Happy Earth Day, everyone! Today is the day that we reflect on our planet and many of the environmental initiatives that make Earth a better place. While many of us have embraced the concept of “reduce, reuse, recycle” and are doing our part, there’s other events in our lives where we can improve our environmental impact, such as a wedding! Here are three great tips for making your big day a lot more environmentally friendly. Remember, it’s all about making a difference and all the little things definitely add up to big differences in the world.

Local Travel – Cut Down on Drive Times

Instead of forcing your guests to drive all around town, burning up gas and being extremely inefficient with the travel plans, try to have a centrally located place to have your ceremony and reception. If it’s all in the same place, then the travelling people have to do is minimized and there’s less environmental impact. An alternative to this would be to hire environmentally friendly shuttle services – there are many that run off of clean gas or even companies that have fleets of hybrid vehicles. In the city of Denver (it might be the whole state of Colorado), all the cabs are hybrids with the majority being the popular Prius cars that get amazing mileage and do minimal environmental impact for emissions and gas consumption.

Hiring the Right Florist

Just like many of us like to buy at growers direct markets or even at the local Sunday farmers market, there are florists that only buy from local growers or just grow their own flowers. Buying organically grown local flowers is the way to go, although this option might be a little hard for some people if there are no options around where you live. You can also be smart about the candles you buy, with the best being soy-based or beeswax-based ones. Buying locally made products that are organically made means less pesticides and no shipping (giant trucks driving everywhere).

Locally Grown Foods

The next step is to find a caterer that specializes in locally grown, organic ingredients. Many chefs and catering companies will scoff at the idea, but the fact is that many environmentally minded people (and towns) are headed in this direction. The days of over-stuffing your face with greasy foods at weddings is over. People have more sophisticated pallets and hiring a catering company that delivers organic food and maintains a good environmental standing is a big boost to the environmental cause.