make sure you are choosing a flower shop with water conservation practices (remember that Las Vegas is almost always in a drought!). A popular Las Vegas flower shop that has recently gone green is The Enchanted Florist. They definitely create some beautiful arrangements while still conserving water.
Remember that the key to any eco-friendly wedding is to be creative. When planning your wedding it is important to ask all of your vendors what their environmental safety habits are. Using some of these tips may help you save money on your wedding while also leaving a smaller carbon footprint. If you would like more information on these vendors check out the sites below.
http://www.springspreserve.org/book/weddings.html
paperandhome.com/
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