Wedding Venue Table Decor — Photo Credit: @photos_by_lanty

Congratulations on your engagement! I am beyond excited for you to celebrate your love as a couple! And if you're even considering hiring an eco-friendly wedding planner, you'll be celebrating in a way that shows you care about the earth and the greater good as well.

As someone who has gotten married before, my biggest regret was not setting aside part of my budget for wedding planning services. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love designing and planning weddings! But trying to do it on top of working a full-time job was stressful. And a planner would have helped us stay on budget. So I strongly recommend working with a wedding planner.

BUT if you're thinking of going green for your wedding, not just any wedding planner will do. Here's why you should hire a certified eco-friendly wedding planner (AKA a zero-waste wedding planner, sustainable wedding planner, or green wedding planner)...

An Eco-Friendly Wedding Planner Can...

Provide all the usual benefits of a wedding planner and more!

Of course, hiring a wedding planner can help you significantly cut down on the time and effort you would put into planning. This allows you to sit back and enjoy your engagement and wedding day, thus reducing the stress of the wedding planning process. But read on to learn what other benefits an eco-friendly wedding planner can provide!

Help you account for eco-friendly elements in your budget

In some aspects of your budget, going green can cut down on costs. However, in other areas, going with the more sustainable option can be more expensive than going the traditional (more wasteful) route. An eco-friendly wedding planner will know how to budget around these costs and make recommendations on areas to save versus splurge.

Conduct the research for you

Weddings take a lot of time to plan in the first place, but that amount of time multiplies when you add the research it takes to plan it sustainably. A certified eco-friendly wedding planner has gone through a training process that involved a lot of researching of eco-friendly vendors and services in the area. Working with an eco-friendly wedding planner means less time spent researching for you, which means less stress in the long run.

Present you with various eco-friendly options throughout the process of designing and/or planning the event

Planning an eco-friendly wedding goes well beyond choosing whether to send online invitations or seed paper invitations. But rather, there are decisions to be made throughout every step of the wedding planning process (even after the wedding day!). Every choice can make a difference, and an eco-friendly wedding planner can walk you through each decision.

Connect you with eco-friendly wedding vendors

Finding and hiring eco-friendly vendors is a great way to increase the sustainability of your wedding. But identifying eco-friendly vendors can be challenging, as some of them don't show up on Google and take more research to find. Eco-friendly wedding planners are constantly looking for and networking with other green wedding vendors and can connect you with eco-conscious vendors in your area.

Work with your vendors to increase the wedding’s sustainability

Whether you have already booked several vendors or you're starting from scratch, an eco-friendly wedding planner will work with your vendors to figure out where any simple tweaks could be made to make your wedding more sustainable. Even if the vendors you’ve chosen aren't eco-conscious, an eco-friendly wedding planner can facilitate negotiations with them to reduce your wedding's ecological footprint.

Achieve more with the design of the event

Eco-friendly is not really a theme. It’s more of an approach. If you’re not aware of this, you can easily fall into the trap of hosting an eco-friendly event that looks and feels very similar to all the other eco-friendly events on Pinterest. But the truth is that you can do so much more with the design of your event, and an eco-friendly event planner can help you pull this off.

Ensure that event items are handled in an eco-friendly manner before, during, and after the event

Will food and décor items be prepared and delivered to your event in the most sustainable way? And what happens to the florals, décor, waste, and leftover food after the event? An eco-friendly wedding planner will help you consider these issues, as well as coordinate the clean-up process and post-wedding tasks like donation, recycling, green cleaning practices, etc. to increase the sustainability of your event from beginning to end.

Alert you to signs of greenwashing

"Greenwashing" is when companies try to pass off a traditionally produced item or service as eco-friendly, which you will see a lot of when shopping online. An eco-friendly planner is aware of common wedding items that tend to be greenwashed and can help you identify eco-friendlier options.

More Benefits of Working with an Eco-Friendly Wedding Planner

Feeling good about reducing your ecological footprint
Educating and inspiring guests and vendors in the process
Supporting green business

Looking for an eco-friendly wedding planner in Pittsburgh or for virtual wedding planning services?

Let's face it - designing and planning a wedding takes a lot of time and can be very stressful! And although having an eco-friendly wedding can significantly cut down on waste, it involves a lot more research and advocacy compared to planning a regular wedding. This unfortunately means it requires more time and effort to plan, which can lead to overwhelm.

As a Certified Green Wedding Planner in Pittsburgh, I take the work and stress off your hands so that you can enjoy this time together as an engaged couple and feel good about making a difference in the world.

If you're looking to hold a sustainable Pittsburgh wedding or need eco-friendly wedding design or planning services from afar, click the button below to learn more about my eco-friendly wedding planning services!

Eco-Friendly Wedding Planning Services