Weddings are a multibillion-dollar-a-year industry in the United States, but there’s an even bigger price tag for wildlife and the environment. The average wedding produces over 400 pounds of trash and 63 tons of carbon dioxide. To offset this you’d need to plant 2,722 trees.
But your celebration doesn’t have to take a toll on the planet. It can be an opportunity to make sustainable choices and share your values while highlighting your personal style. And many greener wedding choices come with the added benefits of simplifying your plans and shrinking your costs.
This guide lays out many of the ways you can make your wedding friendlier to wildlife. But it’s not intended as an all-or-nothing checklist. Just because you can’t make every aspect of your wedding 100% sustainable doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make improvements where you can. Small changes add up, and wildlife can use all the help they can get.
