Doing away with heavy ornamental wedding cards may help save a tree and be one way to help preserve the environment. A Quranic verse also advises us not to do acts of extravagance!
By Nigar
In the age of cyber technology, some people still prefer to invite their friends, relatives and acquaintances for weddings through printed invitation cards. While I understand the tradition of inviting people for a wedding, I wonder how the environment is affected by the huge usage of paper that goes into making cards for functions like weddings.
I am triggered to put down my reflections after recently receiving a rather heavy and very ornamental wedding invitation card. It was neatly placed inside a paper bag, and inside was the card, with another card covering it! The card had a very pretty bag, which I thought I could use to carry a purse and a phone, but then there was the name of the bride and groom flashing on the bag also!
Another card, which a friend received, was in a big box! It first looked like a sweet box, but then you opened it and behold”inside was the wedding invitation card in many layers of paper!
While wedding celebrations might last a day or two, what does one do with the cards after the wedding is over? They go into the bin, right? What a waste of paper, money and effort, and of course the precious gifts of the environment!
Less Complicated
If families could make their lives less complicated by not going overboard about making fancy and heavy invitation cards and think of more eco-friendly alternatives, they could help themselves (emailing an invite would definitely be a lot cheaper), and the environment too.
The big thing about “What will people say?” if they aren’t sent a printed invite to a wedding in their family is may be what makes some people spend so much on the card itself, not to talk about the postal or courier cost to send them!
A few suggestions which came to my mind to simplify this whole effort of cards is that when people use Whatsapp for so many things, why not use it also to invite their family and friends and acquaintances for functions instead of spending money on cards that will probably land up in the trash soon? A pretty card can be designed on a laptop and forwarded easily without much expense. There is good old email too, and for those who want to make it more personalized, a tinkle from their phone to their friends and relatives is a much warmer way of inviting someone than a heavy ornamented wedding card arriving at their doorstep. But if the family still prefers a traditional card, may be a card on recycled paper is something that could be thought of.
While weddings are memorable times for the bride and groom and their families, replacing heavy, ornamental printed cards with something less costly and more ecologically friendly can make life simple, and may also save a tree and the environment!
COMMENTS