Weddings… supposed to be an expression of love but often a very stressful event. Weddings are generally so stressful because of how much money is spent on one; the average cost of a wedding in the UK is £30,355. I mean, that’s ridiculous and no wonder it’s such a stressful event when you’ve spent that much cash. Often weddings are not that eco-friendly either… it’s certainly not a top priority for a lot of people to have an eco-friendly wedding. The dress and venue are of course more important to most. Fortunately an eco-friendly wedding is likely to be a lot cheaper as well as being much better for our planet and it can still be a fancy affair.
Eco-Friendly Wedding Planning
- Wedding Dress
- The Rings
- Destination / Venue
- Flowers / Table Decorations
- Food & Drink
- Other stuff
Wedding Dress
The wedding dress is probably the most important thing about a wedding for 99% of brides. But a wedding dress is designed to be worn once and then put away.
Vintage wedding dress
A more eco-friendly way to approach buying a wedding dress would be to find a vintage one. Vintage wedding dresses are generally absolutely stunning and you’re recycling! Win win!
Secondhand wedding dress
I know some people would never even consider a secondhand wedding dress, but you do have to take into account that you can find some absolute bargains. Someone might be selling what was a very expensive designer dress at a bargain price. The dress will normally have been dry cleaned beforehand but that’s a small additional expense for a bargain if it hasn’t.
Some wedding dresses will be sold at rock bottom prices because the wedding was called off, now you might see that as bad karma, but if you’re not superstitious you could bag yourself an absolute steal and get a dress that was never even worn before.
Have a look at these online secondhand clothes shops, including one which specialises in preloved wedding dresses.
Ethical designers
If you have your heart set on buying a brand new dress then try to find one designed by an ethical designer. An ethical designer will know exactly where their material has come from and how it was produced. Also think about the material your dress will be made of and try to keep it natural rather than synthetic. A brand new dress made by an ethical designer might cost you more but it will be better for the environment, and your conscience.
Don’t trash your wedding dress after the wedding, even if things go terribly wrong. Sell it on or repurpose the fabric so that it’s not a single use item.
Go without a wedding dress
You could just not have a wedding dress at all. Find a dress or outfit that you really love and wear that instead. It’s not traditional, but does that really matter?
Bridesmaids Dresses
Don’t force your bridesmaids to buy the same dress. Let them choose their own. My sister had 5 bridesmaids; her 3 sisters and her 2 best friends. We were all very different people who felt comfortable in different kinds of clothes. My sister gave us all 2 main colours and asked us to buy ourselves an outfit using those 2 main colours. All 5 of us turned up in very different outfits but it worked because of the colour scheme. I actually wore the skirt and the top numerous times after the wedding.
Grooms Outfits
I won’t go into too much about the groom and groomsmen because they can easily buy suits that can be worn again!
The Rings
Heard of blood diamonds? No? Watch Blood Diamond the 2006 film. Blood diamonds are basically diamonds mined in war zones that are then sold to help finance the war. To be ethical you need to know where any precious gem or metal for your jewellery has come from. There are companies that pride themselves on knowing exactly where their materials have come from. Check out Ingle & Rhode for one example.
Of course buying a secondhand ring is a much better ‘greener’ option and you’re more likely to get a bargain (check out local auctions in particular.)
Destination Weddings
Something which appears to be getting more and more popular is the ‘destination wedding’ and these have their advantages. Getting married on the beach in a foreign country is lovely and you can just stay on to have your honeymoon. A destination wedding can also be slightly less expensive, mainly because you normally have far fewer guests to cater for.
But, if you’re trying to be eco-friendly, flying to your wedding, and asking numerous guests to do the same, is probably not a great idea. Your overall carbon footprint won’t be good. Of course when choosing a UK venue you do also have to consider where all of your guests are coming from and what transport they use to get there, if you’re taking carbon footprints into account.
