By Mireya Navarro, WedNet Specialist Blogger on Green Wedding, Author of “Green Wedding: Planning Your Eco-friendly Celebration”, http://www.mireyanavarro.com
The invitation to my first wedding of the 2009 season arrived promptly – by email. It was in an attachment, with a beautiful peacock motif, and it did its job by telling me “when” and “where.”
The emailed invitation is fast becoming a popular green option for those couples who want to save both trees and money. And wedding websites are all the rage for all forms of other paperless wedding communication, including directions to the venue and registry information. Brides and grooms who go paperless tell me they do so because they are concerned about the natural forests that are replaced by tree farms for paper production and about the mass amounts of energy that go into turning trees into paper, among other issues.
I didn’t mind my emailed invitation at all, but some guests – and etiquette experts – find the electronic way too impersonal. Luckily, environmentally-minded couples who prefer the traditional paper invitation will find that many stationery companies have stepped up to meet the demands of green consumers by offering recycled products at competitive prices.
When shopping around for environmentally friendly alternatives to the paper invitation, look for:
- Paper with the most recycled content, preferably 100 percent post-consumer waste (PCW) recycled paper, (which means paper that’s already gone one round with consumers, like the paper tossed in recycling bins at the office.)
- Chlorine-free paper or paper not bleached with chlorine or chlorine derivatives.
- Vegetable-based inks such as those made with soy oil.