It’s wedding season and an amazing time to reminisce about my special day. While I had an extremely over-the-top, unusual wedding (read about it in Time Out NY), it was incredibly sustainable. Waste is not in my DNA, so while everyone should do what’s right for them (it is YOUR DAY!), here are some tips.

7 tips to having a more sustainable wedding:

1. Instead of paper invites we used Paperless Post. It not only helped us keep track of guests and instantly customize a beautiful invitation (did I mention I planned my wedding in under 2.5 months?) but also let us reassign the paper budget to additional experiences for our wedding guests.
2. No new rings… my engagement ring is vintage as we’re not fully confident in the diamond industry and for both of our wedding bands instead of new rings, we melted down my grandfather’s gold ring and inscribed them with ‘Team James’ and ‘Team Lara’ on the inside. It made the day extra super special for us as my husband never got to meet my grandfather.
3. All 8 outfits designed by Patricia Field outfits were all vintage, loans, second hand or rented including the diamond earrings from Verstolo, with the exception of a few key pieces purchased from small business that can all be reworn.
4. Rent everything but also focus on vendors that do it all. For our wedding we picked a rental company that did stages, food/beverage/utensils items as well as chairs/table linens to avoid multiple vendors.
5. For the after-party we served pizza (the most sustainable of food when you consider it comes in a cardboard box that can be recycled/composted), a pretzel wall also makes for a great choice!
6. Registry – In lieu of physical presents on our registry we had options of ‘buy us a drink’ at $15 options, or donate a tree to the Armenian Tree Project to help offset our carbon footprint.
7. Get creative with flowers – in lieu of a formal canopy or alter our florist, Christina Evangeline of @GardenByEvangeline pinned flowers along the brick wall to create a really beautiful space that was much more eco-friendly. She also used all reusable vases/items to avoid waste and flowers that were easily compostable. However, we didn’t even make it to that step because all flowers were tied and guests had the option to take them home at the end of the night — and did. We also utilized accents from Venus et Fleur, so our arrangements would outlast our wedding (they last for 1+ years!) and vases forever!