How to Have an Eco-Friendly Wedding on Maui

Having an eco-conscious approach to your wedding is a sweet way to express your love for each other and the environment. Sustainable choices, no matter the size, all contribute to making a positive impact on the environment. So if you're wondering exactly how you can have an eco-friendly wedding on Maui, you've come to the right place! We have 10 eco-friendly wedding ideas that you can choose to incorporate on your big day!

1. Combine your invitation and save the dates

Instead of sending seperate invitations and save the dates to your guests, combine them into one! That way you can use recycled paper and sustainable printing to create them while also reducing paper waste and saving on printing and postage.

Another option is to go completely paperless! Set up a wedding website where your guests can RSVP and receive their invitations via email. They're hassle free and they're easy to track responses as well as organize your guest list!

2. Use eco-friendly decorations

Your wedding decorations set the aura for your wedding day. Whether you're going for a vibrant, colorful vibe or a neutral vibe, it's important your wedding decorations truly reflect your personalities. When planning an eco-friendly wedding, you might worry about the uniqueness of your decorations being taken away. But it doesn't have to be!

Instead of using decorations like balloons, consider using flowers and foliage for your arch, centerpieces, bouquets and aisle markers. Not only do they avoid plastic pollution but there are countless types of flowers and foliage that will match the aura you're going for! By using flowers and foliage, you can experiment with different textures and arrangements that you just can't do with balloons.

3. Use locally sourced flowers

Flowers are one of the most beautiful decorations to include on your wedding day. They're romantic, they add texture and are the perfect symbol for growing together as a newly married couple.

If you want to include all the beautiful florals for your eco-friendly wedding, choose flowers that are grown locally. This helps support local florists on Maui while reducing the carbon footprint of the flowers from transportation. Maui has a diverse range of gorgeous blooms that can add a color and life to your wedding day, so you'll have no trouble finding the perfect ones!

To include the floral symbol of aloha on your eco-friendly wedding, we also handmake tī leaf leis and lei po’os! When you order handmade leis with us, we coordinate the colors to match your wedding theme and hand-deliver them to you on the day!

4. Use eco-friendly tableware

When it comes to a wonderful celebration like your wedding day, you're probably going to serve food to many guests. It's common to choose single-use plastic items for a large quantity of tableware. But this leads to tons of plastic waste ending up in landfills and taking tens of thousands of years to biodegrade. If you're having an eco-friendly wedding reception, sustainable tableware could be something to consider.

Eco-friendly tableware made from bamboo, birchwood, sugarcane or recycled paper are all amazing options. They have a sleek look, they're compostable and they help reduce single-use plastic waste.

5. Donate leftover food

Making sure there's enough food for all your guests on your wedding day can sometimes lead to too much food being leftover. Food waste hugely contributes to greenhouse gases and global warming, so instead of throwing the leftovers away, consider donating them. There are several shelters and food banks on Maui that you can contact to see if they accept donations. It won't only reduce food waste, but it will help a lot for those in need.

6. Use Sustainable Transportation

Using sustainable transportation for your eco-friendly wedding helps to decrease carbon emissions and air pollution. You can make a grand entrance and exit using an electric car or bike and encourage your guests to carpool too! You can even make your guests' journey exciting by hiring a shuttle or limousine for them to start the party early before arriving to your wedding ceremony!

7. Use reusable cloth napkins and tablecloths

Disposable cloth napkins and tablecloths are usually made from cotton and polyester. While cotton uses harmful pesticides that pollute ecosystems, polyester is made a kind of non-biodegradable plastic. So swapping disposable cloth napkins and tablecloths with reusable ones helps to minimize waste.

The best thing about having reusable napkins and tablecloths is that they last long, allowing you to wash and reusable them for other events in the future.

8. Provide reusable or biodegradable cups and straws

Wedding favors are a sweet way to show your guests how much you appreciate them for witnessing and celebrating your love. Popular wedding favors include coasters, chocolate and various other knickknacks.

But for your eco-friendly wedding, you can also gift sustainable wedding favors such as reusable or biodegradable cups and straws. They're always something that your guests will use and it's a great way to reduce single-use plastic waste. Include bamboo, silicone, sugarcane or metal cups and straws in your wedding favours so your guests can take them home and reuse them.

9. Avoid single-use plastics

Try to avoid using single-use plastic throughout your wedding day. This includes plastic cups, cutlery, bottles and decorations. There will definitely be an eco-friendly and sustainable alternative that you can find instead!

10. Use natural confetti or flower petals

Your wedding exit is the moment where you head out to begin your lives officially as a married couple. Being surrounded by your friends and family celebrating your next chapter and showering you with confetti as you exit is such a joyful moment.

For an eco-friendly wedding, you can swap the classic plastic confetti with natural confetti, flower petals or leaves. To really personalize your eco-friendly confetti, you can use shaped hole punches to create heart-shaped or star-shaped confetti from flower petals or leaves. After use, they can easily be composted!

Having your eco-friendly wedding on Maui?

We love seeing eco-friendly weddings (we've even incorporated a few sustainable wedding ideas into our own wedding) so we would be honored to capture your big day! Reach out to us via our contact form and we'll be in touch. We can't wait to hear from you!