Wedding Venue
Let’s assume you’ve chosen to stay in the UK to have your wedding, which is more eco-friendly to begin with. The next thing you have to consider is how eco-friendly the actual venue is. Look at their website to see if they have a page on sustainability. If they do, you know that they at least make some sort of an effort to minimise their environmental footprint. For an example of the sorts of things some hotels do to be more eco-friendly have a read of “Eco-Friendly Hotels UK“.
Flowers / Table Decorations
Flowers are lovely, but to me it’s so wasteful to cut beautiful flowers just to display them for a few hours and leave them to die. You’re spending money on something that will only give joy for that one day. One of the biggest expenses can be the flowers so why not do something a bit different and less wasteful?
Potted Plants
Instead of flower arrangements on each table why not use some beautiful potted plants which can be taken away and enjoyed for much longer (years rather than days!). Try not to use plastic plant pots which will look cheap anyway. Find some nice pots made of natural materials.
Eco-Friendly Decorations
Or find some other kind of table decoration altogether. If your wedding has a theme finding a table decoration to match the theme shouldn’t be too difficult. Just try to find decorations that can be reused for other occasions.
For all your wedding decorations try to go for natural materials and you could even make some of your own decorations.
- Hessian bunting can look absolutely stunning and it can be used again for other occasions. (It’s also really easy to make fabric bunting).
- Fairy lights – fairy lights make everything look a bit special. You can buy solar powered fairy lights and they can be re-used every Christmas after the wedding is over.
- Avoid balloons!
Place Cards
A great idea for place cards are plantable ones. Instead of a single use place card (which only close family members might take away as a keepsake), you can plant these after the wedding. The card itself is made from recycled paper but it has a removable flower made of recycled paper inlayed with seeds. Just plant the flower in a pot indoors or outdoors and water like you would any other seeds! Your wedding guests will always have a nice flower to remember your wedding by and they’ll look lovely on the table.
You can also get plantable wedding thankyou cards.
Food & Drink
Depending on how big your wedding is you might be having a rehearsal dinner (more common in America, but we do tend to copy US traditions over here – like prom and Halloween!), the wedding meal itself and maybe even a wedding breakfast the day after the wedding. That’s potentially a lot of food to provide for all of your guests.
Use surplus food
A really eco-friendly way to cater for one or more of your wedding meals is to use surplus food which would otherwise have ended up in landfill. It will save you a fair bit of cash and the food will be just good as anything else. Have a read about this wedding where surplus food was served for breakfast, how it was organised and how little it cost per head compared to the average wedding breakfast.
Locally Grown
Try to use a caterer that makes the most of local producers of food. Local means a smaller carbon footprint and you’re supporting local businesses as well rather than massive corporations.
Other Stuff
Wedding Presents
My family know not to buy me birthday or Christmas presents because I just don’t need any more stuff. Occasionally they will buy me something but it’s generally something useful, something that I can use over and over, rather than something that’s purely decorative. Don’t get me wrong I like owning nice things, I just have too much stuff and don’t want to add to it. Traditionally wedding gifts were things that would be useful to a couple starting their life together, but these days most newlyweds have lived together for years and already own those kinds of items. There are several alternatives to wedding presents.
You could ask people to:
- Donate towards a honeymoon (an experience, rather than a thing)
- Not give you anything at all
- Donate to a good cause you feel passionately about
Confetti
Many churches and wedding venues have banned confetti altogether – it just leaves a mess. It’s possible to buy biodegradable confetti or a better option would be to use flower petals. Better still, forgo this tradition altogether, there’s no need to do something just because everyone else does. Just make sure you let everyone know that either only certain types of confetti are acceptable or that no confetti is acceptable. Blame the venue if you need to…
There are loads of ways you can make your special day less harmful to the planet, use all of the tips above or just some of them. The best thing about most of these tips is that your wedding will cost far less, meaning you have much more cash to spend on experiences or other things you might need, or you might invite a few more people because now you can afford to!
Is there anything I’ve forgotten to include? Let me know!
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