February 16, 2022

Sustainable services in the wedding industry don’t always jump out at you with a quick google search. This is why we chose to highlight two event related services that you can consider for your wedding. Whether it starts with your invitations, or a decision on where your flowers go after the wedding, there are plenty of eco-friendly services that you can choose from to elevate the sustainability of your big day! 

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Urban Canopy

Meagan, the Events Manager at the Urban Canopy, spoke with us about their services. Their warehouse is located in Pilsen and they have a farm in Englewood.

Urban Canopy’s Event Composting service gives wedding couples the opportunity to host a more sustainable event by collecting their unwanted food scraps and distributing them to local processing sites. By supporting our program, couples are helping our Englewood farm make fertile soil and supporting the creation of local jobs needed to create a more sustainable ecosystem.

-Compost Club diverts food scraps from ending up in landfills
-Compostable food scraps are converted into healthy soil
-Reclaiming nutrients from the waste stream can eliminate the need for petroleum-based fertilizers
-Local compost allows us to grow local produce more sustainably

What They Do:

We supply, deliver and set up large containers the day of your event. These containers look like standard, green trash bins and are equipped with compostable liners.

We will supply signage listing what is / is not compostable and attach these to the lids of the containers.

When the event has concluded, we will transport the containers to one of our processing sites.

We also have a variety of compostable utensils, plates, cups and other common party supplies available for purchase.

We provide staffing at the event to monitor the compost bins and assure compliance with the waste sorting.

Here is a link to our Event Composting Page on our website!

More info about The Urban Canopy 

The Urban Canopy is working to create a more sustainable, nutritious and equitable local food cycle from production to distribution to waste.

Founded in 2011, The Urban Canopy is pioneering the local food cycle to create a more sustainable and equitable food system in Chicago. We are growers, distributors, composters and community members who seek to positively impact our city’s environment, people’s health, and local economy. We strive to make healthy produce accessible to all, reduce the miles fresh food travels, keep food waste out of landfills, and create and maintain local jobs.

We adhere to “B-Corp” principles with a triple bottom line of “People, Planet, & Profit.

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Greenvelope

Greenvelope unites modern, sophisticated designs and integrated event management tools through eco-friendly paperless invitations. Each invitation mimics the traditional paper variety—think textures, di-cut edges, and gold foil. In addition to the hand-picked and completely customizable designs, what hosts and couples love most about Greenvelope.com is the built-in RSVP tracking, survey questions, guest messaging, Google calendar links and more, that make event planning effortless. 

Have you seen a shift from standard invitations to online invitations in the wedding industry?

“If what we’ve been experiencing at Greenvelope is a reflection of the industry as a whole, we are certainly seeing more couples and event planners opt for online invitations. Just last year, there were over 50,000 couples who used Greenvelope for their wedding, and so far this year is easily on track to surpass that. There are plenty of benefits to online invitations that could be causing this shift – ease, flexibility, accessibility, affordability, to name a few – but one that we hear all the time is the desire to make weddings and events more sustainable. Combined with our other offerings, like baby shower invites and holiday cards, couples who used Greenvelope last year helped us save over 320,000 pounds of paper.”
Alex Kelsey – Director of Marketing

Benefits of Paperless Stationery in Event Planning

Paperless stationery offers modern event planners and couples some clear advantages. In addition to being a greener alternative, every aspect of Greenvelope’s invitations are customizable. No detail goes unnoticed, even down to the digital stamps and envelope liners. Greenvelope also provides key event features, including RSVP tracking, survey questions, built-in messaging, follow-up capabilities, address collection, and more. Developed with simplicity in mind, the RSVP tracking feature allows hosts to effortlessly secure an accurate guest count, assign groups, even collect meal preferences —all in one place. 

Greenvelope’s service offers event hosts a modern, eco-friendly communication option without sacrificing elegance or quality. With a full library of beautiful, hand-picked designs from stationers around the globe, there is something for every kind of event – from black-tie galas and charitable fundraisers to luxe wedding celebrations and intimate bridal showers. 

What would you suggest to a bride who wants to have an invitation suite for the styling photos, but is still open to online invites?

“We know that many couples still may want those styled photos or a keepsake to frame even if they are in love with the tracking and flexibility of online invites. That is why we offer the option to download a hi-res version of your design, perfect for printing a few copies for photos and keepsakes. Also worth noting, that all wedding invitations on Greenvelope come with a matching suite, so you can have the coordinating save the date, invitation, and thank you note. We also love a little mix-and-match moment though, so the full suites are available but totally optional.”
Alex Kelsey – Director of Marketing

Commitment to Sustainability

Founded with the mission to create digital invitations that would provide all of the elegance of traditional invites without any of the waste, helping event hosts be more eco-friendly is at the core of what we do.

Through partnerships with the National Forest Foundation, Mountains to Sound, the National Park Foundation, and 1% for the Planet, our online invitations will continue to do more than just save paper.

Ring Bear

“Ring Bear is the first carbon neutral assortment of men’s wedding bands and gifts. We’re certified carbon free and also work to reduce our emissions through the materials we source.”

Alison Grossman
Owner | Senior Event Specialist

Why They Use Recycled Gold

One way RING BEAR is able to do reduce our carbon footprint is by utilizing recycled Gold & Platinum in our collection of men’s wedding bands. As recycled metals is a newer concept that wasn’t available to previous generations we’ve broken down some of the common questions couples ask us when researching his wedding band.

If you have other suggestions on green event related services, let us know in the comments! We are happy to add more content to help our readers think of sustainable ideas.

-Ohana Events