ETHICAL WEDDINGS BLOG CONTRIBUTOR
Your name: Jeff Kear
Wedding date: November 7, 2009
Venue and location: Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
Budget: $15K
What inspired you to have an ethical wedding?
We both are pretty environmentally minded in our everyday lives. We recycle. We compost. We drive eco friendly cars (Mini and Prius). We buy organically grown veggies and range-fed meats. We vote green. We have re-insulated our house to save energy. And we always turn out the lights when we leave the room. So having an ethical wedding just seemed to be the natural choice.
What has been the most difficult bit so far?
Staying away from using paper. Instead of sending out save-the-dates and invites, we are doing everything via email. I think people always expect paper invites, so we’ve surprised many by doing well designed e-invites.
What has been the most fun bit?
Investigating all the alternatives to a mass-produced wedding. There are lots of fantastic alternatives to an expensive and large-carbon footprint wedding, especially recycled handmade products.
What are your 5 top tips for brides and grooms planning an ethical wedding?
1. Use the Internet for your communications, even your invitations – it saves on paper.
2. Stay away from favors and decorations that will end up in a dumpster and use things that are either recyclable or re-useable.
3. Be mindful of the “consumption” mindset of weddings (i.e. lots of stuff) and make your day about the relationships and the people, not the stuff.
4. Use carbon credits to offset the carbon footprint of your wedding.
5. Think of cool ways you can get your guests to be green (e.g., carpool to the wedding, don’t wrap gifts or wrap them in newspaper that can easily be recycled, etc.).