From Guest Blogger Izzie: Environmentally Friendly Weddings

There are many things to consider when planning your ‘big day’. Which dress should I choose? Should I hire a band or play pre- recorded music? How to organise a reception? Those are just a few of many more questions people ask themselves. In this post we wanted to talk about one more thing, people sometimes forget, environment. Not only can weddings be expensive for your bank balance, they also take their toll on the environment. Think about the amount of waste that could pile up after the wedding is over; decorations, invitations and left over food. Never mind the transportation costs with CO2 emissions from all your guests, travel to the wedding venue then transportation to the reception and then home that evening or the following day. Yet there are many things you could do to reduce your carbon footprint, making your wedding day even more special.

Decorations

One of the biggest issues when it comes to any wedding is how to decorate the venues. Do you want streamers, lights, bunting, balloons, ribbons, vases of flower heads, seating charts, favours, table settings, etc…? The list goes on. But think carefully, what happens to all this stuff once the wedding day is over? Most of it may never be reused, so ends up being added to landfill sites.

A great way to reduce your waste here is to use things that you already have or know you can reuse. For example recycle old jars at home and make them into tea light holders for your wedding. This is something you could get your friends and family involved in as well. You could use these for table decorations and even favours. You could even fill some with water and add petals for some stunning table features.

Balloons may look great on the day, but they are not biodegradable; on top of this they are harmful to wildlife because they can end up in the stomach of birds, animals and sea life.

Exchange paper seating charts or directions sheets for sustainable items such as chalk boards. Not only do these stand out on the day, but they are really quirky and becoming quite fashionable.

Use only glasses, plates and cutlery that can be reused. Although you may be thinking that it is great not to have dishes, it’s much more environmentally friendly to wash up.

Flowers

Although I am sure you will agree having your favourite flowers is something that every bride wants there are some environmental aspects to consider. If your favourite flowers are out of season in this country it means they have to be shipped from abroad or grown chemically. If shipped from abroad then the transportation emissions are terrible for the environment. If chemically grown, well just think about what this is doing to the soil.

The best idea is to either choose flowers that are going to be in season, or pick wildflowers.

Jewellery

Diamonds may be a girl’s best friend, but unfortunately the environment doesn’t agree. The environmental impact of diamond mining can be catastrophic. Lakes and other water ways are often completely destroyed, production of green-house gases increases and some animal habitats are obliterated.

Lab-created diamonds are available worldwide and are growing to be the much more popular option. Also, if you want to go completely retro, why not go antiquing, you might find the perfect ring. It’s not second hand after all; it’s vintage!

Invitations

Every invitation you have produced is going to have an effect on the environment. Let’s face it, they are made from paper.

Yet, they don’t have to be. Why not consider going with the times and send e-invitations. It’s possible to create some lovely invitations using templates that can be found on Microsoft Word. Or if you have Adobe Suite or know someone that does, you could create pretty much any design you want.

No?

Then at least consider sending out recycled invitations.

Photography

A few years ago the in things was to place disposable cameras on the centre of tables at receptions, so that you could get the film developed and have hundreds of candid shots of your wedding guests, now it’s more likely that you’ll find polaroid’s. I kid you not.

Both are extremely wasteful. Especially when most people have mobile phones and their own digital cameras.

So alternative options are to ask people to take as many photos as they like with their phones and cameras and send them to you via e-mail or social media, that way you only print the ones you want.

Hire a digital photographer too and the same principle applies. They will potentially take loads of photographs, but you don’t have to buy them all, only the ones you want to keep. Again, these days you will be given a disk, memory card or USB stick to keep, rather than the individual prints.

Transportation

There is nothing more amazing than seeing someone turn up to their wedding in a flashy car, before being transported to the reception, but don’t forget about the fuel consumption and the emissions.

To reduce these consider having the wedding and reception at the same place or close enough together to walk from one to the other. Hire a bus for guests if they are travelling far so that they can share transport, rather than everyone bringing their own car.

Or forego fancy motorised vehicles completely and bring back the horse and cart. How romantic and how environmentally friendly.

Conclusion

I know that we all want the perfect wedding with every dream becoming a reality, but there is nothing wrong with cutting somethings out or indeed just making small adjustments to help out the environment. You may even find that these changes actually save you some money. Forget about expensive invitations, send e-invites, reduce your carbon footprint with non-motorised transportation, and pick wildflowers instead of shipping your favourites out of season. You could be amazed at the reaction from your guests when you share the fact that your wedding is environmentally friendly.