GreenUnion Diaries

If you're getting married or planning a civil partnership, we're showcasing the trials and tribulations, highs and lows of couples determined to throw a green wedding, eco-chic celebration or ethical event.

Couples in the same boat will find this section really helpful and full of information, what not to do, and where to find that elusive florist, tent maker or eco-cosy honeymoon cabin.

We'd love to hear from you and will feature your stories here.

Send us an email info@greenunion.co.uk
or call us on +44(0)1769 550580

(Your personal information and contact details will not be disclosed to any third party.)

Vineeta & Tom

How many guests are coming to your wedding and where from?
We have around 60 wedding guests and most of them are from the UK. Our friends who live in the UK, Tom's first family and a few relatives will be at the wedding. My parents who live in Dubai and my sister from India will also be there. Since our friends and family are scattered around the Midlands and the South of England, we thought Cornwall will be a good place to choose.

I also have a very large number of relatives in India, so to avoid excessive CO2 emmissions by travel, Tom and I have planned another celebration in India in the year 2009. We will travel there, so discouraging another 100 people from flying to UK.

Also we are getting married on a Friday, which has made our guests plan a weekend break in Cornwall.

Do you have a budget and do you think you'll be able to stick to it?
Yes we do and we believe that we will be able to stick to our budget, and being green hasn't made it any more expensive.

Why is it important to you to throw an eco-wedding? What inspired you?
An eco-wedding was the first thing on our minds when we thought of getting married. Tom and I love the outdoors and we enjoy being close to nature. We would love to start our married life with a positive impact, or neutral effect on the climate.

Please can you tell us a little about the eco-elements of your wedding.
We have decided to use a local florist, Stephanie who encourages the use of local flowers. We are using natural shells for table decorations and most of these shells that our decorator Jo is using are from her own wedding, hence reuse rather than buying new ones. The shells are to reflect the seaside theme of the wedding.

About clothes, we are trying to find clothes from The Dressmarket. At the same time, Tom and I believe in wearing something fun, rather than traditional, since it is a civil ceremony. Although we think wedding dresses are really beautiful, they somehow cannot be reused in our own life, so should be sold or passed on. Rather than buying an organic wedding dress that can only be worn for 10 hours on your wedding day, we are planning to buy clothes which we might be able to use again, for special occasions.

The venue that we have selected has been chosen as a Green Tourism Award winner, and they offer an opportunity to guests to offset their carbon footprint. We're happy that they encourage the use of local and organic food. They use low energy lighting and their environmental policies make us really happy to be holding our wedding at Bedruthan Steps Hotel.

Do you think it's easy to be both stylish and green on your wedding day?
It's interesting for us to find environmentally friendly alternatives. We certainly don't need to be unstylish to be green. In fact there are many designers, florists and decorators who are into green living. That means that the fashion industry is making a new way to greener life. All the elements we are planning, according to us, are really stylish.

Have you got any tips, so far, for other brides looking to throw an eco-wedding?
Follow your heart, if you want to have a green wedding, just have one. Don't worry about what your families will think of you and who won't follow you. If you believe in having a green wedding there are a lot of people that can help you achieve it and it's no more expensive to plan a green wedding than a normal one.

It is just very important that we take a stand, to encourage wedding suppliers to make their services much more environmentally friendly. The more people support green issues, the more people will produce things with less environmental impact.

David & Oliver

We first met in 1987, but it wasn't until 1997, after the death of my partner and Oliver's close call with cancer, that things got serious. There’s nothing like a bit of adversity to sort out your priorities!

We bought our first house together in London in 1998. Both self-employed, life at that time was a frantic, hedonistic whirl of work and play – we had a ball! But as I turned 50, with Oliver not that far behind, we started planning for a change of pace, with a five year countdown towards a move to the Rural North. Just months later, though, on a day trip to North Devon, we came across a totally beautiful, dilapidated and extremely rural farm. It was love at first sight, the perfect spot to live a slower and more sustainable life, and we bought it on the spot.

It wasn't until we moved in six weeks later on Friday the 13th, that the magnitude of what we’d done slowly dawned on us. With two cows and a pig as neighbours, just about everything that could go wrong, did, and we came close to losing everything, including our sanity. We had found our eco-dream but didn't get a good night's sleep for two years!

But neither of us are quitters, and when Oliver got down on one knee in the mud and proposed last year, there could only be one answer! Through so much shared adversity, we realized how much ‘getting civilised’ meant to us both. But how we were going to arrange our special day around our slowed-paced downshifted lifeystyles, otherwise known as running two businesses, sensitively restoring a four hundred year old ruin, developing a three and a half acre natural garden, running the farm, breeding horses, cows, pigs and a few paltry poultry? Enter Rosie, eco friendly event organiser.

Doing it our way was never going to be easy, with one of us always right and the other never wrong, a wedding planner's nightmare. But with Rosie and husband David’s help, we are planning a day that reflects the needs and personalities of two very demanding and strong willed individuals. It's going to be a wonderful summer solstice celebration of our life together.

We can't wait for 23 June 2007, our 'Most Civil Day'.

There'll be another gripping installment of David and Oliver's civil plans in about a month's time covering some of their ideas for the big day, so do dip in to find out how their plans are progressing.

If you'd like to share your own eco-wedding diary with us do get in touch.

Send us an email info@greenunion.co.uk
or call us on +44(0)1769 550580

(Your personal information and contact details will not be disclosed to any third party.)

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