Last Updated on September 17, 2024

A zero waste, minimalist wedding certainly felt like a daunting task when I was trying to plan mine. How does one plan a zero waste wedding while still decorating, feeding guests, and throwing an epic party?

Zero waste events can be tough to pull off. From food, to tableware, to party favors…how do you do that without trash? Planning an eco friendly wedding was a top priority for me, but I wasn’t sure where to begin while still having the event I wanted. Surely I can’t be alone, so I’m sharing my minimalist, sustainable ideas so you can incorporate them into your own wedding!

a minimalist wedding

With most things in life (and especially zero waste), there are no right answers. There is rather an array of choices ranging from good and bad to worse. All of these decisions have to factor into your time, budget, and location. 

If we had a large budget, we’d easily be able to hire a caterer to take care of everything.

We were not this fortunate, and it was more of a DIY wedding. In that case, time became our biggest hindrance to pulling off a sustainable wedding.

Not the amount of time we had to plan, but rather the amount of time we had to spend transporting and cleaning up on the day of the event. I didn’t want to spend my entire wedding night cleaning up, even if it was for a good cause.

Of course, I wrestled with the idea of eloping on more than one occasion. Eloping would definitely be the easiest way to have a zero waste wedding.

It would be small and private, and you could just go out to a really nice restaurant afterward. Even as I type this, I dream of the simplicity.

On the other hand, our families are scattered all across the US, and it was really important to me that they be there. It may have been the only time they ever actually got to meet each other, and that felt really important.

So, instead of throwing a large bash, we decided to focus on immediate family and close friends to keep the waste (and cost) down.

traditional wedding waste vs a sustainable wedding

The average wedding has 150 people and produces 400-600lbs of trash! That’s crazy, and that’s only the trash left over at the end of the night. I can only imagine what the waste stream on an event like that is. 

We wanted to skip the disposable plastics like plates, forks, cups, and napkins. Imagine the trash saved there! But who would do the dishes? Us, and while that was a sacrifice, it was worth keeping 400 pounds of trash out of a landfill.

For our minimalist wedding, we also thought about choosing an already beautiful location to cut down on expensive, probably-will-never-be-used-again decorations and instead keep it very intentional and, well, minimalist in our design.

So right away, we felt that keeping it small was the easiest way to keep it under budget and as low waste as possible. It saved on the dishes, the food we had to make, and the size of the venue we chose.

goals for a zero waste wedding: 

When trying to plan your own sustainable wedding, I suggest you go into it with a set of goals. This will help you narrow down what’s truly important to include on your big day, and what you’re willing to go without in order to attain a level of sustainability that matches your dream wedding.

Going into this, my goals to pull off my own eco friendly wedding were:

have under 2lbs of trash:

I honestly pulled this number out of thin air. I don’t think I’ve made two pounds of trash in the last two years, but I’d rather be proud of myself rather than disappointed.

I realized that I was not going to be in control of a lot of aspects of the event… as much as I’d have liked to be. I relinquished the power and let other people handle it. I’d much rather relax and have a good time than worry about small details out of my control, and some of that is collateral waste.

I figured if I did my part to plan a minimalist wedding with few bells and whistles, the rest would kind of fall into place.

figure out a way to compost all food scraps:

I don’t have municipal compost in my city. Instead, I needed to figure out a way to get it taken care of in a city that does have municipal compost. Imagine me and my bridesmaids running around town throwing compost into random people’s green bins. 

In the end, I was able to compost most of it in my own and my friends’ home compost bins.

forgo useless party favors:

I mean, does anyone really need a favor? When I go to an event, I feel that wining and dining me is the best favor you could give. I don’t feel that there’s any reason I should be given anything more than that. However, I would love to hear your opinion. 

Is there a favor you’ve gotten and loved? Do you love party favors? I chose to go without and no one said anything about it. We all had so much fun dancing and laughing that no one cared about wasteful trinkets.

This, so far, is my favorite sustainable party hack. Skip the junk and create more zero waste events!

buy second hand or borrow when possible:

The obvious things that come to mind are the wedding dress and decorations. We’re trying to streamline design as much as possible to reduce unnecessary resources being used for decorations. 

I think the best way to do that is to book a unique venue that doesn’t need to be dressed up too much, especially since we’ll probably be hauling everything. The first “r” of zero waste is to refuse. I let my inner minimalist shine, and it truly showed (in a good way) at my wedding. 

focus on people and loved ones rather than things:

I was most excited about our families getting together. I think with so much love and happiness in the air, the decorations were the least of my (and everyone else’s) worries. Plus, plenty of wine helped too.

I really just love to throw a fun party and truly don’t think you need a lot of stuff to do so.

stay under budget:

Oh, California. That’s all I really can say. I was fortunate to find some pretty awesome vendors though and to have lots of amazing and creative friends who helped me pull everything together for a sustainable wedding that was still fun, beautiful, and affordable.

have fun:

The most important thing! HAVE FUN. I had so much fun during this process. I made the most conscious choices that I could but chose not to sweat it if something wasn’t perfectly sustainable.

Remember, it’s not about perfection. It’s about making better choices, and that goes for eco friendly weddings as well as day to day life.

optional: consider eloping

Or, you know, you can just elope! With just the residual waste of traveling, eloping is just about the easiest way to pull off an eco friendly wedding there is. Especially if you do so locally!

Consider getting married at the courthouse and then taking a local staycation.

faqs about a minimalist wedding

what makes a minimalist wedding?

In a typical sense, a minimalist wedding refers to one that reduces visual clutter and sticks to a muted, aesthetically pleasing color scheme.

In my world, minimalism is more about sustainability. It’s cutting out the things that aren’t necessary for an amazing event, especially if keeping them just creates a bunch of trash.

can you have zero waste events planned by a party planner?

They’re out there, but I can’t guarantee there will be an event planner in your area who specializes in zero waste events.

If you can’t find one, I would instead hire one and use words like ‘minimalist’ and ‘sustainable’ to help keep your waste production down. They may not specialize in minimalist weddings, but they’ll know what one looks like and can help you cut out the clutter and unnecessary things.

what about flowers in an eco friendly wedding?

I love flowers! And it seems like flowers just to have flowers can be super wasteful and…it can be. But if you love flowers too and want them as part of your wedding, you can do that! Again, setting goals will help you realize what you’re willing to compromise in the name of being zero waste.

Prioritize using a local florist and choosing in-season blooms reduces your floral waste a ton. And maybe you don’t need a huge bouquet on every table. Maybe just a small bunch for you and the bridesmaids. The options are endless to reduce waste and still have the wedding of your dreams.

Have you been to or thrown a zero waste event? What tips would you give me?