Wedding Leftovers and Leavings
Weddings can be so wasteful. Much of the waste is a product of the desire to have things be just right. When ten wedding guests haven’t RSVP’ed and it’s two weeks before the big day, it’s often easier to order extra food and extra wedding favors that may or may not get eaten and taken. If you’re a DIY bride, having more supplies than you need can prevent future disasters. And most wedding gowns are worn only once.
I was incredibly lucky when it came to my own wedding leftovers because I have a grandmother who has a finger in just about every local church and charity. My wedding gown? It was given to the family house of worship so a future bride could wear it. The extra DIY supplies and favors? That same church has an active community theatre, so problem solved. And the massive quantities of leftover food went to a local halfway house that accepts perishables. By the time my wedding day was over, almost everything had been distributed or delivered to the appropriate recipients thanks to gram.
Not every bride has such a thoughtful relative to turn to, however. We’ve discussed wedding gown donation in the past, and it’s pretty easy to unload DIY supplies (think Craiglist or Freecycle), but what about food? The sad fact of the matter is that tons of uneaten yummies from wedding receptions goes into landfills each year because many — if not most — charities do not accept donations of perishable foodstuffs. If you don’t have enough local relatives to ensure that everything goes home with someone who owns a deep freeze, it’s almost guaranteed that perfectly good canapes, entrees, and desserts are going to land in the trash.
Unless, that is, you live in one of the thirty cities that Special E serves. From Boston to Vancouver to London, this service rescues leftover food from events like weddings, then recycles them in ways that help the planet and people in need. Some leftover food from wedding receptions goes to food banks, soup kitchens, and emergency shelters to feed people that are hungry and homeless. What can’t be fed to people in need is converted into organic-rich compost.
Drink containers get similar treatment: Empty cans of beer and soda are collected after wedding receptions, and the recycling proceeds are used to purchase cans of food for abused and abandoned pets. Special E will even rescue leftover remnants of beverage containers such as bottle caps and wine bottle corks to re-purpose them into jewelry and decorative products. Proceeds from the sale of these goods are used to buy beverages for children that are thirsty or don’t have access to a safe supply of drinking water.
Finally, Special E is also happy to take floral arrangements and centerpieces so that these can be delivered to nursing homes, hospitals, and other places people need cheering up. For a complete list of what kinds of donations they can accept, click here. They even come right to your wedding venue to pick up, which means that dealing with wedding leftovers in a responsible way has never been easier!
photo by Bill Jurevich
Another option that we did was to share decor. While we were lucky enough to have friends getting married in the same church two weeks after our I’m sure if one wanted to they could easily find a couple that is going to be married soon in the same place as yours.
You can save so much money and time by splitting the decor, though for some I’m sure it’s not worth the hassle of trying to agree.
We did eventually donate all the leftover fake flowers and other church stuff to the church itself. The kids crafts section is going to keep it. I am a bit curious what some 6 year olds can come up with with rose petals and tulle.
That is so great! I can’t stand to see things wasted. I have ordered many a person after a party to drop food off at a shelter or soup kitchen.
On a related note, hospices, old folks’ homes and Ronald McDonald Houses could probably take your old magazines. Keeps them out of landfill and gives people who have a lot of time on their hands something to read.
blablover5: I’ve always loved the sharing option, but there’s so much luck involved. You either need to be working with the same wedding color scheme or you need to be willing to compromise with another couple. Kudos to you for donating your leftover faux blooms — I bet crafty six-year-olds can come up with all sorts of weird and crazy things to do with wedding supplies!
class factotum: Great tip!
The Washington DC area has an amazing program called St Anthony’s Bridal, where couples can simply borrow wedding dresses and decor. We didn’t take advantage of their borrowing program, but we’ll be taking a bunch of donations their way this weekend. http://www.stanthonysbridal.com
That is so lovely, Tara! I was surprised at how comprehensive their inventory is.
One other thing to do that may make it easier to keep the leftover food out of the landfill is check with the folks running the shelters beforehand–most of them don’t take perishables because they work out their menus in at least several days in advance, so showing up with 10 pounds of sliced ham and 4 dozen rolls throws them off. but if they know that it may be coming in, they can take it into account.
Most food banks don’t take perishables at all, so your best bet is homeless shelters and soup kitchens.
To expand on what Class Factotum said – you can also donate those old magazines to prisons; over at dressaday.com, Erin recently ran a fundraiser for reading material for women in prison. Send ‘em along, they’ll be appreciated.
If donating them there doesn’t appeal to you, don’t forget our folks in the service. Even the men will read those magazines, just to have something to read.