Today's average wedding costs tens of thousands of dollars and creates a substantial amount of waste and carbon-emissions. With focus on eliminating waste and making weddings more environment friendly brides now have more affordable options and alternatives to help make their big day "green". Sustainable and eco-friendly options are available for wedding dresses, bridal party attire and accessories, decorations, invitations, guest favors, registry items, and many more wedding details.

Below we have created a list of highly preferred wedding vendors who focus on eco-friendly goods and sustainable practices. This eco-friendly wedding vendor guide should help you in finding some of the most trusted and skilled professionals out there who love the planet just as much as you do. Throughout the wedding planning process keep green alternatives in mind and look for simple substitutions where you can. Remember, every little bit matters, so even if you are only able to make a couple adjustments to make your day more "green" it makes a difference!

Eco-Friendly Bridal Fashions

Accessories are small details that can have a big impact on your wedding day! They let the bride express her unique style and personality through something as simple as a hair clip or as grand as a veil. The below vendors not only create beautiful pieces for the bride and her wedding party, but they also use eco-friendly practices that don't harm our environment.

Woodland Secrets - Here you will find the perfect simple and bohemian style wedding accessories, inspired by nature and handcrafted!

The Blooming Fig Tree - They create beautiful wedding hair accessories for brides, bridal parties, and flower girls.

Brilliant Earth - They use recycled precious metals to create timeless and spectacular wedding jewelry while using socially-responsible practices.

Ken & Dana Design - Jewelry handcrafted in NYC, each piece is environmentally friendly, socially responsible, and incredibly unique.

Eco-Friendly Wedding Dresses

Wedding dresses can be very unfriendly to the environment. With all of the dyes, chemicals, discarded materials, and carbon emissions, it's no surprise that this is one of the easiest ways to make a difference. Today there are a handful of affordable and socially responsible options for picking out a wedding dress and supporting better working and environmental conditions at the same time. The demand for eco-friendly wedding dresses is on the rise and many wedding dress designers around the world are now using locally-produced textiles or upcycled and sustainable fabrics to make wedding dresses, as well as local or in-house production, and fair-trade practices. Another option to eliminate waste is to buy a recycled dress, most big cities (and some small cities too!) have bridal boutiques where brides can sell their wedding dress back after they wear it once. There are also many not-for-profit companies who do this to raise funds for social programs and humanitarian causes. We love all of these options!

Something New - Laura uses sustainable materials to design unique wedding attire that is both environmentally friendly and gorgeous.

Wedding Gown Specialists - Eco-friendly wedding gown cleaning and restoration.

Celia Grace - Each Celia Grace wedding dress is skillfully handcrafted using handmade fabrics, natural fibers, or small-batch fabrics to reduce their environmental footprint when possible.

Eco-Friendly Wedding Gifts and Favors

Wedding favors can be one of the easiest adaptions for a greener wedding! Most wedding guests will love joining you in supporting eco-friendly efforts, and what better way than giving out local and handmade goodies as favors? Here are some fabulous favor vendors:

Mere Soap - Handcrafted artisan soaps, crafted in small batches. From Canada.

Hester & Cook - Making gifts from reclaimed materials and giving a portion of all their sales to benefit the Wonderful Life Foundation.

Fair Trade Winds - Providing unique gifts with purpose, Fair Trade Winds works hard to make sure that a significant percentage of your purchase goes directly to the artisans and farmers, all over the world, who created it.

Eco-Friendly Wedding Decorations

You no longer have to compromise beautiful or matching decorations for Earth-friendly alternatives. Now there are enough vendors offering green options for decorating that you will likely find exactly what you are looking for! Popular materials used for Earth-friendly decorations include recycled wood, natural stones, or other organic material, all which add the perfect touch of rustic and bohemian detail to your wedding ceremony or reception. Find decor ideas with any of these vendors:

Flyboy Naturals - All natural, bio-degradable, eco-friendly freeze dried petals. Chemical-free flower petals grown on the family farm in Oregon, USA. We love these for more than just weddings!

Vintage Blooming - Making trendy and stylish wedding goodies from green products!

The Bent Tree Gallery - Rustic decorations made from natural wood materials.

PomAdore - Pom poms from recycled paper!

Lucky Bee Company - Unique and customizable decorations from reclaimed barn wood and upcycled materials!

Eco-Friendly Paper Goods

With all of the recycled paper options out there you will have no problem finding an environmentally-friendly option for your wedding invitations and other paper goods for your ceremony and reception. Many green paper companies use special processing methods that cut down on the chemicals used to cure and treat paper goods. They may also use recycled paper or paper made of recycled materials. How cool is that?! Find fantastic invites with one of these green vendors:

The Find Sac - Handmade wedding invitations.

Red Cloud Boutique - Specializing in unique custom items from custom rubber stamps, custom engraved ring boxes, cake toppers, eco-friendly favors, wood invites, and much more!

Pretty French Things - Eco-friendly french inspired stationary and décor.

Cast Paper Art - Family-owned and operated, Cast Paper Art live and breathe this passion of making eco-conscious paper with style. All products are created entirely in the USA in an Old World style paper mill in St. Louis, Missouri. Seed paper is crafted by hand using recycled fibers and other natural inclusions like flowers, plants and perennial wildflowers seeds.

Unique Custom Products - Custom engraved wood gifts, albums, invitations and more made in the USA.

Forever Fiances - Offering unique eco-chic wedding stationery on its 100% recycled handmade seeded paper.

Rag and Bone - Hand made and bound journals, guestbooks, and albums made in Rhode Island, USA.

Fish Lips Paper Design - Recycled wrapping paper printed using soy based inks. Read about Kimi and all the cool ways she's helping us eliminate waste and be environmentalists with her business!

Looking to have a green wedding and eliminate paper wedding invitations all together? You can create a free wedding website on mywedding.com that will allow you to share details about your big day with friends and family completely digital, you don't have to even worry about receiving RSVPs in the mail - it's all online!

Eco-Friendly Wedding Registry Items

Searching for the perfect gift for your eco-friendly bride? These are some of the popular choices among our green brides who register for the necessities without compromising being green. While searching for the perfect gift pay close attention to where items are made (and where they are shipping from) and what materials are involved. Look into purchasing items that are organic, reusable or natural. You'll be surprised how many options you have for eco-friendly home goods.

Shoo Foo - Here you can find sustainable home linens such as bamboo towels and bedding that reduce toxins in the environment.

Cuddledown - All bedding is made in the USA, comes with a lifetime guarantee and use fabrics that have been tested to be free of harmful chemicals! We love their organic bed sheets!

Enrico - They sale an extensive lineup of tabletop, gourmet, gift and décor items from reclaimed or renewable raw materials and work with suppliers to to help reduce impact on the environment.

Bambeco - This company offers stylish and affordable eco-friendly products for your home.

Fire & Light - They sell stunning handmade glassware made in California.

Sea Stones - They handcraft gifts and home decor from natural stone, based out of New Hampshire.

Be sure to check out some of our below articles on how to plan a green wedding!