MY SUSTAINABLE WEDDING

From upcycled décor to locally sourced blooms, there are so many small changes you can make to reduce the carbon footprint of your wedding. Here, three couples, who recently planned earthfriendly celebrations, share their insights

When it comes to weddings, green is undoubtedly the new white. And while the balance between planning your dream day and achieving an ecofriendly event may appear like an impossibly fine one, rest assured that just a few small changes can garner huge and positive impact. The ultimate goal needn’t necessarily be a carbon neutral wedding (though this is easier than you might think), but to make conscientious decisions about the short and long term consequences of your day on the world around you.

This is exactly what newlyweds Daisy and George, Emily and Adam, and Holly and Ryan did. Taking a sustainable approach from the start, the couples share their top tips for planning a dream day without costing the Earth.

“Sustainability was one of the most important elements for our wedding day and one of the things we were most proud of,” says Daisy, who married George during an outdoor ceremony at Camel Studio. Utilising the venue’s natural spaces as both backdrop and décor, the couple also adopted a local and seasonal brief for the floristry and food, which was largely vegetarian, but gave the option of meat dishes.

Sourcing a series of elements secondhand was another savvy and sustainable approach. “I always try to avoid fast fashion wherever possible and from the outset I only wanted to get my dress secondhand,” says Daisy, who found her gown on Stillwhite. “I simply had my dress altered to fit me and would not have done it any other way. I will also resell it to continue the cycle!” Daisy helped her bridesmaids to choose their gowns with a view to them being worn again, while the groomsmen were asked to don a navy suit they already owned.

“We have a new home and are going on our honeymoon to Costa Rica so it was fantastic to receive contributions towards those rather than receiving gifts we may not necessarily need,” says Daisy of the gift list dilemma. “We chose Patchwork because 50% of the registration fees go directly to environmental charities such as Friends of the Earth.” As for favours, they lovingly propagated their own houseplants a year before the wedding, planting them in pots they had made and painted.

Daisy and George didn’t compromise on the style factor either, selecting eco-friendly alternatives whenever possible that also looked stunning. “We rented a lot of the décor and garden games as we didn’t want to buy lots of things we might never use again,” explains Daisy, who chose dried petals for compostableonly confetti and collected shells to scatter amongst the tabletops and use as place settings, “which added a natural touch to the décor”.

An often-overlooked component, the couple put careful consideration into the environmental impact of travel to their wedding. “We encouraged friends and family to car share where possible and pooled the taxis to/from their accommodation,” says Daisy. “A few people flew in for our wedding too, which we were conscious about, so we started looking at ways to offset the emissions associated with our day. We calculated the mileage and modes of transport and used an offsetting tool to calculate the emissions and the cost to offset. We then chose to donate to reforestation schemes in the UK that we felt actively sequestered carbon while also promoting biodiversity, such as The Woodland Trust.”

“I think it’s really important to highlight the easy and fun things that can be done to reduce the impact in what can be a very wasteful industry,” concludes Daisy. “I must stress that we were not perfect, nor able to be 100% sustainable, but we tried our very best and it ultimately made our day feel much more ‘us’ so we were happy!”

Photography Wild Tide Weddings wildtideweddings.com / Venue Camel Studio camelstudio.co.uk / Catering AVO Catering Co avo.catering / Flowers Lafonia Flower Company lafoniaflowercompany.co.uk / Dress Stillwhite stillwhite.com / Décor & games Stargazey Décor Hire stargazeyweddingdecorhire. co.uk / Gift list Patchwork patchworkit.com

Emily and Adam

“Adam and I endeavour to be as friendly as possible to the planet in our day-to-day lives, so we wanted to do the same when planning our wedding,” explains Emily. “It shocked me that weddings can have such a negative impact on the planet, producing as much as 20kg of plastic waste.”

