In addition to viral makeup trends and the latest craze appetizers, LA couples are moving towards more sustainable wedding venues. After all, your lovely celebration can show some appreciation to the environment and still match your expectations!
By choosing more eco-friendly wedding venues, you can honor the planet. And implementing specific eco-conscious wedding ideas can reduce waste, prioritize local vendors, and reject certain practices (fireworks or single-use decor). Let’s explore how to discover green wedding venues and what eco-conscious choices to make for your feast.
The problem with weddings and their environmental impact
Despite weddings’ beautiful interior and image, they are not so harmless. Depending on the event, they use energy excessively and produce much food waste. It’s common for weddings to produce hundreds of pounds of garbage, even though couples might not fully comprehend this statistic.
So, the trend is for couples to aim for more sustainable weddings, and it is an honorable and simpler option than you imagine. Cindy Villaseñor and her intended are one of them, sharing her story about reinventing her wedding with the planet in mind.
Her story showcases different environmentally friendly decisions, from buying a dress and decorations second-hand to purchasing food from local providers. Additionally, it’s part of an inspiring series about how people around the US tackle the climate crisis through more cautious personal decisions.
Where to start? Sustainable wedding planning tips
Eco-friendly wedding inspiration can light up your celebration with visually stunning and meaningful elements. Besides picking sustainable wedding venues, your first decisions should involve avoiding the following common yet environmentally unfriendly practices:
- Avoid choosing single-use items (e.g., disposable tableware, synthetic flowers, confetti) that you might discard after the reception.
- For flowers, value local providers with their produce and services.
- Don’t go overboard with the food selection at your reception. Instead of a buffet, plan plated dinners with multiple options.
- Contact environmentally conscious wedding venues only if they can prove their practices. For example, a claim that they use energy-efficient systems or composting programs.
- Focus on seasonal produce for your selected menu.
- It’s best to find wedding planners, caterers, venues, and other providers that value eco-friendly solutions just as you do. Then, the planet-protecting approach is on by default instead of requiring them to change their standard practices.
Criteria for sustainable wedding locations and venues in Los Angeles
Sustainable wedding venues can appear suitable, use keywords that roll off the tongue, and sound impressive. However, consider the following requirements:
- Venues recognized for their efforts with Green Seal or LEED Certification are highly praised.
- Location efficiency is more about you, meaning you want to settle on locations that don’t require excessive travel.
- Green wedding venues should offer energy-efficient lighting (solar panels), water-saving fixtures, and recycling efforts.
- More rare but incredible additions can be food waste programs that turn leftovers into animal feed, or feature electric car charging stations. So, look for those zero-waste wedding venues that consider this.
- Another incredible bonus for environmentally conscious wedding venues is their support for local providers (local farmers), charities, and nonprofit organizations.
- The more eco-conscious wedding ideas and practices a venue adopts, the better. Don’t limit yourself to renewable energy sources; look for more inclusive options.
Is it more expensive to book sustainable wedding venues?
Prices of indoor or outdoor sustainable wedding venues depend on a few aspects:
- The overall popularity of green wedding venues. With a higher demand, they can cost more.
- The selected wedding date and season are among the most influential elements regarding its final cost. Going off-season is the wise choice for anyone looking for better availability and, of course, prices. Moreover, less popular months should reduce expenses when looking for more affordable, eco-friendly wedding venues (due to their rising popularity).
- The prices can be lower if the venue is city-owned or belongs to a non-profit organization.
- Many venues might need to compensate for the funds they spend on solar-powered infrastructure (or other eco-friendly solutions). Thus, they might use this benefit to feature higher prices. They can also direct the additional funds to future improvements.
- If vendors partner with organic vendors and support local businesses for quality products, the prices will also be higher. After all, you’re paying for top-grade service.
However, sustainable wedding venues and these parties focus more on minimalism and simplicity. Thus, you could limit your guest list, avoid overcharges for drinks and food, and thrift or rent many decorations or necessities.
10 environmentally-conscious wedding venues
Here are some eco-friendly wedding venues in Los Angeles. Many have LEED certification, while others might not, but they still prioritize more green initiatives.
1. Environmental Nature Center
The Environmental Nature Center in Newport Beach ticks most boxes for providing plenty of eco-friendly wedding inspiration—its impressive square footage, native gardens, and LEED Platinum certification. You can trust that it has energy-conserving and water-efficiency systems and uses appropriate recycling means.
2. ENC Tucker Wildlife Sanctuary
The ENC Tucker Wildlife Sanctuary in Modjeska Canyon won’t disappoint couples seeking outdoor, sustainable wedding venues. With nature on its side (quite literally), it provides a glorious picnic area, patio, and amphitheater. You will likely fall in love with each location.
This environmentally conscious location offers opportunities for a lovely walk and stunning photographs. Additionally, it stands out as one of the more affordable, eco-friendly wedding venues (perfect for more budget celebrations).
3. SmogShoppe
Situated in Culver City, SmogShoppe represents an option for a cozy venue, ideally suited to host small or medium-sized weddings. Although urban, it resembles a little oasis and powers itself using 100% solar energy. It includes areas indoors and outdoors, with the style blending greenery with modern architectural elements.
4. Serendipity Garden Weddings
Based on the accounts of previous happy couples, Serendipity Garden Weddings is one venue that can help you get away without buying many additional decorations.
