Happy Earth Day! I often feel that being an invitation designer is not the most eco-friendly profession in the world. But then I remember the massive corporations that are dumping oil into the waters and I realize we’re all doing the best we can. However, there are definitely some sustainable options and things you can do to help be more eco-friendly when it comes to invitations!

So whether you’re engaged and looking for sustainable wedding invites, or you’re a stationery designer looking to be more sustainable in your business – let’s chat eco-friendly options for invitations.

First up, Sustainable Wedding Invitation Options for YOUR Wedding

Online RSVPs

Doing your RSVPs online will help the environment in a couple ways. First, you don’t need an RSVP envelope. You also won’t need to print your address on that envelope, attach a stamp, and your guests won’t have to actually mail that envelope. All of those things will cut down on waste to some extent. You also could do without an entire RSVP card, and just put the RSVP information on a details card – not every invitation set has one of those but if you do, it’s a good way to combine different pieces. As a bonus, online RSVPs mean you don’t have to keep track of them as they come in, and you’ll get a handy spreadsheet at the end that your wedding vendors will all love.

Double-Sided Printing

Printing on both sides of your invitation cards is a great way to save on paper, and will typically save a little on cost too. While etiquette suggests not to print on the back of the invitation card itself, it’s a great idea to combine things like itineraries, details cards, reception info, or secondary wedding events onto double-sided cards.

eVites

Digital wedding invitations are of course the most sustainable option. If you’re here, though, I’ll assume that you’re not really wanting to go that way – and of course I’m on team #physicalinvites too. Digital invites often cause people to miss some info, and require a lot more follow-up for RSVPs. However, if you are set on a digital invite, you can still make something cohesive with the rest of your wedding and even customize it with a designer. Paperless Post, for instance, allows you to upload a fully custom design, and I know a lot of designers who have made beautiful, custom options for use there. 

Sustainable Options for Wedding Invitation Papers

Papers are not all equal from a sustainability perspective, so there are great options if you want to be more earth-conscious for your wedding invites. Our house paper, as an example, is certified by Preferred by Nature for FSC Standards, and the company offsets 100% of carbon emissions. Cotton papers are generally more sustainably made than other finishes. Handmade paper makers generally use a significant portion of recycled fibers (almost all are also small businesses!). Seed Papers are a fun option too – your guests can literally plant them after the wedding! All of these would lead to a more sustainable wedding invitation. 

Avoid Less-Environmentally-Friendly Materials

A lot of wedding invitations these days use products that aren’t even paper…or aren’t our standard definition of paper. So if you want to be eco-friendly, you’ll want to pay attention to the materials at hand. For instance, acrylic is a popular wedding invitation material that is literally just plastic. It’s absolutely not eco-friendly by any stretch of the word. Printing on fabric or leather could be a more sustainable option, or frankly paper is not bad compared to everything else out there (especially some of the papers mentioned above).

Now, if you’re running a stationery business…what are some ways you can be more sustainable? 

Sustainable Options for Stationery Designers

Repurposing Errors and Extras

It’s almost impossible to avoid a reprint or error every once in a while. These can produce a lot of waste – especially when you print 100+ copies of something before realizing the error. Here are a few ways to repurpose your stationery mess-ups:

• Notecards / Scrap Paper
• Donate to a local School or Child Arts Program
• Make Handmade Paper from Scraps
• Shred and Use as Packing Fill
• Print Tests on Back Side
• Use as Samples (if error is not noticeable!)

Sustainable Options for Packaging

One of my favorite things to do is reuse packaging materials. I ordered some stickers that say “Pardon our Packaging: almost 100% recycled packaging was used to pack your order!”. These go on every box that looks a little janky – but this way I don’t have to pay for fancy boxes, and I don’t have to get rid of all the boxes I get with prints, supplies, etc. Filler of all sorts gets reused (paper, peanuts, bubble wrap, etc.). I also reuse the plastic sleeves that my prints come in. If I was buying these new, I would use a non-plastic option, but since I can reuse the ones from my printers, I just do that.

You can also get paper tape as opposed to plastic tape, and generally just be cognizant of all the extra items you’re using to package your work, as some of them might not be necessary to the client experience or safety of the products. And one that I mentioned above is that I shred a lot of old paper to use as packing filler. 

Recycling

Of course, it’s not always possible to repurpose your items. So make sure you recycle where you can. This often involves separating non-recyclable pieces (wax seals, vellum wraps, plastic sleeves, etc.) from the recyclable ones, so it’s a little more work, but it’s definitely worth it. Bonus: You can compost paper as well – it serves as the “brown” portion that you should use to balance out the “green” portion of your compost pile. So you may not be able to use all of it, but some of it can be used to break down new soil!

Drop-Shipping

It’s not always possible, but if your printers and suppliers offer drop-shipping, this is a more sustainable option. Instead of having things sent to you, just to repackage them and send them to the client, you can ship directly to the client in many cases. My favorite stationery printer, PrintsWell Fulfillment, offers this service. Here’s a video about how drop-shipping with PrintsWell works!

Encouraging More Sustainable Choices

Everything that we said in section one is something you can encourage for your clients. For instance, you can choose not to offer acrylic invitations if you want your business to support more sustainable practices. This can also involve working with more sustainable vendors, or asking your vendors to incorporate some more eco-friendly practices into their business. Your business is a network involving many different aspects, and you can choose to make earth-friendly choices at many turns.

Overall, we are never going to eliminate 100% of waste, especially when our products often involve paper. But there are ways that you can make your wedding invitations more sustainable if you are willing to think outside of the box a little!