Environmentally Conscious Location + Venues

We believe in sustainable wedding practices for SO MANY REASONS (see Values page) and if you are considering sustainability as part of your celebration, we commend you! We want “going green” with your wedding to be more than a buzzword and we know that it can be hard to decide where to start, or where to stand your ground.

Some bloggers will tell you it doesn’t have to take extra effort to pursue environmentally friendly wedding ideas and that it’s just as easy as “regular wedding planning.” We’re here to level with you: It will take more work. Just like it takes more work to live an eco-friendly home life with truly sustainable products and low-impact services, the same applies to your wedding. But it’s the good work! And it’s the work we are here for. So we want to make it just a bit easier to save the planet on your big day by doing some of the research for you and by providing tips to make the extra effort just one step easier.

An intimate wedding party standing between two joshua trees for a wedding ceremony.

LOCATION.

think about where you want your celebration to be housed

Is there enough space for everyone to celebrate and enjoy weather protection?

If not, you may have to bring in tents, temporary structures, and heating elements to be installed on the property. The trucks that bring those products onto the site produce fuel emissions and can damage natural elements on the property during installation. If you choose to add tenting to your space, be sure to clear it with the property owner and ensure the company is invested in leaving the environment just the way they found it. If you are making decisions about your event that leave a considerable carbon footprint, consider donating to a nonprofit organization like NativeEnergy, COTAP, or myclimate that help calculate and offset your footprint by planting trees, cleaning rivers, reducing dependence on oil, or investing in clean energy.*

*When selecting a carbon offset program, make sure they are third-party certified for efficacy. Certifications to look for include the Gold Standard, Verra’s Verified Carbon Standard Program, Climate Action Reserve and The American Carbon Registry (exclusively for North American offsets and programs), Plan Vivo, and SCS Global Services. These programs work hard to ensure that your money is not only going towards environmental projects, but that they contribute with “additionality” – meaning that the money you put towards your offsets helps fund a project that would otherwise not exist.

A bride and groom walking through the desert. The bride is holding a fun bouquet and the groom is holding the bride’s veil.

Is there built-in decor?

Playing up natural features, especially with outdoor spaces, means that there is less temptation to bring in outside decor or single-use items to spruce up the space. If a property has planted or potted plants on the property, there will be less reason to use cut flowers in your decor plan. If a venue has built in lighting and furniture, all the better for your event’s carbon footprint! If your space has a bar or kitchen on site, all the less energy and effort into importing and preparing food and drinks for the masses. Look for the advantages in built in features that allow you to do less.

Is there running water and sewage on the property?

I know, we’re asking the real sexy questions over here. But believe it or not: not every property has running water on the premises. When you take a tour of the space, ask where you can find potable and drinking water and map how close it is to guest services areas like a bar or buffet table. If a property doesn’t have drinking water or an ice machine located in a manner that makes it easy to serve to guests, then you will have to pursue an alternative solution like catering-provided (preferred) or store-bought ice and water, which can add up quickly in terms of waste. Similarly, you want to think about the size of your group and the impact on plumbing. Does your venue have enough restrooms for the size of your group? We recommend 1 toilet per 20 guests. Is it easily accessible for all abilities? If not, you will want to coordinate with your venue on bringing in additional restroom units and tapping into their power grid to do so.

USE OUR FREE WEDDING VENUE WORKSHEET HERE

Does your venue or caterer provide dishware as part of their services?

We recommend working with vendors who bus, scrape, and industrially wash dishes as part of their services. This method is the most eco-friendly because it doesn’t add plate, cup, or cutlery waste to our landfills or overburdened recycling services and it makes efficient use of water in the wash cycle. We recommend avoiding one-time use dishware, even if it is recyclable, because many out-of-city venues don’t contract recycling services (so you must either drive it to a recycling center yourself, or it lands in the trash anyways). It is also reported that over 80% of America’s clean recycling gets shipped overseas to be processed* (or not), so reducing our environmental impact includes minimizing the amount of recycled goods we consume. If you do have to go with a disposable option, we recommend buying biodegradable disposable tableware options made of bamboo or biodegradable wood.

*Source: motherjones.com/.

What does transportation look like?

Transportation to and from an event can often be overlooked as an opportunity to go green. Whether your guests are traveling short or long distances, how they get to and from your event is not only a matter of safety but also a matter of environmental impact. If a significant number of your guests are flying in, that is already a considerable environmental impact. If your guests are individually driving to the venue or between multiple venues in their own transportation, that too carries a significant environmental impact. You can help mitigate these impacts (and help your guests get home safely!) by arranging group transportation to and from venue space(s) at landmark locations near their accommodations or a park and ride. You can also encourage carpooling on your website or invitations for those guests attached to bringing their cars.

keep track of all these questions + more in our venue checklist