In a few short weeks, my fiance and I will be welcoming a large number of guests to our wedding. Well, it's high time we decided how to serve food to our guests, and we're having trouble finding a happy place between eco-friendly and budget-friendly. Which is why we need your help.
Before we present all the options, we know that buying more than 100 reusable glass plates and flatware to go with it is likely the greenest option, especially if we shopped vintage. But hear us out: the budget is set, and it's a tight one, and we are already asking friends and family to pitch in to help clean up after the party (meaning adding the additional task of collecting and washing dishes doesn't sound too appealing).
So we're trying to find a happy medium. That's where you come in. Help us choose the best option: one that pleases both the eco-friendly and the budget-friendly.
Option 1: Reusable plates. See above. Potentially, we could do a mad rush and collect 100 plates (or more) at thrift shops, wash them, and get them ready for the party in 3 weeks. Not our favorite option, but it could be plausible. Throw in the fact that there's potential to resell plates on Craigslist following the wedding, and it sounds pretty dang good. Except for the washing-after-the-party part.
Option 2: We can hardly entertain the idea without gagging a little, but will throw it out there anyway: plastics. The green upside? They can be recycled. The green downside? Oh, the petroleum... among other things. Plastics are cheap, though, so that's why they've even made an appearance on the list. Refer to "tiny budget" above.
Option 3: Compostable plates, cups, and cutlery made from cane sugar fibers or corn. Initially we thought this would be our first choice, and while it's more eco than plastic, the items are only "compostable" in the right conditions (meaning, it's a little bit pointless to have them end up in a landfill). Composting is not available on-site, and we'd have to encourage guests to remove meat products before tossing their plates into the composting area, so it might be one of those "all for naught" situations. Or are we totally off? We also have heard from folks who've used these that they don't compost too readily in the average backyard bin.
Option 4: Renting. File this one under environmentally friendly, but far too expensive.
You can probably tell that we'd prefer to buy reusable plates with the intention to sell after the wedding (and have pretty much talked ourselves into that being the greenest option), but it may not be feasible, having waited this long to come up with that marvelous green idea.
What's our second-best green option? Or, is there an option we've left out (aside from asking guests to bring their own dishes!)?
Related Links:
• How Owning 160 White Plates Has Saved Us Money
• Good Question: Green Wedding Favors?
• Couple Pays for Wedding by Recycling Cans
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Any chance BYO is an option? This would only work with a very casual, funky sort of wedding, and the couple would have to be ok with the inevitable aesthetic mish-mash, but it would certainly be green.
I've been to a beautiful, casual outdoor wedding where folks were asked to BYO cup, plate, and cutlery, and it worked fine. There were even cleaning stations set up afterward - a trash can to scrape trash, a giant bucket of warm soapy water for scrubbing, another bucket with clean(er) water for rinsing, and a pile of clean, dry towels to clean your gear afterward. You may need to buy/borrow 20-25 sets for guests who forget or can't bring, due to travel issues, etc.
I'm sure with some creativity, you could even make it stylish!
I think renting is the greenest option (and easiest). I think the plates for our wedding were like 60 cents a piece. Also you would not have to wash them. Washing yourself would likely be less green than the rental company washing them in an industrial washer. It's really something you don't want to stress about on your wedding day. I would also recommend spending a little extra and having the company pick them up after the event. There is nothing worse than seeing a bride in her wedding gown lugging crates of dishes out to her car...I've seen it.
Get a caterer. Set your budget, call around and find one to work within it. I think it's the greenest option: the caterer will use plates and utensils that have been used before and will be used again, these can be cleaned by the caterer more efficently than you could, and there's no mess to deal with (on your wedding day!).
My wedding was at my in-laws house, and we looked into every option for food i.e. doing it all ourselves, asking people to contribute, buying plates, etc. and we went with a caterer. I am very happy with that decision.
We did do all our own booze, though, and bought 100 re-usable plastic wine glasses (the event was outside, some areas with concrete, so we didn't want glass) and over a year later I have these 100 plastic wine glasses in my crawl space. I feel like this purchase was the most wasteful, non-green thing about the event.
