Can Wedding Planning be Environmentally Friendly?

Sorry for the late posting, I attended my first wedding show on Sunday and my head is still spinning! I left the wedding show full of sweets, cake, cupcakes, cookies and more. Then it came time to look in all the bags full of hundreds of pamphlets, brochures and more. Why am I even more confused about what services and venues I should choose?

When Mike proposed, I dreamed of a beautiful wedding day, if only I could remove the stress of all the planning.

This blog isn’t about a plan of attack for the next wedding show or how to plan a wedding, because I am definitely not one to give advice in that respect. However when I was at this wedding show, I noticed it was all about entering contests.  Let’s be honest, it’s more about getting your name on a mailing list. Remember, as I mentioned in my last post, there is nothing wrong with getting on these mailing lists because that is how you can take advantage of promo pricing and discounts.

My complaint: Why can’t they do it without the big waste of paper and time?

For every contest, you enter your name and email address on a piece of paper, someone from that booth then takes all of that information and enters it into their database. Instead they can skip a step, and have some sort of computer or tablet set up so they we can enter our information right into their system… Saving paper and time (win, win!). Plus, rather than leaving the show with hundreds of pieces of paper and business cards, they can send you  promotional email that day detailing the services and products they offer and any specials for wedding show attendees.

Maybe it’s a pipe dream or a not so distant reality, all I can do is comment to the business owners and let them know what my thoughts are and hope there is improvement for next time.  I can’t imagine I am the only bride-to-be that went into the bridal show all wide-eyed and bushy tailed and came out a big ball of stress with a bunch of papers to recycle.

If any of you have been through this experience before and have any ideas for having a more environmentally friendly event or advice for Mike and I as we plan our Big Day, just leave us a comment.