They chose Mount Pleasant Eco Park as their venue for its array of green credentials. “As soon as we arrived at the venue, we loved its relaxed vibe,” enthuses Emily. “We also love that the food is all vegetarian/vegan. Being vegetarians, it was important for us to serve good plant-based food, as veggie food options at weddings can be quite bland and a bit of an afterthought. The ingredients used are either grown on-site in the allotments or organic.”

From the catering to the décor, Emily and Adam considered how to make everything more environmentally sound. “We tried to hire as much as we could including props, furniture and the men’s suits to avoid splashing out on things that we would likely only use once,” she says. “We also tried to keep our décor as sustainable as possible by either recycling (by using old wine bottles as table plan pieces) or by selling our candles and bunting after the event.” Emily’s sister made their confetti using dried flowers and their seasonal wedding flowers were all grown locally.

“I feel like absolutely nothing went to waste, which was so important to us,” she reflects. “If I could offer any advice to other couples, it would be to think about things that you want to have on your wedding day that could easily be reused or repurposed. Our wedding day artwork, created by Gemma Lessinger, formed part of our table plan decorations, but is a keepsake we can hang in our home and keep forever.”

“It’s very easy to get caught up in the Pinterest wedding madness but think about what you would keep and treasure after your wedding day,” she recommends.

Photography Lizzie Churchill lizziechurchill.com / Venue Mount Pleasant Eco Park mpecopark.co.uk / Catering Wilder Allotment Kitchen wilderallotmentkitchen.co.uk Kernowforno kernowforno.co.uk / Flowers Beach House Flowers beachhouseflowers.co.uk / Cake Bees Vegan Bakery instagram.com/beesveganbakery / Props Stargazey Décor Hire stargazeyweddingdecorhire.co.uk

Holly and Ryan

With a focus on sourcing locally and secondhand, Holly and Ryan’s wedding at Elm Farm reflected their eco-friendly lifestyle. “Being sustainable was always at the forefront of our minds when planning our wedding,” explains Holly. “I’m really passionate about caring for the planet and try to adhere to this in other aspects of my life, including my business, The Cornish High Street (thecornishhighstreet.co.uk).”

“I love buying things secondhand,” she elaborates. “Knowing I was giving something a new lease of life was particularly special for our wedding – it was lovely to know that something I had for my day had been a part of someone else’s special day. I also love supporting small businesses and did this as much as possible when sourcing.” Not only does their approach have a positive impact on the local economy, but it also helped to keep their personal expenditure down. Everything from Holly’s ex-display bridal gown and secondhand heels to the handmade raspberry mojito wedding favours proved to be both costeffective and highly personalised.

“The table décor was a standout part for me,” says Holly, who borrowed wooden logs for centrepieces, sourced wellington boots to use as vases and repurposed vinyl records into table numbers. “My aunty made lots of bunting using secondhand and scrap fabric, and we also borrowed napkins from someone who got married last year,” she adds.

In addition, they used confetti from Kehelland Trust made from cornflowers (“so totally natural!”), had dried flowers with water-based dyes that could be kept, bought a vegan and dairyfree wedding cake and even Holly’s engagement ring was made by a small business using sea glass – with as many material elements as possible then sold after the big day to minimise wastage.

“There were really minor decisions where we tried to keep the environment in mind too, such as using twine instead of plastic fish wire to hang our paper lanterns,” says Holly of the small details which – when combined within the bigger wedding picture – made all the eco-friendly difference.

Photography UpArt Photography upartphotography.com / Venue Elm Farm elmfarm.biz / Confetti Kehelland Trust kehellandtrust.org.uk / Flowers Brook & Bloom instagram.com/ brook_and_bloom / Dress & veil Two For Joy Bridal instagram. com/twoforjoybridal / Earrings Until Dawn untildawnshop.com / Necklace The Craft Collective craftcollective.org.uk / Bridesmaids’ dresses Etsy etsy.com & Vinted vinted.co.uk / Groom’s outfit Little Anne-Maids littleanne-maids.co.uk / Cake Dawn’s Edible Elegance dawnsedibleelegance.co.uk

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