Wedding Series: Zero Waste Invitations

Once we had set a date and booked a venue, it was time to create handmade wedding invitations. We recognised that people often feel like they need to keep invitations for some karmic reason. I guess the idea is that the couple has spent time creating the invite so how can you justify recycling it after their big day let alone before. I think there’s also an element of obligations out of well-wishing that leads people to keep them; as though marking the date in your calendar and then getting rid of the invitation could be anything but positive.

Anyway, we wanted to avoid that guilt-induced hoarding so created simple PDFs in Photoshop that we emailed to people. Finalising a guest list is hard enough so simplifying distribution by using a spread sheet and email wedding invites is a quick and satisfying process. This also reduced paper waste and postage. We did print out invites for grandparents, but almost everyone else received theirs as an email attachment.

I used a photo I took of a birch in full Autumn foliage and layered it with our information to look like vellum paper. It was pretty, simple, effective and reflected our personalities. I cropped off the bottom quarter of the page (our contact details and RSVP date) in this image and hid our surname.

Friday’s post will show you how we decorated the venue and kept it simple while focusing on the things that would evoke autumn and Thanksgiving. Want to read more about our wedding planning? Read the introduction here.