Your Wedding Reception

According to manners guru Emily Post, e-mailing your wedding invitations is bad form, but there are ways to scale down paper invites.  First of all, ditch the inner envelope and the paper lining. (Some relatives may tell you that this is tacky, but isn't deforestation so much worse?) Instead of enclosing a map and hotel information in every invitation, post all that info on a wedding website — which you can create for free at TheWeddingChannel.com or TheKnot.com — and send print-outs only to guests with limited computer access.

And rather than including a separate card with the reception information, try to fit a few extra lines of text on the wedding invitation itself. Instead of sending a reply card with a separate envelope, consider sending a pre-stamped reply postcard. Better yet, eliminate the need for an outer envelope by sending a one-piece invitation with a perforated reply card from Seal and Send. This company offers 100% recycled paper in crème and white, and their long and lean format has plenty of text space. Guests can reply by tearing off the reply card and dropping it back in the mail.

For a more romantic spin, Lunalux offers custom-made letterpress-printed invitations on recycled paper with lower-waste options — like reply postcards. Design-minded couples will fall head over heels with Minted's mod graphics, which are printed on hand-made 100-percent recycled cotton paper. Flower children might prefer the handmade "plantable seed paper" from Botanical Paperworks. Their tree-free paper is made with a base of cotton fiber or post-consumer waste and embedded with North American wildflower seeds — so the invitations can be planted after the big day. Whatever you choose, don't forget to order some matching thank you notes, so they'll be ready and waiting when you return from your honeymoon.

Transportation

Most weddings involve hundreds guests from near and far traveling from hotels, to the ceremony, to the reception site, and finally, back to the hotel and home again — producing some serious CO2 emissions along the way.  But before you un-invite your faraway family and friends, consider some creative ways to decrease their carbon footprint — and make transportation a breeze for your guests.

Investigate the option of holding your wedding ceremony and reception at hotel with an event space — or at a reception site with a hotel in walking distance — to decrease automotive travel and make the event less stressful for out-of-towners.  You can even use your wedding website to suggest public transportation options from the local airport to the hotel.

If your ceremony is set to be held at a separate site from your reception, think about blocking off a set of rooms in a centrally located hotel, and employ a bus service to transport guests from place to place. This carpooling tactic is not only eco-friendly — it also keeps your guests safe from getting behind the wheel after a boozy celebration. For a smaller wedding with multiple locations that are just slightly beyond walking distance, consider hiring a fleet of pedi-cabs, emission-free bike taxis that are powered by strong-legged cyclists. (Just make sure none of the drivers peddle away with your bridesmaids!)