Avoid purchasing new items by renting furniture, glass, china & candles. Vintage items make for a truly one-of-a-kind look! Check out your local garage & estate sales to create an eclectic collection, or check out Chicago Vintage Weddings who have found the used items for you and have a wide selection of amazing pieces!

Chicago Vintage Weddings offers beautiful vintage furniture in addition to decor & tabletop rentals, lending a unique look to your wedding without producing new material. They carefully maintain their pieces using a green cleaner for upholstery and green detergents for tabletop items.

Oftentimes venues have items available for rent such as arches, candles and other decor items, thus reducing new purchases or transportation of rented items.

The Joinery created 20 beautiful reclaimed wood dining tables that is included in rental of their space.

Colvin House has a full inventory of vintage dishes and furniture to be used during events.

Loft on Lake offers amazing lighting throughout their space.

Fairlie uses reusable candles to help enhance your dining area.

Using LED lighting features is more energy efficient, lasts longer and come in a variety of colors. Loft on Lake offers wonderful lighting throughout their space, including LED uplighting available in a rainbow of colors!

Fairlie has a beautiful chandelier with LED bulbs, as well as colored lighting that can enhance your dance floor!

Find an alternative material, such as rice, hay or paper.

Ask your décor vendor if they transport and store items in reusable totes (like our GWA members) or if they use styrofoam. Styrofoam is one of the most environmentally unfriendly types of materials that exist, not only releasing toxic chemicals when exposed to light or heat, it also has an extremely low decomposition rate.

Loft on Lake has banned the use of plastic straws by vendors in their space. They also encourage the use of water stations and don’t allow plastic bottled water at the bar.

Packing materials can create a lot of waste rather quickly. Rather than packing items in cardboard boxes, transport items using reusable milk crates that are easily washed and reused. A sustainable decor vendor would re-use boxes and use reusable totes and padding to bring items to and from events.

Ask your linen vendor or decorator how they wash & dry their linens and fabric drapes. High-efficiency machines with cold water and non-toxic detergent are best.

Using rental plates, silverware and glasses is clearly better than using disposable materials, but if you have to use disposables, consider compostable items like paper or bamboo plates, and plant-based plastic utensils and cups.