A resource guide for eco-friendly and sustainable choices for the wedding day

Photo Credits: Sarah Wockenfuss Photography

We’re celebrating earth day with tips and suggestions for eco-friendly and sustainable wedding selections. If being eco-conscious is important to you as a couple, you’ll love these ideas for a waste-free wedding. It’s easy to embrace sustainability on the wedding day by exploring all the rental options available. We’ll share some of our favorite rentals along with ways to reduce your carbon footprint by going paperless too! 

Renting is Recycling

There are SO many rental options in the wedding space. You will probably immediately think of tuxedos and decor as traditional rental choices for the wedding day, but there’s so much more to explore. And renting makes perfect sense since most items are only used for a couple of hours before being tossed in the trash at the end of the night. What a waste?!

1. Wedding Flowers for Rent

Yes, renting wedding flowers is a thing! At Something Borrowed Blooms, we specialize in premium silk wedding flowers that are both on-trend and on-budget. Our collections of beautiful silk wedding flowers are refreshed after each use to ensure the highest quality with each rental. Flowers are passed on from one wedding to the next, providing the most sustainable wedding flower option on the market. And these eco-friendly florals also include many other benefits including full price transparency; our prices are the same all year long, so you don’t have to pay a premium during holidays and unlimited availability; our flowers are always in season no matter where or when you tie the knot! 

Photo Credits: Sarah Wockenfuss Photography

2. Bridesmaid Dresses for Rent

If your guys are renting suits and tuxedos, why treat your best girlfriends differently? Offer them an affordable and sustainable option with dress rentals through Rent the Runway. They will certainly appreciate the savings on this one-time wear! 

We love Rent the Runway’s designer options for Bridesmaid dresses including Amsale, Monique Lhuillier, Badgley Mischka, and Watters. Provide your bridesmaids with a color choice or style direction and allow them to do the rest. It’s hard to go wrong with Rent The Runway, so delegate this task and allow your Bridesmaids to do the rest!  

3. Rent the Accessories

When it comes to the small details to complete your wedding day look, you’ll often find yourself making purchases for items that are one and done. We’re talking about veils, intricate costume jewelry, hairpieces, and special occasion jackets and shawls. Eliminate the waste with rental options from Happily Ever Borrowed. Similar to Rent The Runway, this bridal-focused rental brand promises to bring you great quality and designer brands at an affordable price. 

Reducing the Carbon Footprint

Did you know that the average wedding produces 400lbs of waste?! There are so many ways to eliminate paper on and before the wedding day, and deciding to go completely paperless can significantly reduce that figure.

Photo Credit: Zola

4. E-Invites for the Win

Leading up to the wedding date, there are so many events that traditionally require paper invites. Think engagement party, bridal shower, couple shower, bachelor party, rehearsal dinner, save the dates, and finally the wedding invite. 

Consider going paperless for some or all of these events! It's no surprise that digital invitations are preferred over paper by both GenZ and Millennials. Our lives are grounded by technology and our digital devices, so it just makes sense for these important events to sync! Zola offers free wedding websites that provides customization and online RSVP.

But if you are dead set on a paper invite, by all means, be sure to select one made from eco-friendly providers like Paper Culture offering 100% recycled paper.  

5. Skip the Wrap

Give your guests a pass to skip the fancy packaging, paper wrap, and bows. All that paper adds up to a bunch of trash, and there’s little surprise anyway when you’ve hand-selected everything on your registry. Be sure to inform your guests through the invite to ensure your requests are known.

Photo Credits: Sarah Wockenfuss Photography

Being eco-conscious is one of our top priorities at Something Borrowed Blooms. We are committed to providing couples a more sustainable & eco-friendly alternative for wedding flowers. So we love taking a part in spreading the word on all eco-friendly wedding day options. There really are so many ways you can keep our beautiful planet in mind while celebrating your special day. Share your thoughts with us in the comments! 

Something Borrowed Blooms Couple, Avery and Colin's Journey to Marriage.

The days of large, elaborate, and blowout weddings have taken a back seat with intimate ceremonies on the rise, as more and more couples are opting for romantic, intimate, and quaint gatherings with their closest family and friends. We call these sweet ceremonies, micro weddings. There are so many things we love about micro weddings, but mostly the thoughtful intention of keeping focused on what’s most important - the unity of TWO people in love. And although micro weddings aren’t always a couple’s first choice, they are always perfect in the end. 

Real bride, Avery, shares her experience of unprecedented wedding planning and making the best of her wedding in beautiful Hot Springs, Arkansas. From two COVID-19 reschedules and an unpredictable hurricane hitting the Alabama shore, high school sweethearts, Avery and Colin, rescheduled their wedding THREE times. 

“At that point, we were feeling pretty defeated and I was ready to just go to the courthouse. But behind the scenes, my parents booked a cabin in the middle of Hot Springs, AR and my wedding party cleared their schedules yet again and paid their way to be in Arkansas with us. We ended up getting married at our cabin using only the furniture that they had there and my bridal party decorated my entire ceremony the morning of. Luckily, we still had our huge order from Something Borrowed Blooms that included a ton of votive candle holders, bridesmaid bouquets, garlands, wreaths, lanterns, and candles, and my bridal party was able to use the flowers in such a unique way and decorate the ceremony space!”

With a box of blooms in tow, the bridal party and couples’ families headed to Arkansas for a wonderful weekend of love! The wedding was to commence as it would have originally, the first go-round. The bride and her bridesmaids all got ready together on the top floor of the cabin while the groom and his men suited up with boutonnieres in the basement.

The ceremony was held in the front yard where Avery and Colin each said their vows and sealed the deal with a kiss. The night carried on with the first dance and of course, the traditional cutting of the cake. The cake table was decorated with real and silk blooms including the bridal bouquet, countless polaroid selfies of the bride and groom as well as their guests, the toss bouquet, and votive candle holders for ambiance. 

We’re so happy Avery and Colin’s wedding day turned into a perfect dream. It’s our top priority to make wedding planning as easy and stress-free as possible. Even during unforeseen circumstances and unpredictable times. And assisting Avery with rescheduling her order THREE times and downsizing her order to better fit their needs, is a testament to that!

We hope this real couple’s journey to marriage has eased your stress of wedding planning. Because in the end love will always find a way. Join our SBBlooms Brides Facebook group to get all the insider pro tips and advice from past and present SBBlooms Brides.  For more inspiration, browse our floral collections, follow us on Instagram, and subscribe to our YouTube channel for DIY tips, collection reviews, and behind the scenes.