Last summer, I got married to the love of my life, Chris, so this blog post is all about my journey towards the big day itself, and the environmentally friendly choices that I made along the way.
After Chris proposed and we began thinking about our wedding day, I found myself drowning in a seemingly never-ending list of things to do. It was very easy to feel like I needed to follow every trend on social media, but at every stage of the process, we tried to keep sustainability in mind, and I feel that we managed to find the right balance for our wedding.
Our first task was to prepare the guest list, and it goes without saying that a smaller wedding party has less impact on the environment than a large one: fewer miles travelled, less food waste etc.
Once we knew guest numbers, we moved onto finding a venue. We looked for somewhere local to where we lived to keep the total miles travelled to a minimum. We immediately hit barriers, with some venues having minimum guest numbers of 100. We ended up booking a celebrant led ceremony at Bradgate Park and hired Newtown Linford Village Hall for our reception.
Bradgate Park only allows biodegradable confetti, so I made my own by collecting petals from flowers in my garden. We considered bubbles as an alternative to confetti but decided against this to avoid the use of single-use plastic bottles.
I found my wedding dress on Vinted, brand new with tags for less than half the RRP. I can see the sentimental value it will hold, and I wondered if I’d struggle to part with it after the big day - but I refuse to let it to sit in a box in the loft for the next 20 years. I solemnly swear I will give my dress another day in the spotlight by reselling it on Vinted now my big day is over. Let’s normalise wearing a pre-loved wedding dress!
The village hall was a wonderful blank canvas for a wedding, and I originally planned to source second-hand décor, and style the venue myself. However, that comes with a lot of work and stress, so we set out to find a stylist. We came across someone local, who prioritises sustainability – this released a huge amount of stress and time, plus the benefit of not needing to sell or throw things away after the event.
We kept sustainability in mind with our other suppliers and aimed to keep things as local as possible. Instead of cut flowers, I grew a variety of plants in terracotta pots to decorate our tables, and my bouquet was a mix of dried flowers and foliage used a local hair stylist, make-up artist and caterer, and we served local Bradgate venison for our main course.
We are by no means perfect and planning a wedding is stressful enough without adding eco-guilt to the mix. Wherever possible we let environmental considerations lead our decisions, and it made our wedding even more special and unique to us.
Weddings may be expensive, but they don’t have to cost the earth.
For more information on how to reduce waste for your future wedding, please visit https://www.lesswaste.org.uk/reducing-waste-at-your-wedding.