Although the location is not necessarily advertised as an eco-friendly venue, it looks promising. After all, it’s set in a comfortable area surrounded by nature, and its all-inclusive packages emphasize fresh ingredients, likely from local providers. You can always contact the venue and inquire about their sustainability efforts if interested.
5. Valentine
Valentine is a greenhouse venue that is highly focused on supporting green celebrations. In addition to the abundance of plants, it uses special efforts and systems to minimize energy use and aims to take full advantage of California’s warmth. The venue providers also claim to assist in green-wedding planning, promising to introduce their clients to suitable planners and stylists.
6. InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown
InterContinental Los Angeles Downtown counts as one of the sustainable wedding venues. With a LEED Gold Certification for the building, it does much to conserve energy and reduce its footprint. Besides this, the venue aims to limit single-use plastics and prioritize local food selections. It’s a more urban wedding style, featuring gorgeous city backdrops and plenty of modern spaces.
7. South Park Center
South Park Center is one of the city’s green wedding venues, which has showcased great attention to detail and greener celebrations. The providers have LEED certification, proving their dedication and serious efforts towards energy conservation and eco-friendly practices. Of course, happy couples get plenty of shots with the city panorama and can host intimate and grandiose celebrations.
8. Descanso Gardens
Descanso Gardens is a venue that prioritizes different sustainable practices, supports conservation, and simultaneously provides mesmerizing backdrops. Furthermore, the venue must approve all decorations before couples can bring them. Regarding actual practices, they have several projects that nurture nature (growing plants and conserving water).
Overall, many garden-type options are highly likely to be sustainable and prioritize green practices. You can find plenty of garden venues in Los Angeles on Breezit and quickly contact them about their green initiatives.
9. Orcutt Ranch
Orcutt Ranch (West Hills) presents a peaceful setting for your wedding. The most significant advantage of choosing this venue is that it is city-owned. Thus, by hosting your wedding there, you support your local community. Furthermore, it prioritizes sustainable gardening practices, water conservation, and composting.
10. Aquarium of the Pacific
Aquarium of the Pacific is a more unusual option, but it has many benefits as a green wedding venue. First, it has LEED Platinum certification and registers its greenhouse gases. Other perks up its sleeve include rewards for superior climate protection and energy conservation. Given that this is a beautiful waterside venue with an aquarium as its main attraction, it will lead to some impressive wedding photos.
Why hire green wedding planners?
Planning a more planet-loving celebration and implementing eco-conscious planning tips can be challenging.
- Finding wedding venues that care about fostering a safer, sustainable environment requires extensive research (and some back-and-forth with providers).
- Green wedding planners specialize in sustainability, can guide you through the process, and suggest brilliant ideas!
- If a wedding venue is not sustainable by default, your wedding planner can take the lead in negotiating to meet your expectations and requirements.
Of course, if you feel confident about picking sustainable wedding venues (or want to avoid additional expenses), digital wedding planners can offer assistance. Tools like this have become incredibly helpful in finding and booking vendors. Besides that, they also include features for, say, designing invitations or creating seating charts.
What else to do? More eco-friendly wedding inspiration
Simply picking sustainable wedding venues does not necessarily make your wedding green. The truth is that a lot depends on you and your decisions in preparation for the day:
- Consult your significant other even before your engagement about buying a vintage ring or ethical diamonds.
- Instead of planning destination weddings that require air travel, stick closer to home. Even with more local celebrations, encourage carpooling for guests.
- Picking items for your registry can be exciting and make you want to add anything you might need in the future. However, do this responsibly and select only items you can use for a long time.
- Look for venues that also welcome wedding ceremonies and receptions. Then, you can avoid traveling and keep everything in place.
- Even the fashion at your wedding can be more sustainable. Encourage guests to avoid purchasing new clothes, mainly from fast-fashion brands. If you buy clothes, pick local and ethical shops, or use eco-friendly designers.
- Think about reusing anything you buy. Those flower arrangements at your ceremony? Transport them to the venue and give them away to your guests to spread joy longer.
- When picking caterers, look for businesses that partner with local farms and artisan shops. Many bonus points go to services that prioritize environmentally friendly packaging and serving equipment.
What if your wedding is not sustainable by default
Many couples already have their dream wedding location, and it is not one of the sustainable wedding venues. Can you do anything in this situation? Well, yes, you can. We already mentioned negotiating more eco-friendly practices with the venue, and here are some examples and additional ideas:
- Choose to turn off the air conditioner when possible.
- If the weather allows, use the outdoor space in your venue. This will allow you to take advantage of natural light and avoid using additional energy.
- Try to pick venues with almost everything you need in terms of decorations; if you need additional items, rent or thrift them.
- If the venue doesn’t offer anti-waste solutions, try to create a plan yourself. A caterer might help find options for donating leftovers or transporting them to sorting stations.
Conclusion
Your journey to a greener wedding can begin with browsing sustainable wedding venues. However, it doesn’t end there: You’ll need to follow this through for vendor selection and overall activities at your reception. Yet, even if finding more sustainable options takes longer, remember your cause and the benefit of lowering your wedding’s carbon footprint. Furthermore, it may inspire your relatives and friends to do the same, triggering a positive chain reaction!
