Eco Friendly Wedding Decorations

Tips!  I love tips.  Everyone loves tips.  That's why Pinterest is so popular.  I spend a lot of time hanging out in the world of internet weddings, so I thought I might start sharing some cool tips that I find.  Today's tips: eco-friendly wedding decorations.  TIPS!

Our newest love in the world of eco-friendly wedding decorations is dried floral arrangements. We LOVE this for so many reasons. First of all, they're beautiful. Second of all, you can keep these for years as decoration in your home. Third, florists and flower growers can save leftover flowers that might end up in the bin and turn them into long-lasting works of art. My fave in New Zealand are from 

https://botanist.co.nz/

I think the best way to be eco-friendly in your decorating is to apply the principle of re-use.  Especially good if you can re-use something that would be thrown away and turn it into something beautiful.  I think this re-use of bottle caps would make a ridiculously cool backdrop:

It's an art installation by Mary Ellen Croteau.  I found it here: http://www.greenprophet.com/2013/02/garbage-art-ideas-mary-ellencroteau/ The Green Prophet is such a cool web site that focuses on Environmental Issues in the Middle East.

When Ash and I got married, my sister and I found cool trinkets and vases at the local recycling centre and then painted them all gold.  This was an awesome (and cheap) way to make stylie little table decorations.  I still use them around our house.  Which I think gives me re-use bonus points.  

Ooooh!  Aaaah!  Gold spray paint makes everything better.

Add some flowers, and voila!  Super cute centrepieces.

The other thing we did was have poster prints made from vintage images found online in the poster archives of the Library of Congress.  You can download full-resolution images for free.  We picked ones that we loved and fit our astrological theme.  We knew that they'd make great artwork to hang in our house after the fact.  Which we did with glee!  Until an a certain second child ripped one down in a fit of destruction.  I told him that didn't fit with our brand, but he didn't care. 

The other thing you can do is to find interesting greenery in your garden and use that.  I love this thyme garland (photo by Sarah Wood):

I also love this idea to use leaves instead of place cards.  ( Calligraphy by Natalie Chang via Magnolia Rouge)

 

All so lovely!  And none of it ends up in a landfill full of streamers and confetti and place cards and balloons.  Although, that kind of landfill sounds kind of awesome.

And, hey!  If you're looking for some super rad eco-friendly wedding rings, might as well have a look while you're here!