If you’re someone who likes to take an ethical and eco-conscious approach to life, you probably don’t want things to be any different when it comes to your wedding. Your big day can be just as ethical as anything in the rest of your life and still be magical too. You’re not the only couple who want an ethical wedding, so you’re sure to find lots of options for vendors, materials, and much more. To successfully plan an ethical wedding, you need to be ready to do some research and ask lots of questions. Keep the following points in mind to get started.
Herkimer Diamond Ring
Start with the Rings
The rings you choose are a symbol of your love. They’re one of the material things that will last beyond your wedding day, intended to be worn for your whole marriage. Whether you have an engagement ring or you go straight for the wedding bands, you should think about how and where they’re made. An ethical jewelry maker like Brilliant Earth can make sure you get rings that use ethical stones and metals. Some ethical stones are carefully sourced, some are second-hand, and others are made in labs. When you choose rings, remember to think about durability too.
Keep Things Small
One of the best ways to keep the impact of your wedding at a low is to have a small affair. While a big wedding might appeal to some, not everyone wants hundreds of guests. If you keep things small, you could find that it’s a lot less stressful to get everything sorted out. Of course, you might have some trouble narrowing down the guest list if you’re not sure who to invite. You might also have to be careful of people getting offended because they didn’t receive an invitation. But if you have a small wedding, you can reduce waste, energy use, and various other things to reduce the impact of the day.
Personally, this route is not for me. But I’m off-setting that by shopping small. A lot of things for my wedding are coming from Etsy shops, and my flowers are coming from a family-owned local business. This leads me to the next point…
Vet Your Vendors Carefully
Choosing your wedding vendors is something you’ll have to be careful about if you want an ethical wedding. One of the easiest ways to approach it is to look for vendors who advertise themselves as ethical. If they’re willing to say outright that their practices are ethical, they should be able to explain how. Hopefully, they go out of their way to conduct their business in an ethical way and ensure they can fulfill their promises.
Wedding dress
Choose Ethical Clothes, Materials and Supplies
When you’re finding supplies for your wedding, especially if you’ve chosen a more DIY route, you can be careful to select ethical materials too. Don’t forget to consider your outfits as well, especially your wedding dress. If you don’t want to rent a dress, you could consider wearing an upcycled dress or a secondhand one, or simply buying one you can wear again. Even your invites and other paper materials can be made from recycled paper and card.
An ethical wedding doesn’t need to be hard to do. If you know what you want, you can usually find it.
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