eco-friendly parties... part 1

parties have a tendency to create a lot of waste, but there are some ways to lessen your impact on the environment without sacrificing style and or luxury.  here are some suggestions that i have come across.  even if you do only one or two of these things, you will have changed your impact for the better.

invitations:

go paperless, for a less formal affair such as a birthday party you can consider doing an e-vite.  which also happens to be free so it would help your budget stretch further as an added bonus!  a slightly fancier version of the e-vite is greenvelope.  with greenvelope you create an invitation that looks very traditional.  when your guest visits the site they see an envelope, and an invitation.  the site also maintains your rsvp list.  they have several packages available with the most expensive being $139 for up to 300 invitations!  and they also donate 10% of all profits to a non-profit that works to preserve nature.

if you feel like your guests aren't tech savvy enough to figure out an on-line option there are also eco-friendly paper options!  first there are the "all in one" or "seal and send" options.  these invitations have everything on one piece of paper and often feature a tear off rsvp response card.  the invitations fold up, are sealed, and then mailed eliminating the need for an outer, and inner envelope.  the other option is plantable invitations.  with these, just as the name suggests, your guests can plant the invitations and flowers will grow.  foreverfiances actually has both of these options and even has plantable "all in one" invitations which makes them super eco friendly! 

favors:
at weddings favors are very common.  one thing that couples often do is give a charitable donation in honor of their guests.  this is green because you're not creating waste and it can be green because you can give to a green charity or help off-set the carbon emissions that your guests required because of their travel to and from your celebration.

if you feel the need to give something more tangible you can give a planted plant or herb- these can double as decor on the table which would be helpful to your budget!  here's a great example:

via intimate weddings

the above picture shows the potted plants not just as a favor but also as the place cards.  you could always paint the date or your names on the pots as well to personalize them just a bit!  i've also seen bamboo done.

another popular option is packets of seeds that your guests can plant after the wedding.  

in eco-friendly parties.... part 2 you can expect to see information about eco-friendly choices for attire, centerpieces, and anything else i can think of!