South Carolina Sustainable Backyard Wedding // Hannah + Anders

Hannah and Anders. A sweet love. Artistic, trusting, and kind.

It was a lovely backyard wedding that took place at a lovely B&B (because backyard weddings don’t always have to be in YOUR backyard - tip tip) with lovely humans and love all around. Love love love.

Hannah and Anders also share a love for humans and our planet, and as such, decided to host a small business/sustainable event. Since throwing a sustainable wedding is a newer idea, I asked Hannah to assemble a few tips for you and she came back with fire.

So now, I introduce to you, Hannah:

“One of my favorite things I’ve read is, “We don’t need a few people trying to do everything perfectly; we need a lot of people making small changes and doing what they can where they are. That’s when we’ll see a global impact.” This is something I think about regularly and something we tried to apply to our wedding day.

Our goals were affordable, sustainable (well, as sustainable as you can get while still hosting a big party), and to be a support to small businesses. We were so stoked with the outcome.

First, we thrifted a ton! If you can find it at a thrift store, you’re not only saving money but also giving something another life which is a great option to reduce environmental impact. We thrifted our table decor, ceremony decor, and my grandparents found about a hundred vintage plates to hand out as party favors (Ashley popping in here - I LOVED this idea and use our plate favors all the time for cookies or appetizers when we want to step it up for company or just because!)! There were obviously some things we just had to buy new, but we shopped small wherever we could!

Our table runners, my dress, all of our rings, both pairs of shoes, and our send-off confetti was all found on Etsy to support small businesses. Speaking of confetti- we went with a biodegradable, animal friendly, and water soluble option to ensure nothing would stick around at our venue and was also going to be a little more kind to the earth than traditional birdseed or regular confetti. It was super easy to find on Etsy, and we felt good about tossing it all over the place knowing that after a good rain, it would be gone! There’s definitely more we could have done on our wedding day, but even small changes can make a big difference when we’re all working together to bring about change!”