Vegan Wedding Planning Series: How to Plan a Vegan Wedding

When it came to planning our vegan wedding, it was so important to me and my now husband that we stayed true to our morals and values while not being overly pushy about our views. We’ve encountered far too many conversations with friends and family attacking us for our lifestyle, and we wanted our wedding day to be the one day that avoided those conversations! Veganism can still be a touchy subject for many, and the last thing we wanted was to have anyone’s opinions take away from the joy of our day.

Thankfully, we found that our approach (not overly shoving veganism down anyone’s throats or bringing too much obvious attention to the fact that we hosted a vegan wedding) allowed us to be fully present, excited, and overjoyed about our big day and planning decisions!

Your wedding day – regardless of your beliefs – should be meaningful to you two as a couple and your guests should love and support you regardless of the meal in front of them. You do not need to compromise your values to make anyone else more comfortable. Should the celebration potentially pose a problem for them, they have the choice to abstain from joining.

Let’s Start Planning!

An eco-friendly, green-conscious celebration can and will be an absolute dream with some thoughtful planning along the way! Here are my top planning tips to help you craft a stunning vegan wedding:

Your Venue

If you can find a venue that is willing to cater for a vegan event, what a dream! This is the biggest tone-setter for your event. Many vegans opt for a nature-focused venue like a national park, historic grounds, vegetable or flower farms, Airbnbs, or backyards. If you opt for a nontraditional venue, please consider a wedding planner with experience in vegan weddings to help bring the vision to life!

Menu

It goes without saying that amazing vegan food is going to be a make-or-break for guests’ opinions on the event, but any food at any wedding has this affect! Guests care deeply about great wedding meals, and making them vegan means more pressure and more eyes on the food (sad but true)! It was a huge focus for us to impress our guests with a delicious array of what vegan food could be to help create a memorable experience! Although it’s not our job to debunk misconceptions about veganism, the fastest way to anyone’s heart is through their stomach! Work carefully with your caterer to craft a menu full of variety and flavor to appeal to many taste preferences. Consider locally sourced and in-season ingredients to reduce the carbon footprint your wedding makes! Don’t forget vegan desserts (cake and little bites) and coffee with a dairy-free milk selection. If you’ve been vegan for a long time, you know how unsatisfying it is to receive just a bowl of fruit at the end of the dinner – wow your guests with a delicious cake or dessert spread they’ll rave about!

Eco-friendly invitations

To reduce paper waste and costs, consider digital invitations and RSVPs! But if you’re anything like me, you love a great paper invite! Opt for recycled paper, seed paper, tree-free paper, and eco-conscious choices to help reduce waste. You can find a breakdown on vegan wedding invitation tips here!

Decide if and how you want to inform your guests

You are in no way obligated to inform your guests about your menu choices if you don’t want to. We found that calling more attention to the vegan aspects would just mean more questions/unwarranted commentary/opinions, so we decided to leave that off our invitation. Anyone who knows us and loves us could easily assume that we would host a vegan wedding and would support and be open to our choices! However, if you feel so inclined to give everyone a heads up, you can absolutely include a card in the invitation or a section on your wedding website communicating your vegan approach, so your guests feel prepared and open to the cuisine! Here’s a helpful blog post with tips on informing your guests!

Plant-based beverages

Keep in mind that not all alcohol is vegan, so double check the wine, beer, and liquor brands that your bar includes! You can also spice up your cocktails with fresh fruits, spices, herbs, and non-dairy milk!

Eco-Friendly Decor

There are so many details that will play into the style, vibe, and theme of the day, and you don’t have to forego the beauty just because you’re focusing on eco-friendly choices. Florals, reusable tableware (or bamboo/biodegradable), rented cloth napkins, thrifted vases, resold/repurposed decor from past weddings, etc. If you can repurpose or reuse your wedding decor as home decor after the wedding, that’s a huge plus! Instead of a ‘welcome to our wedding’ sign, my husband and I used a song lyric we loved with our names so we could put it up in our home one day!

Zero-waste approach

Along with the decor, consider how much waste comes out of a wedding. Create a zero-waste plan by removing any single-use items (plastic cups, plastic straws, paper plates, etc.), recycling or composting as much as possible, arranging to donate uneaten food to a local shelter, and donating florals to a local hospital or assisted living facility.

Vegan-friendly vendors

Although it’s not a necessity, it’s always a dream when your vendor team consists of some or all vegans! Their awareness and compassion toward your lifestyle will show through in the work that they do – consider a vegan photographer, makeup artist using cruelty-free products, etc.

Attire

When it comes to your wedding dress or suit, there are so many cruelty-free and vegan-friendly options with a bit of searching around! Check labels to avoid garments with wool, silk, leather, velvet, and other animal-products. Keep in mind the accessories like shoes, belts, watches, ties, etc. Here’s a blog post all about vegan wedding attire!

Rings

Ethical and eco-friendly materials are more and more popular and widely available these days! Consider a lab-grown diamond, recycled metal, or vintage/thrifted/passed down rings. My wedding diamond was passed down from my great grandmother, and the sentimental value is so much more meaningful to me than the cut/karats/etc. could ever be!

Wedding favors

You can avoid additional waste by scrapping favors altogether, but if you’re someone who loves a great favor, you have so many fun options! Potted plants, flower/plant seed packets, tote bags, vegan treats (cookies, alcohol, coffee grounds, tea leaves, etc.). A charity donation in lieu of favors is always a wonderful option, as well!

Ceremony rituals

Incorporate your love of nature into the ceremony using a sand or soil blending, planting a tree, or lighting a (bee-free wax) unity candle! Consider the animals when choosing a ceremony exit confetti toss and avoid rice, plastic confetti, or anything that won’t biodegrade quickly. Instead, use flower petals, leaves, birdseed, or a non-environmentally harmful product!

Transportation

Whether you have an intimate wedding or a large guest list, encourage guests to take the arranged shuttle bus, carpool or take public transportation to reduce the carbon footprint of tons and tons of cars.

Look, you can’t get EVERYTHING 100% right.

Some people may disagree with some choices, but if you can keep these details in mind, it’ll be better than not trying at all. You don’t need to strive for perfection or give up on all your wedding dreams just to make everything perfectly vegan. Try to keep as much in line with your values as possible, and you’ll be sure to plan an amazing day!

Any wedding takes time, energy, and effort to plan, and I hope this post helps reduce the overwhelm of planning a vegan wedding. Taking extra time to choose details that speak to your relationship, love of nature, animals, and the planet will be such a meaningful and rewarding experience.

For us, we couldn’t imagine spending as much money on a wedding as we knew we would and not keeping our ethical and environmental values top of mind. Celebrating your love story in this way is as true and honest as it gets while promoting your compassionate belief system!

If you loved this post all about how to plan a vegan wedding, check out another blog from my vegan wedding planning series about vegan wedding attire!