Go Eco-friendly with Digital Wedding Invitations

Are you newly engaged and searching for ways to have a more eco-friendly wedding? You’re not the only one! Being conscious about the environment is one of the modern wedding couple’s biggest priorities during wedding planning.

There are so many ways to make a positive impact with your big day and one of the best is to go eco-friendly with digital wedding invitations. Not only are you saving on unnecessary waste by opting for wedding e-vites, but you don’t have to compromise on style either - they can be just as elegant as paper invitations and can perfectly match your wedding theme.

When it comes to choosing between digital or paper invitations, there really is no right or wrong way (or you might like to opt for a blend of both?). Still, if you keep reading, we will share some handy tips and reasons why digital wedding invitations are an eco-friendly option and how they can help to make your wedding celebrations even more sustainable.

Eco-friendly digital wedding invitations

People the world over are becoming much more aware of how to search for ethical companies and ways to become more eco-friendly in their day to day lives. Not only will this make you feel better about your upcoming wedding, but guests will also be pleased that you have chosen an eco-friendly option. Choosing to send wedding invitations through the post directly contributes to deforestation, which reduces animal habitats and the amount of green space around the world. Traditional invitations and other wedding stationery are a one-time expense for a single occasion, which means they cannot be reused. And let’s be honest, most guests will eventually throw away your invitation which will add to the extra carbon emissions used to cut the trees down to make the paper.

Is your heart set on sending traditional paper invitations? It’s not all doom and gloom, we promise! There are some wonderful ways you can help scale back your carbon footprint AND still have beautifully crafted wedding invitations…

Recycled paper invitations

The easiest and most common way to make eco-friendly wedding invitations is to use recycled paper. Recycled paper is made from post-consumer waste, which reduces the need for virgin paper. It also saves energy and reduces pollution from the paper-making process. Look for paper that is labelled as FSC-certified, which means it comes from responsibly managed forests.

Use natural materials

Unfortunately, the majority of traditional paper invitations are made using unrecyclable materials. Foil, glitter, plastic, and metal; these materials can’t be included in your paper recycling. Even if a sentimental family member decides to keep your invitation, it’s good to be aware that the paper that was used for the invitations might not have been made in an environmentally friendly way, potentially causing more waste in the process.

For more unique and sustainable wedding invitations, consider using natural materials for your wedding invitations. You can use recycled cotton, hemp, or even tree bark paper for a rustic and earthy look. You can also incorporate other natural elements, such as dried flowers or leaves, to add texture and colour.

Use plantable seed paper invitations

Consider an eco-friendly and unique option for your invitations by choosing plantable seed paper. This special type of paper is biodegradable and contains wildflower seeds or herbs. Plantable paper invitations mean that after the wedding, your wedding party can watch the invitations grow into beautiful flowers in their garden!

Keep it simple

The more intricate and elaborate your wedding invitations are, the more resources and energy are required to produce them. To reduce waste, keep your invitations simple and minimalistic. Consider using fewer colours, avoiding excessive embellishments, and using simple fonts. Taking a simple approach with your wedding stationery will not only result in your invites being easy to read and understand but also look more elegant—less is more, as they say!

Choose sustainable printing methods

If you’re going for printed invitations, choose a printing method that is eco-friendly. Look for printers that use vegetable-based inks, which are less toxic and more sustainable than traditional petroleum-based inks. You can also choose printers that offer digital printing or letterpress printing, both of which are a much more sustainable option.

Let’s take a look at the figures

Sending out digital invitations does still create a carbon footprint, (everything does), but only that of 4g. Whereas a paper invitation has a far more significant carbon footprint of 200g. Additionally to the 200g, posting the paper invitation adds a further 29g of carbon emissions (per invite) to your wedding. Therefore, if you’re an eco-friendly advocate, going digital will help significantly lower your carbon footprint and make you feel guilt-free about throwing that big one-off celebration!

Digital wedding invitations are not only better for the environment, but they might be a better option for you, too. You can immediately save time by not having to mull over intricate calligraphy styles or paper qualities, and you can also save some of the wedding budget.

We should not forget that creating a wedding RSVP website in conjunction with online invitations is a great way to get all of the important information to your guests while allowing you to edit, tweak, and keep in touch with them along the way. If you’re intrigued, at Say I do, we offer a free wedding website setup!

As you can see, going digital with your wedding invitations can significantly reduce your wedding’s carbon footprint whilst helping to reduce deforestation, pollution, and ink toxicity, reduce the use of fossil fuels, and landfill waste. Ok, it may be difficult to do all these things alone, but the modern couples who opt for more environmentally-friendly options around their wedding day WILL be helping to make a difference to our planet, one little step at a time.