Your wedding day - beautiful, whimsical, somewhat stressful and expensive as ****. Am I right!? Yeah… but since chances are good that you will be consuming a lot of food and buying a lot of stuff for your wedding, that means you have a lot of opportunities to put your dollars to work towards something good. When we got married in 2014 we made an effort to be as conscious and socially responsible as we could, even though we were on a very tight budget. And, in doing so, I learned that there are a few ways to have a conscious wedding that won’t break the bank, and which, if we all do them, can make a big impact:

1. Give out usefully consumable wedding favors. Give out things that can be eaten, planted, re-purposed or easily recycled. We've all gotten those bizarre wedding favors that we'll never, ever use in a million years (you know what they are. You probably have one in your junk drawer right now). Instead give out something that guests will truly enjoy and that won’t create unnecessary waste:

   • Candy bags. We did this and so did my sister-in-law. Guests love it! Make this conscious by providing paper bags to fill and vegan, gluten-free candy options.

   • Coffee and tea samples. Our cousins did this, and I love the idea. Each guest could pick a small paper bag filled with either loose-leaf tea (which I am sipping right now, btw) or fair trade coffee. We each picked a baggy of tea, and so far I've gotten about 6ish servings from the one bag. Perfect!

   • Seed paper. A friend of mine gave out leaf-shaped seed paper, hung near the exit of their venue on a very pretty tree. I planted these in my garden and grew some gorgeous wildflowers. I love the idea — so unique.

   • Jam or honey in reusable jars. My old housemate gave little glass jars filled with homemade jam (SO YUMMY) and local honey. The honey and jam was delicious and we could use the jars after for storing other things.

   • Other unique wedding favor ideas I have heard of: customized matchboxes, succulents, bags of heart-shaped mints.

2. Do your RSVP online. Cut down on paper usage by skipping that pesky piece of extra paper - the RSVP slip. It's really easy to build a wedding website online for free or almost free and do your RSVPs that way. Most wedding website builders have the option to add an RSVP form, which you configure to your liking, and which makes your job of creating lists and collecting info (food allergies, for example) so much easier! Just make sure your website is easy for guests to find, read and type. Something like JoeandLilly2015.com or Smithwedding.com. You can also do your whole invitation online, if that's your thing.

3. Support local businesses when you can. I am such a fan of supporting local businesses. Not only do you usually end up with more unique items, but you help to distribute wealth more evenly and boost the local economy. So if you have a longish engagement and have enough time to shop around local boutiques, consider picking up your shoes, bridesmaid and groomsman gifts, accessories, stationary, and whatever else you can think of locally.

4. Get your decor second hand. Since we were both broke university students or recent graduates when we tied the knot we were forced to get creative with our decor. We borrowed a ton of decor items from our aunts and uncles and bought a lot of stuff second hand from Craigslist. But I know what you’re thinking — all you find on Craigslist is some crusty old shabby-chic-turned-only-shabby isht. But it ain’t so! In my browsing of Craigslist I spotted a lot of modern, rustic, vintage and classic looking items. It's definitely worth a try! 

I hope this list helped and would love to hear any ways you made your wedding more conscious. Comment below and be sure to share this post with a friend.