I'm very surprised renting is more expensive than buying, even second-hand!
Have you been looking for rentals that are specifically NOT for weddings? Anything with the dreaded "wedding" title on it seems to get instantly and exponentially raised in price.
You could also try some nontraditional sources, like calling around to local Lion's Clubs, small party halls, etc. If they're not in use on your date they may be willing to rent out a bunch of plates at far cheaper prices.
Buying a bunch of mismatched vintage plates sounds utterly charming, but with only three weeks to go, that's really going to be a stretch.
If you do decide to go that way, try to think outside the box for washing - don't do it in your sink! If you've got an outside space, consider using a big plastic tub and your garden hose.
I'm not sure where you are having your reception, so if it isn't at an "event" place, this obviously won't work... but ask the reception site if they have any dishes that you can use for an additional fee. Even if they're not catering it, they often have things available for an extra fee. Or they may be able to give you a few good ideas on where to go to find an affordable option, based on what they've seen other wedding parties do.
Where are you located? It may make a difference what you can get, and could help people make better suggestions!
We got married this summer and rented our dishes. It came out to around under $2 per person for everything - dinner plates, wine & water glasses, cutlery, etc. It was around $0.30 per item. I'm not sure that you could buy & resell for less than that.
Failing that, you can buy compostable plates and bamboo disposable cutlery. Costco here, (Montreal), even has compostable glasses, (or so they say), made out of corn.
I'm in favor of the composting option.
I'm not too familiar with what exactly "compostable" dinnerware is made of, but I imagine it's a high carbon material. The trick to composting this would be balancing it out with nitrogen, which you can get from the food scraps, grass clippings, coffee grounds, etc.
Meat IS compostable. The trick to preventing odors and not attracting pests is to have it properly covered with a carbon cover material. If possible, having all of the discards run through some kind of shredder would expedite the composting process.
Alright, did some quick Google Fu and found that the plates will typically be made from bagasse, which should compost readily. It's a "brown" (carbon) so the food scraps should balance it out. Shredding up the plates will probably be beneficial for ensuring speedy decomposition.
Cups will probably be made out of PLA which will probably take quite a while to break down, so if you put it in a home bin, you'll have to pick it out and put it in the next batch of compost for a few cycles. Again, shredding it up will probably expedite the process.
You could also buy new plates (Ikea has them cheap cheap) and avoid washing them the first go-round, or at least get away with rinsing and so save water and heat. Then you could sell them all as a batch online. Lather rinse repeat, and they'll all match. My friend actually made money doing that. She sent batches of dishes home with pre-designated guests who put them through their dishwashers and returned them as a wedding gift.
If you're having an event in West Michigan Debby Does Dishes (debbydoesdishes.com) is the greenest way to serve wedding food! Vintage dishes with an eclectic feel. She delivers, sets up, clears and washes. Not only is it green, but it's convenient. Do you really want to buy dishes? Who's going to set them up, clear them and wash them? Not your caterer. And, plastic is a crime against nature!
We bought 100 small appetizer plates (CB2), 50 forks (Target), almost 50 wine glasses (Target) and then rented champagne glasses. It worked out great, and we ended up keeping everything we bought to use for future entertaining.
As far as cleaning them, it was no big deal. We hired two helpers for the event (which was at our condo), and they did most of the cleanup.
I went through this exact scenario! Our wedding is in Austin (read: place where everything has a huge markup) and rentals are outrageous. But its a small wedding and I hate to have anyone do anything but enjoy themselves or leave any work for my family (taking plates to compost facility). My fiance and I don't live in Texas and we'll be leaving the next day. So we are going with a caterer and a rental company and I second guess myself everyday! It really kind of sucks.
I don't know if you're members of a church or community group that has servingware, but my husband and I borrowed plates silverware, etc. from the church that a friend of ours pastors. We just made a $100 donation to the church for them, which was far cheaper than going through a rental company.