Green Weddings: How to Make Your Big Day More Sustainable

As a Punjabi, a wedding isn't a wedding unless it has the 3 F's: food, family, and most importantly, fab. This past summer, I went to my first wedding in India, where low prices easily transform a grand wedding into something other-worldly. My cousin's outdoor wedding was by far the most luxurious event I've ever attended. Think Indian princess fairytale straight out of Platinum Weddings:1000+ guests, 3 elegantly adorned stages (one that rotated), a marching band, unrelenting dhol players, a disco-esqe dance floor, fireworks, mendhi sessions, and food stalls that served everything from fried-in-front-of-you samosas to kulfi and gulab jamun. If the US added as many jobs as my cousin's wedding, it would mean the end of unemployment. As if that wasn't enough, scattered around the grounds were live feed LCD monitors showcasing guests and activities and large misting fans offering respite from the sweltering Indian summer. The whole affair gave me an inferiority complex. Even the horse was decked out of my price range. Luckily, the camera and video crew, with their blinding lights, didn't fail to make me feel like a movie star.

Entryway to an Indian wedding. Although not my cousin's, it's a good representation.

I wouldn't blame you if you want that. Katy Perry and Russell Brand were all over it.

Despite how amazing the wedding was, it made me feel guilty. The cost of luxury is not simply monetary. Lights, fans, and screens require loads of energy. Flowers require water, land, and transportation. Leftover food and decorations end up in landfills. Fireworks pollute. The ultimate lesson? Less is more.

Here are some things you can do:

1. Reuse your grandmother's ring. Diamonds come with immense social and environmental costs. Have you seen Blood Diamond? If you don't have a heirloom, buy your ring from an eco-conscious supplier.
2. Buy local. This includes food, drinks, and decorations. See if there is a green caterer in your area.
3. Make it an intimate affair. Inviting fewer guests will have the greatest impact in terms of reducing your footprint. Fewer people means less of everything, particularly transportation.
4. Use less paper. Start a website as a way to spread information, and send e-mail invitations. Another, more traditional option is to use unbleached paper printed with eco-ink.
5. Location, location, location. Transportation can give an otherwise green wedding a sasquatch-sized environmental footprint. Skip the destination wedding, and choose a place that is close to the majority of your guests. Also, minimize travel by selecting a hotel near the wedding venue. Finally, consider a local bachelor/bachelorette party.
6. Honeymoon Road Trip. In terms of carbon emissions, flights are awful. Try honeymooning somewhere that is accessible by car or train.
7. Go outdoors. Daytime, outdoor weddings eliminate the need for lighting and air conditioning.
8. Avoid disposables. Trade paper plates and plastic knives for rentable plate-ware.
9. Eat vegetarian. In the US, livestock is responsible for 35% of methane emissions, which is 20 times more powerful than CO2 as a global warming gas.
10. Donate leftover food. Find a shelter, church, or community kitchen in the area, and help some people out.
11. The gift of giving. - Don't register for gifts you don't need or want. Instead, plant some trees, or ask for donations to a cause you believe in.
12. Decorate with fruit or paper flowers. Flowers are often imported (lengthy transport) and laden with pesticides. They're expensive, too. By decorating with fruit, you have something guests can take home. If you want to go traditional, try organic local flowers.
13. Try recycled. Why not buy someone else's used decorations? It might be too much to ask, but consider buying a used wedding dress, too. No one will notice, and it's like prom: you'll only wear it once.
14. Invest in renewable energy. Work with your area energy provider to see if you can use renewable energy for the event. Some providers, like ComEd, offer credits for a small fee.

Ready to judge your wedding?
-Calculate the carbon footprint of guest travel, or, get more in depth with a comprehensive footprint calculator.
-Here are some testimonials of couples who've tried to green their own weddings.

Here's to you, Sierra Club

The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) team, which is largely funded by the UN, recently released a 3-year study showing just how beneficial ecosystem preservation can be (NYTimes). The study is enough to convince even the most steadfast skeptics. To those who believe anything can be engineered:

• $3.7 trillion - can be saved by 2030 if we conserve forests, which help absorb CO2 emissions. 
• $50 billion/yr - is how much fisheries could be making if they all harvested in a sustainable manner. 
• 30 million - is the number of people reliant on coral reefs for food and income. 1/4 of all aquatic species are located in coral reefs.
• $20-67 million -  could be saved over a four year period from planting trees in Canberra, Australia.  These trees regulate micro-climate and reduce urban pollution.
• $213 million/yr - is generated in agricultural production as a result of bee pollination of fruits and  berries (equivalent to what is generated from honey/beeswax directly).

There are no replacements for the myriad of services ecosystems provide. As much as we think we know, the intricacies of biological systems are yet to be understood. Every day, new behaviors and functions are discovered. Oftentimes, our actions have repercussions on living systems we never would have imagined. If mangroves and wetlands had been left undisturbed, there is no doubt that the destruction caused by the tsunami in Asia and Hurricane Katrina would been tamed. 

Wetland preservation could have severely reduced the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Wetlands are also pivotal in waste detoxification and degradation.

Benefits of ecosystems:

1. Provisional - food, water, crops medicines
2. Regulatory - CO2 sequestration, climate regulation, pest/disease control, waste detoxification and decomposition, protection from natural disasters
3. Supportive - nutrient cycling, soil formation, photosynthesis, seed dispersion
4. Cultural - biophilia (humans <3 nature), religious and spiritual values, recreation