Guest Blog by Jocelyn Anne

You’ve got the ethically mined and harvested diamonds in your ring, a vintage gown in the closet, locally grown wildflowers awaiting, organic wine, organic fruits and a locally, sustainably made cake all lined up.  But, what about the actual building that your reception is taking place in?  While ceremonies are a bit easier and can often be held outside in the beauty of pure nature, chances are that you aren’t going to find a building big enough for your reception that is built in the most eco-friendly way that you could hope for.  Just because it isn’t as eco-friendly as you might hope for, doesn’t mean you can’t make it slightly more so or look for innovative ways to offset your impact. 

Rent Out a Building that Gives Back

One way that you can make your wedding reception building more eco-friendly is to find a building owned by an organization that donates part of its rental proceeds to eco-friendly causes.  Many will give a percentage of profits to reforestation or to supporting local farmers.

Offset Your Carbon Footprint

No matter where you have your reception, you can always purchase carbon offsets.  You can look at how you want to offset your reception multiple ways.  Check out a site like Carbonfund.org.  You can choose from preset carbon footprint options like a small event (up to 250 people) for $75 or a large event (up to 500 people) for $150.00.  They also have an Event/Wedding option that allows you to adjust things like Cars/Flights/Train/Transit/Hotel/etc.  And if that doesn’t fit what you want, you could go by something like the size of the building.  The options are endless, and with just a click of a button, you can help to cut down impact levels.

Consider Your Cooling Options

When renting out very large buildings, like an entire church or huge conference centers, you frequently end up paying massive amounts during those hot summer months just to keep one room cool.  Check to see if you can cool down just the room you need with fans or with portable air conditioners.  This will allow you to cut off the central AC system to the entire building and save huge amounts of cost and energy.

A Building that Matters

Sometimes you can find a location that even though your proceeds may not leave the building itself and go off to support endangered animals or plant new trees, the building itself promotes something you believe in.  Perhaps it’s a museum, an art gallery, a botanical garden or arboretum, a historical home or even a multi-cultural organization. 

Natural Lighting

See if you can open up windows for as long as possible to cut down on the lighting you need to use.  And, if you can, skip the lights altogether.  Opt for candles if your wedding is small enough (more romantic too!) or even something like indoor tiki torches.  If that won’t cut it, see if you can exchange the current lighting for eco-friendly bulbs.  You can also find organizations like Green Light Event Design who will come in and reduce power requirements of your reception from thousands of watts down to hundreds. 

Freelance writer Jocelyn Anne writes primarily on topics revolving around going green and living more eco-friendly, sustainable lifestyles.  Her latest passion is to inspire people to go green in their wedding.