Eco-Friendly Wedding Invitation Options

Building sustainable practices into your wedding might be easier than you think, especially when it comes to your wedding stationery.

I want to preface this with something that I hear that always makes the little Tinkerbell paper fairy inside me fall down dead: “they’ll just throw it out anyway”.

My goal as a stationery designer is to create future heirlooms with a personal and handmade touch that are SO beautiful, you and your guests will want to hold onto them as keepsakes from your day. And if not, many standard card stocks are certainly made sustainably and can be recycled. Contrary to popular belief, most paper mills use sustainable forests or post-consumer fibers in the papermaking processes, so they don’t contribute to deforestation. If you want to learn more about this, Sablewood Paper Co. has an incredible blog post about it.

That being said, there are some really easy (and beautiful!) ways that you can incorporate sustainable wedding invitations that are completely tree-free into your stationery plans.

Cotton Paper

Cotton paper is completely tree-free. The house paper that I use is 100% cotton, made from reclaimed cotton fibres that would have otherwise been wasted from the garment industry. I love this paper, and use it for the majority of my stationery projects. It has a super lovely, thick and luxurious feel to it, and prints both digitally or in letterpress absolutely beautifully. It looks great with a straight edge (the invitation card on the left in the above image) but it also looks amazing with a hand-torn deckled edge (the details card on the right). The above designs feature the Bailey Suite from my Semi-Custom Invitation Collection.

Handmade Paper

Handmade paper, like the name might suggest, is indeed made by hand by individual artisans in small batches. They are often made with naturally found fibres like cotton rag or other fibres that are tree-free. Depending on the artisan, they may also use natural elements like berries and botanicals to dye their papers. Handmade paper has a very romantic and organic look and feel to it — from texture to the natural deckled edge. Each piece is unique and there can be some slight variances in colour and shape from one piece to the next.

Seed Paper

While the above two options are recyclable, and produced sustainably, seed paper takes it a step further and gives back to the environment. This paper is made with post-consumer materials (no trees) too, but is also embedded with seeds!

When the paper is planted in soil, the seeds grow into flowers, herbs or vegetables, and the paper composts away leaving zero waste. Yes, you hear that right — you can literally plant your invitations in soil and they will grow into beautiful plants. Some clients like to add a little note to their seed paper stationery with instructions on how to plant and grow the seeds, which I think is such a cute idea. It also helps that the aesthetic is truly gorgeous as shown in the image above (featuring the Alex Suite from my Collection) — and while the neutral colours look organic and gorgeous, natural dies allow for a rainbow of colour options!

Other Paper Options

There are certainly other eco-friendly paper options out there as well, made fully or partially from natural materials such as wheat, grass, and even cannabis!

If you’re interested in eco-friendly and sustainable wedding invitation options, reach out for your free phone or video consultation! I ship wedding invitations worldwide and would be happy to chat about my sustainable shipping methods.

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