Eco Friendly Wedding?
 

Ok so as some of you may know I am knee deep in my wedding plans. I am trying to make it as eco friendly as possible, I used recycle paper for the save the dates and the invites. I even got eco friendly return address labels :D. I was thinking about what a waste real flowers are. I mean I like them and of course they are pretty but they are so expensive and we are only using them a few hours! seems like such a waste. But I also don't want my wedding to look cheap or cheesy. What do you guys think of doing paper flower centerpieces?? Mine would be a combo of the pics below as my colors are purple and pink :)
Thanks!

also if anyone has any other eco- friendly ideas please share!

Weird... I just was reading this article yesterday!

Celebrate Green Blog » 8 unique eco-wedding centerpieces

And you've been on Pinterest, right?? :)

I really like the idea of "reusable" centerpieces. So if that means edible or something the guests can take home...I like it :)

What about using small potted plants? Either seasonal flowers in your colors, or maybe succulents or herbs in clay pots tied with colorful raffia bows. Guests could take them home as favors and enjoy them long after the wedding is over.

We gave our wedding flowers to the church for that weeks services. Our church always tried to use fresh flowers each week, always donated by a member. If you went with fresh flowers, you could see if a local church or even a nursing home could use them. I'm sure nursing home residents aren't often blessed with fresh flowers.
I also like brezofleur's idea of edible centerpieces As well as MyDearSam's Iidea of potted plants for the guests.
Recycling idea:
I had my 2 bridesmaids and 2 flower girls dresses made and I used the leftover/extra floral sash fabric to make my birdseed bundles as well as table runners.

@brezofleur- I have been living on pintrests, lol. That's where I got a lot of good ideas.
The problem with using things and then giving them to the guests is 90% of guests are flying in from out of town so having a plant to carry would be hard.
We were thinking for favors- of doing mini pots and just putting flower seeds in them along with a "pledge to the planet" which will be like a recycling or eco friendly thing the person chooses to do for a whole year. That way its easy to transport and eco-friendly. I could always donate fake flowers to nursing homes too :D

Those are very neat looking and different! I think you should go for it!!!

I am not sure if this is considered eco-friendly.... but we used grapes that grow in our yard and made 92 jars of homemade grape jelly for our favors. We doubled eco-friendly labels on the jars as place cards. People would pick up a jar with their name on it, and it would have a label on it with what table they were at. People loved the jelly and thought it was a neat idea!

I am not sure when you wedding will be and what flowers will be in season, but a friend did this for her wedding, she went the farmers market and bought a variety of small flowering pots, at our table there was a small pink rose bush, I took mine home and still have it in my garden. I am sure that anyone living in town would love them, and if you had some left over you could use it in your garden if you have one, or in your family's gardens. She had a casual theme so she wrapped the pots in burlap and tied it with colored ribbon. You could do a pretty floral fabric cut with pinking sheers, sparkle tulle. there are so many options. I think that would be nicer than a paper or silk arrangement. There are even flowering herbs to choose from. LOL in my next life I would LOVE to be a wedding planner.

what a nice touch, we made homemade chocolates and put them in little boxes at each place setting, but I like the idea of having them as table cards, very clever and I bet they looked much prettier on the table leading into the dinning room than those standard paper cards

I have a GREAT picture! I'll see if I can post it! :)

I think it's great that you are planning your wedding this way. Very commendable!

When my oldest daughter got married for the table centerpieces we purchased the small ivy bowls and put a candle inside (50 total - small wedding). Just under the curly top edge we added decorative ribbon (1/4" wide) with a dot of hot glue, and surrounded the bowl on the outside bottom with artificial green ivy. We were really on a budget as my daughter wanted a rather expensive dress (at the time about $800) and we wanted to give her what she wanted. She was stunning on her wedding day and the decorations were very well received. We did use real flowers at the wedding site however and transported everything to the hall for the reception. She had an outside wedding and the day was just perfect. If you can't tell, I did all the planning because she was living over 6 hours away, and had such a wonderful time. She was happy and so were the DH and I!! After, we donated the ivy bowls to a friend for their daughter's wedding. The artificial ivy was reused in our house. We don't like to throw things away either. The real flowers went to the church to stand beside the altar.

So happy to see others considering eco options! I love your table decorations and think they would be beautiful at your reception. Best wishes on your upcoming nuptials. Excited to see pictures if you will share some of that with us. Blessings!!