Many of us find it easy to make eco-friendly choices day to day, but when it comes to one of the biggest days of our lives – our wedding day – those decisions can feel a little more overwhelming.

In this guide, we’ll round up some of our top tips for choosing a venue for your wedding that meets your eco-friendly needs, while still staying true to your vision for your big day.

Find out if they’re Energy Efficient
In the US, energy efficiency is marked with an Energy Star or ‘ES’ score. Energy Star is a government backed scheme that can help us to discern just how efficient any product or building is. Asking for this rating from your desired venue is probably one the most straightforward ways to determine if it meets your eco-friendly requirements for your wedding day.

Some cities just don’t scream energy efficient, but believe it or not, the city of Las Vegas is
far greener than it first appears. It now runs on entirely renewable energy and claims the
title of the first large city in the US to do so. So, that’s already a huge bonus if you’ve found your dream wedding venue here.

On the other hand, Texas and California are high on the list of states that are less energy efficient – so, if this is where you were hoping to get hitched, you might want to pay a little more attention to those ES ratings and other energy-efficiency clues while scouring for the perfect venue.

Consider the smaller details
Even if you’ve found the most energy-efficient venue for your wedding, you’ll want to be mindful of some of the other reasons that it might not be the most environmentally friendly choice.

For example, you’ll want to avoid a destination that your guests will have to fly into, and instead, opt for a venue that is easily reachable by more eco-friendly forms of transportation

– perhaps by metro, or with the opportunity to carpool. Similarly, it’s good to consider where your decor, entertainment, and catering will be coming from, and shop locally where you can. Ultimately, if you want your wedding to be eco-friendly, it’s a good idea to take control of some of the finer details and make minor tweaks where you have the power and feasibility to do so. Try to avoid a venue that doesn’t allow you as much control, or is limited in the ways in which it can be adapted to become more eco-friendly.

Who does your venue support?
Often, a venue will come with a list of vendors and suppliers that they usually like to work with. Getting hold of this information can be very telling in whether or not your venue is committed to being kind to the environment, so it’s recommended to do some research here if you can.

You’ll also want to think about where your money will be going after you have made payment to hire your venue. Does the venue avoid recycling and seem to be constantly upgrading their decor and tech, in effect producing a lot of waste? Or are they committed to making sustainable choices, or giving back to the community? These are all great questions to ask yourself as you consider whether or not your desired venue is the right choice for you.

Summing up
It is totally possible to bag yourself a wedding venue that is both beautiful and eco-friendly by getting clued-up on the ways that you can spot a venue with sustainable and ethical practices – and above all, by staying true to your requirements and principles while on the hunt.