Bridal showers are a long-established wedding tradition that focuses more on the celebration of the brides-to-be. It is undoubtedly the perfect reason to gather with the closest women in the bride’s life, however without being eco-conscious, the festive celebration can often turn out to be wasteful and environmentally destructive.

In the United Kingdom alone, approximately 221 million tonnes of total waste were accounted for. Unfortunately, this whopping number of waste was paralleled by the decreasing UK recycling rate for “Waste from Household” from 2018 to 2017.

According to the Green Bride Guide, the average wedding party can produce 400 pounds of wastes and 63 tonnes of CO2.

To minimise waste and promote sustainability, hosting parties, such as green bridal showers, can serve as a perfect avenue in materialising these environmental values without compromising style.

If you want to know more about eco-friendly and natural bridal shower ideas, these 11 easy ideas are perfect for you.

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1. Choose a Sustainable Outdoor Venue

Weather can sometimes come easy, especially during spring, when everyone is hyped to go out in the sun after a cold, grey winter. The perfect time to set dates for an outdoor bridal shower is during the months of March to May.

According to Zach Nathan from Hawaii, the environmental impact of lighting and energy costs during the spring season is relatively less – not to mention the extra aesthetic look of the photos from the natural lighting during this season.

Outdoor venues discourage the use of air conditioning units, which significantly contribute to global warming. Similarly, energy consumption is reduced by switching to natural light in outdoor venues instead of powered light bulbs when events happen in an enclosed structure.

Consider the following venues:

  • Public garden and greenhouses
  • Beaches or lakeside areas
  • Picturesque backyard
  • Farms or vineyards

You should prefer places that make use of sustainable materials, low-energy lighting, and electricity usage. If you need to have the party indoors, try to make use of energy-efficient windows or go after the event places with solar panels. 

If you’re from the United Kingdom, you can look into outdoor wedding venues here

2. Rent, Don’t Buy

The existing décor available in the venue will help in reducing the items needed for decoration, thus helping you save money and resources.

An eco-conscious wedding shower plan may entail considering the available resources in choosing a venue. When opting for a green bridal shower, it is best to desire an earthy theme to come up with a rustic look.

Guests will also tend to value a more organic look, serving a fresher event space than a traditional one.

Some event places offer utensils that you can be rent or borrow for your bridal shower. In this way, you can do away with disposable plates, cups, and other eating utensils, thus reducing garbage and wastes.

Individual bottles and cans should be skipped and replaced by the use of pitchers and glasses. Reusable cloth napkins are also favoured over disposable tissues

For bridal shower dresses for rent, you can check out websites like Poshshare, Rent the Runway, NUULY, StyleLend, and Lending Luxury.

3. Serve Farm-to-table Food

It is always safe to opt for something organic. Patronising food fresh from organic farming promotes sustainability since less greenhouse gases are emitted from the production of local farms.  

Real dishes and plates are the most preferred as it serves the meal as fresh as possible while supporting local agriculture.

A sustainable bridal shower menu helps your guests be more comfortable as the dishes served are considerably healthy!

Make sure to build your menu around what is seasonally present. Take time to visit your local farmer’s market and skip party favours.

4. Bake the Cake! 

With the right amount of experience and motivation, you can challenge yourself by baking your own healthier bridal shower cake.

One can go after several inspirations in creating cakes:

Emissions can be reduced, especially the ones caused by transportation. If you create your cake, obviously there is no need for you to travel and buy that cake! You can just opt to explore the available ingredients you have at home.

5. Use Recycled Crafts for Invitations

Creativity follows resourcefulness. When mailing out invites, make sure to take the environment into account.

Instead of sending papers, it can be more efficient to go paperless and take advantage of the digital era we are currently living in.

If paper invitations are inevitable, make sure to go after eco-friendly invitation options created from recycled papers and other craft materials such as wood and fabric. There are several stationery companies with sustainable and environmental-friendly initiatives; make sure to check them out!

Aside from recycled paper products, seed paper wedding invitations are becoming a thing! Each biodegradable seed paper product can grow as this plantable wedding invitation contains seeds.

If you are up to making a legacy in the environment, these seed paper weddings are something you should try!

6. Plants vs Flowers as Centerpiece

While both plants and flowers are inherent from the earth’s soil, plants are still the better option. For Makayla Thom of Blossom Studios, succulents can serve double favours – for the environmentand for the aesthetic.

These plants can also serve as the guests’ souvenirs. These succulents are low maintenance and are perfect for any event, even at home.

7. Be Crafty About Gift-Wrapping

Instead of using ribbons and plastic bows, encourage your guests to be creative and crafty when it comes to wrapping.

It can be as simple as brown recycled paper or newspaper. After all, what truly matters is the intention of giving the gift, so make sure the notes are intact!

As much as possible, try to reduce the number of printed pieces needed.

If you really want to reduce wastes significantly, skip the wrapping and let the guests bring unwrapped gifts. It will cut down any form of paper consumption!

8. Go for Extra Meaningful Activities

You can apply sustainable activities in your bridal showers. This will make the event more social, especially when volunteer work is considered.

Tree planting and clean up drive are some of the best examples of exhibiting volunteer work that focuses more on the environment.

9. The More Practical, the Better!

Even with the green principle in mind, you do not send your guests home empty-handed. When thinking of gifts from the bridal shower, opt for items that serve the purpose of being green and usable.  

Choose gifts that are made from biodegradable, recycled or recyclable materials. Make sure that these souvenirs will not contribute to trash.

Ensure that the items are of high quality, or better yet, just let them keep the succulents at your centrepiece!

10. Narrow Down the List

You can drastically reduce your carbon footprint by making sure that your guest list is kept short. 

Practically speaking, you just have to include the closest people to reduce the resources needed to materialise the event.

You could also plan to arrange shuttles or encourage your guests to do carpooling to reduce the carbon emissions from the transportation.

Make sure you plan out the perfect venue that will be relatively accessible to your guests.

11. Let the Celebration Live On

A lot of reusable items from the bridal shower can be reused or donated if possible. For instance, you can give out flowers to hospitals or hospice facilities in helping the patients in brightening up their mood. You can also inform your guests that they can take the flowers home; just make sure that you won’t just toss your flowers in the trash. The dress, decorations, and supplies can be donated to help someone else carry out a budget-friendly bridal shower.

As you can see, a bridal shower does not have to be very extravagant. After all, what truly makes the day unique is the people you celebrate it with. With this, we would like to say that if you are planning to do a bridal shower, definitely think about something that celebrates the bride and the earth! 

So do you know other eco-friendly bridal shower tip? How about pieces of bridal advice that you would like to share? Feel free to share them in the comment section below!

About The Author

May can usually be found reading an eco magazine absorbed in the latest gripping articles on all things eco! May is passionate about the environment. May believes in looking and feeling good whilst living an eco friendly lifestyle. In her spare time she loves cooking, playing her guitar and going for country walks. May lives in the UK and enjoys spending time with friends, family and her two adorable cats.

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