Eco-budget-friendly: Part 1 - In general

This is the first of a series about how you can plan an eco-friendly wedding that won't break the bank.

First, I must dispel the myth that eco-friendly X means tacking an additional cost to X: in fact, I'll argue that if you're paying more, you're not doing it right!

Simplicity is inherently eco-friendly. It usually takes a small army of bakers to make a cake, for instance. Factor in all the gas burned by each of their cars coming in to work that morning/afternoon to make your cake, the heat of the building in which the cake was made, etc and you start seeing some real eco-savings if you decide to make your own cake (or have it made by a friend/family member who will be coming to the wedding anyway).

Instead of going through one of those green wedding sites and ordering orga/loca/etc invitations, buy recycled paper, and have it printed with a refillable ink cartridge.

For favors and centerpieces, buy things that can be reused. Don't buy 100 tiny cardboard boxes, tie them in bits of ribbon, and fill them with individually wrapped candies - all things which create a lot of waste - instead give each of your guest a small packet of seed in a tiny pot, or even a magnet they can use for many years.

Try to reduce the waste of your wedding by doing small things. Order a keg or two of beer for your guests instead of having an open bar where they purchase individual bottles. If possible, use the hall's linens and cloth napkins, which they will clean and re-use. Rent tuxes instead of buying them. Buy a used wedding dress, take care of it, and then resell it on eBay or Craigslist.

Purchase in-season flowers from a greenhouse, where you can pick them up directly at the location. This way you don't need to have them shipped from far away, which will increase your carbon footprint. Even be bold and use living plants and not flowers - purchase small planters and use ivy, or tiny roseplants, and then give your plants away at the end to your guests. That reduces the waste of all those dead flowers.

I will have individual posts on the items mentioned above in the future - namely, how to make your cake in an affordable and timely fashion, making your own reusable favors and centerpieces for largely eco-friendly materials, and so forth. Stay tuned!