Eco-Friendly Wedding Thank You Cards!

Welcome back for another wedding post!  As you know, Jason and I felt it was important to have an eco-friendly wedding.  The fact that all of the food eaten was vegan helped a lot in that area of course, but we wanted to do our best to make the other aspects of our wedding equally green!  Which brings us to the topic of paper products at weddings.  

We all know how much paper goes into a wedding... save the dates (which we did digitally to save paper)... invitations (which we also did by email to save paper)... menus (which we skipped)... signs (which I DIYed so we could reuse the frames)... programs (which we also skipped)... and so much more.

But what about thank you cards?  Something about thanking our guests for participation in the most special day of our lives by email seemed inappropriate.  And so, I went in search of eco-friendly options.

That's where Artifact Uprising comes in.  Their cards are customizable, gorgeous, well-priced, and made entirely of recycled paper!  Win-win-win, if you ask me.

Full disclosure, Artifact Uprising reached out to me and offered a gift card to purchase my wedding thank you cards from them.  All opinions are still (as always) my own!

The process of designing and ordering the cards was really easy.  The hardest part was deciding which of Mark and Melanie (our awesome photographers from Karmel Kreative)'s beautiful shots should be on the front! (See some of the others here!!)

We ended up going with this one, because I mean, look at it.  It's incredible!

I was so excited when I got them in the mail!

We went with the untreated brown envelopes to use fewer resources than it we would have had we purchased bleached envelopes.

If you take anything at all from this post, please let it be to start your thank you cards as soon as you get home.  If you're like us and you want to use photos from your wedding in the shots, you'll have to wait to get full resolution files from your photographer to order your cards.  But even if this is the case, get working on them as soon as you can.  Our lives got crazy busy right after the wedding and we ended up putting it off for far too long.  It's much better to do it right away and get it over with!

I got really nervous to start because I hate my handwriting.  I apologize, friends and family, if your card is illegible!  At least half of you will be getting cards written by my husband, who has much nicer handwriting than me.

So if you're looking for an eco-friendly card option this holiday, for a loved one's birthday, or for your wedding, check out Artifact Uprising!  I'll definitely be ordering from them again if we ever need nice custom cards.

What are your tips for throwing an eco-friendly wedding?  Let us know in the comments below!

Until next time,

This Is What A Vegan Wedding Looks Like

It's been one month and one day since we said 'I do'!  Here's a sneak peek into our special day...

Before we get into it I want to take a moment to thank our incredible photographers, Mark Shannon and Melanie Geroche from Karmel Kreative!  

You spend so much of your wedding day with your photographers, and rely on them to capture all of the beautiful moments you never want to forget.  Not only is the quality of Mark and Melanie's photography incredible, but they are just so fun to be around!  I couldn't imagine having had anyone else document our special day.  If you live in the Toronto area I wholeheartedly recommend them to you for engagement or wedding photography!

Check Karmel Kreative out on their website, on facebook, and on twitter!

Without further ado, here is an sneak peek into our vegan and eco-friendly wedding, as shot by Karmel Kreative...

My soon-to be husband gets ready with his best man, Kevin.  

My man has the best smile, doesn't he?

Here's my (now) husband Jason, all ready to go for the ceremony wearing a custom vegan bow-tie!

Here I am, all dolled up and ready to go in my Hayley Paige wedding gown, which is 100% vegan!

Click here to learn why silk isn't vegan and why you should avoid it!

Here's a close up of my vegan and cruelty-free makeup look, which I did myself.

I wanted to keep it very natural and pretty, almost like I wasn't wearing makeup at all.  Let me know if you're interested in a tutorial for my bridal look using 100% vegan and cruelty-free products!

I also did my own hair - in gentle curls with the top pinned back to keep it out of my face.

Here we are, finally husband and wife! 

This forest was the most beautiful setting imaginable for our vegan and eco-friendly wedding!

We had both invisioned a forest as the backdrop to our big day, and couldn't have picked a more gorgeous place.  Here we are taking a moment just the two of us after the ceremony... 

...and walking hand in hand as husband and wife!

We did a really fun mini photoshoot in our Rolls Royce along with our wedding party!  Here's one of just Jason and I (with myself at the wheel, of course!)

I absolutely ADORE this shot!  It is such a magical moment, captured forever...

I love how this shot features my 'something old' and 'something borrowed' - my veil!  It was my mother's, worn for her wedding in 1975.  Not only that, but it was hand made by my grandmother!  I simply removed the headband it has initially been attached to and sewed it onto a comb.  A super easy DIY which brought life back to a 40 year old piece.

Here we are just hanging out in the forest as husband and wife...

It was so fun frolicking through the forest with Mark and Melanie getting lots of cute shots!

Jason and I are both musicians and knew music would be an important part of our day.  What better way to incorporate our love of performing than by being our own wedding band?

My husband was on guitar and I was on bass, with Jason's best man Kevin on second guitar and our friend Joash on drums.  Jason was so thoughtful and made sure to order matching bowties for himself, Kevin, and Joash as well as getting me a custom bass strap from the same fabric so we could all go together as a band!

My husband and I shared the vocals, but I love this shot with Jason singing to me as I rock it out on bass.

I'm starting to get a bit dishevelled at this point, but I didn't mind.  Anyway, performing in a wedding dress is no easy task!

---

I hope you enjoyed this look into our special day as much as I did!

I will be sure to share more shots when we get them.  (I can't wait to see them!!)

If you are planning your own wedding, check out last week's post chock full of tips for pulling off a vegan and eco-friendly day!

Don't forget to let me know if you have any questions or requests for videos or blog posts on any aspect of our wedding day.  I'm happy to oblige!

Until next time,