Wishpot brings you an innovative, environmentally friendly way to say thank you to your guests by giving them eco-friendly wedding favors. In recent days every bride is trying to save money as well as go green when it comes to planning their big day. Wishpot is here to bring you our favorite adorable eco-friendly favors that are inexpensive and creative.
Photos Courtesy of Beau-Coup
These Mini Palm Plant Wedding Favors are a great way to enjoy a piece of paradise by adding a touch of the tropics to your wedding. Throwing rice at a newly wed couple symbolizes good luck, fertility and abundance. This Lavendar Wedding Rice is a great environmentally friendly alternative to regular rice or seeds.
Many people consider bamboo to be a good luck charm, especially when given as a gift! The hearty bamboo plant represents strength, resilience and good fortune. You can give your guests lucky bamboo with these Eco-friendly Natural Bamboo Coaster Favors or these Lucky Bamboo Place Card Holders!
Go green and purchase these Personalized Seed Packet Wedding Favors for your guests. The seeds are packaged in hand-decorated biodegradable bags. It is definitely a cute way to show appreciation to your guests! And at the end of your amazing reception all of your guests can use these fun Eco-friendly Wedding Confetti Poppers. These will for sure be a hit at the end of the night!
For more ideas and tips for your big day visit us at www.wishpot.com/weddings!
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How will you show your love this Valentine’s Day? Here’s our handpicked list of eco and budget friendly gifts that will impress. All items are available at Tread Light Gifts
Plantable Eco-Valentine Day Cards:Ten eco-friendly Valentine’s Day cards are packaged with 10 plantable wildflower seed embedded hearts that grow wildflowers when the heart is planted. What a great card alternative for your child’s classmates!
Flip & Tumble 24-7 Bag - Berrydots: This stylish shopping bag get around the problem of remembering the bags because they are small enough to simply live in your purse or messenger bag all the time. The elastic pouch design makes it a snap to convert the bag into a small ball quickly.
TikoSoy Candle: Escape to a luxurious spa in your own house. If you are after an awe-inspiring aromatic experience, look no further than these hand-poured soy candle made with 100% natural wax and containing no paraffin.
Garden Bon-Bons: This line of garden truffles is for planting, not for eating. Handcrafted bon bon balls of clay, organic compost and seed wrapped in a lovely presentation package. They are a perfect gift for novice and expert gardener alike.
thinknow Bouquet Earrings - The thinknow jewelry line is made from 100% natural materials and water-based adhesives. All wood products are sourced from managed growth forests, and sealed with beeswax and linseed oil.
What’s the hottest color for weddings? Green.
Green weddings, which only a few years ago were on the fringe, have gone mainstream.
There are ‘green’ favours, ‘green’ flowers, ‘green’ invitations and even ‘green’ gowns.
How do you know which ‘green’ ideas are going to make the greatest impact?
Here are 10 of the best ways to give Mother Earth a starring role at your nuptials:
1. Go Small. The fewer guests you have, the less fossil fuels that will be used. You’ll also consume less, and create less garbage. Having a small guest list will also give you more choice of venues. Why not have your small wedding at a designated green inn or have a restaurant reception at a restaurant that serves local food?
2. Buy Consumable Favours. Consumable favours are fun, fabulous and earth friendly. Some suggestions include diy favors such as homemade jam,chocolate, cookies, candy, free-trade coffee, beeswax candles, handmade soap or lotion. If you still want to take the non-consumable route, what about cloth shopping bags, reusable produce bags, or other products that will help your guests pursue an eco-friendly lifestyle? Don’t forget to include information about local shops that carry eco-friendly products along with your favours.
3. Don’t buy any favours or if you do buy green favors. Another wonderful option for favours is to donate money to a charity in the names of each guest. The guest receives a card that informs him or her that instead of a favour, money was donated to a specific charity. Read more about favor donations here.
4. Be a ‘Locavore’. Choose a caterer or restaurant that sources ingredients locally. Buying local ingredients supports your area farmers, as well as decreases your carbon imprint. Even better, choose locally sourced organic foods, and offer vegetarian choices for your meat-free guests.
5. Have your Ceremony and Reception in the Same Location. This will mean less travel for you and your guests. Many inns and bed and breakfasts can accommodate both the ceremony and the reception.
6. Use Potted Plants instead of Cut Flowers for Centerpieces. I admit, I’m crazy about fresh flowers, but I also love the idea of being able to enjoy my centerpieces long after the wedding. Potted flowers are lovely – so are potted herbs and saplings.
7. Buy a Second Hand Wedding Dress and Bridesmaid Dresses. Have you seen some of the gorgeous vintage gowns at www.vintageous.com?
8. Ditch the Disposables. Don’t even think about having disposable cameras at your wedding. Chances are your guests will bring their own digital camera. You can even remind them in your invitation that you’d love for them to capture their wedding with their own camera and send you the images. And don’t forget the DIY wedding photo download station.
9. Don’t use Throwaway Dishes or Flatware. Use china dishes, flatware, cloth napkins and glasses instead of plastic cups. Not only will this save a ton of waste, it will look more elegant.
10. Scrap the Balloons and Confetti. Do you really need confetti? If you feel it’s a must, then use flower petals. Avoid balloons when decorating, as well as any other landfill bound decorations.
