We just had our twins birthday party and we tried to make it as green as possible, without being too expensive or too difficult. I’d like to share with you what worked and what didn’t work for us. There are so many ways you can make parties green that I’m going to start with just two, invitations and locations.
Invitations:
On-line – it’s greener because there is no paper used, and no transportation to send it through the mail. It’s easier – no hand-writing invitations or envelopes, you don’t have to know snail mail addresses or how many you’re inviting in advance. It’s cheaper – no buying invitations or stamps. It’s faster – the invitations arrive faster, and with at least some invitation websites, you can be certain whether or not the recipient has received the invitation.
I personally prefer evite.com, because of everything I’ve mentioned above, and because the recipients can see who else has been invited and who is coming, avoiding those awkward conversations and allowing carpooling. Evite now allows people to say how many adults and children are coming, and gives you useful summaries. I find that it is very widely used, so as a guest, I can go to evite.com and see many of my upcoming events and get all the details I need. It also means that there isn’t a piece of paper to hold on to with the details, but that I can access the details whenever I want, from any web-accessible device.
Location:
Hold it locally for the most guests possible. If you live near most of your invited guests, great! Hold it near your home. If most of your guests live elsewhere, for example your children go to school or daycare near your work, consider holding it near there. This cuts down on the fuel used to get to your party. It also makes it simpler for your guests. Consider holding it convenient to public transportation and include directions for public transportation with your invitation. Young children will probably find riding the train or bus exciting!
Consider supporting a non-profit with your location. Our home is too small, so in the past we’ve held the party at the college where we work, and this time we held it at the parish hall of our church. We’ve also been to a great party recently at the local zoo. All of these locations help support local deserving groups, rather than a commercial entity.
Future installments on this topic will cover reusable tableware, environmentally friendly crafts, what food and drinks to serve, gifts and gift bags.
Great tips!
One downside of evite is that sometimes evite messages will to go recipients spam folders automatically so you have to keep in mind that if someone hasn’t viewed your invitation then there’s a chance it went to spam.
Do you have any green wedding planning tips?
I’d love to do a whole article on weddings, but here I’ll just mention a few items that come to mind quickly:
– Consider location. Carbon used to travel to weddings is often the biggest non-green thing about them. If you can hold it local to most guests – even if it’s less convenient for the bride and groom – you’ll be doing better for the planet. Destination weddings are definitely not green!
– Minimize favors or things made exclusively for the wedding. If you must have them, stick to something simple like candies or nuts in a mesh bag. At least they’ll be used!
– Consider Edible Arrangements for centerpieces instead of flowers. See our post on “Eat Your Presents” http://greenlifestyleconsulting.blogspot.com/2009/11/eat-your-presents.html for more info on them.
I’ve actually seen someone on twitter who specializes in Green Weddings, you might want to google that too!
Alicia