We got the idea to register for vintage dishware after seeing the plates of our dreams on set at a television sitcom taping we attended. I was flat out drooling for them, and even Hunter gave them a hells yeah. We scampered over to check the stamp on the plates, ran home to google it, and mentally filed it away. After a long and painful search for something new (and more readily available) that we loved just as much, we finally decided to go our own way and register for the first dishes to steal our poppy lovin’ hearts.
Wild Poppies - Metlox: Aren’t they dreamsicle?!?
It was the perfect decision for us, and we love our dishes more and more every time we use them. In fact, we ended up buying vintage silverware to go along with it!
The benefits of vintage dishware are threefold:
1. more financially friendly - the set we picked out cost less than most sets we saw at Crate and Barrel or Macy’s.
2. more eco-friendly - reuse is always a better choice than buying new, any day!
3. more finger friendly - we excel at breaking dishes. Vintage dishware is often sturdier and more break-resistant, which means keeping our wedding dishes safe for years to come!
Whatever your taste, you can find vintage dishes to suit them, in many places both online and in shops. Check out these babies:
Manzanita by Brock
Johnson Bros - Chelsea Collection
Starburst by Franciscan
Gold Dahlia by Metlox
You can search for vintage dishware at sites like Metlox California (who were supremely helpful in our registry process), Replacements.com, etsy, and ebay among many others. You can also try flea markets and antique bazaars in your town, like theRosebowl.
There are also some progressively fierce companies taking vintage dishware/china and turning it into something modern and delicious, like Esther Dirkx!
via Reform School - a favorite green boutique of mine
"But, Dana" you protest "how do I register for something so random and hard for guests to find/pay for?"
Woman, hie thee to Wishpot! You can register for items you find anywhere, in brick and mortar stores or on the internet. Its a convenient way to unleash yourself from single-store registries, and allowed us to explore our eclectic tastes in a personal and customizable way. It worked great for us, even when we bought our flatware through auction. We just manually listed it, posted the price, and someone "reimbursed" the gift to us. Or, contact a replacement company and ask if they’ll set up a registry for you. Many offer that service these days.
There are tons of ways to make your registry more personal, and more green. But vintage dishware is my absolute favorite (she says, as she eats her cereal from a sunny poppyfilled bowl).
Did you register for any vintage items?
Love this post and this idea! And I heart your poppy dishes! Thank you for sharing!
gift girl
Guest blog post from The Wedding Lens
There are lots of green wedding tips out there that can be done all year round, but there are a few green tips that are specific for summer – or that would be easiest to handle during the summer. Here’s a quick list of the green wedding tips that work the best during the summer…
Seasonal flowers
One of the most green things you can do when planning your wedding is use flowers that are in season. That way, they can be grown locally and not transported for miles and miles. Summer is the best for this because there are the most kinds of flowers in season, in all different colors! Here are all the summer flowers, listed by color:
- White: Chrysanthemum, Freesia, Gerber Daisy, Hydrangea, Iris, Larkspur, Lily-asiatic, Lily-oriental, Lisianthus, Monte Casino Asters, Queen Anne’s Lace, Snapdragons, Stephanotis, Stock, Tuberose, Yarrow
- Red: Gerber Daisy, Zinnia
- Orange: Alstromeria, Chrysanthemum, Gerber Daisy, Lily-asiatic, Snapdragons, Zinnia
- Yellow: Alstromeria, Chrysanthemum, Freesia, Gerber Daisy, Lily-asiatic, Snapdragons, Solidaster, Sunflower, Yarrow
- Blue: Forget-me-not, Freesia, Hydrangea, Iris, Larkspur
- Green: Bells of Ireland
- Purple: English lavender, Freesia, Hydrangea, Iris, Larkspur, Liatris, Lisianthus, Matsumoto Asters, Monte Casino Asters, Statice
- Pink: Alstromeria, Crysanthemum, Freesia, Gerber Daisy, Hydrangea, Larkspur, Lily-asiatic, Lily-oriental, Lisianthus, Matsumoto Asters, Snapdragons, Yarrow, Zinnia
- Cream: Alstromeria
Location
Another great green tip is to get married where there’s natural light so that you don’t have to use lighting. Of course, the summer is the best time of the year for this – more hours of sunshine and better weather! Consider getting married outside – that’s the most green thing you can do. Plus, some outdoor venues have flowers growing in the area, so you wouldn’t even need to bring in the flowers!
Photographs
Summer is the best time to get sunshiney, lovely photos of all your friends! But instead of putting disposable cameras on each table, make sure your friends bring their digital cameras so that they can upload their photos a shared online wedding photo album (like The Wedding Lens), where you can create a private, online wedding album. With disposable cameras, you have to buy the cameras, dispose of them, and you have to order ALL the photos on the cameras – many of which end up being blurry or too dark! That’s not very green. But, with The Wedding Lens, all your guests’ photos and videos will be in one place. And once they’re all uploaded into your personal album, you and your guests can download or order prints of whatever photos you like.
Food
Another important green thing to do is to use local – or at least seasonal – foods. Fruits and vegetables are always a good wedding option and there are so many more of them in season during the summer! Consider lettuces, watermelon, strawberries, blueberries, and grapes as part of your dining. Remember, if they’re in season, they’ll be cheaper too!
Be Cheap!
One of the most green things you can do is to be cheap. Fewer costs mean using fewer things and fewer resources. Need some ideas? Here are some cheap wedding tips.
Thank you The Wedding Lens
gift girl
