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Esther & Nigel's Christmas wedding
Esther and Nigel were married a few days before Christmas at a gorgeous self catering venue, Huntsham Court, a near Exeter in Devon, England.
Why was it important to you to throw an eco-wedding?
“Environmental issues are important in both my work and my personal life, so they were clearly going to be important to my wedding – luckily my husband agreed! Going green was also a way of making our day more personal by ‘doing it ourselves’; we wanted to avoid a ‘conveyor belt’ wedding where we were just one more couple getting married in an impersonal hotel. It was much more memorable for our guests, and without all the unnecessary frills we kept to a sensible budget.”
Please can you tell me a little about the eco-elements of your wedding.
“We were living in North Devon at the time, and got married just before Christmas, so that set the tone. We hired Huntsham Court for a self-catering long weekend, and put up friends and family in return for their help in getting everything ready. Sleeping over 30 guests, Huntsham Court is a licensed wedding venue with plenty of space for the reception afterwards, so that helped to minimize car use on the day.
We decorated the whole place with candles and evergreen from the grounds, which we then composted afterwards. My sister made and decorated the wedding cake. Honiton’s Otter Brewery provided a simple but tasty seasonal menu, based on traditional Devon recipes, and we sourced sparkling wine from Camelford, just over the border in Cornwall. We designed and produced the menus ourselves, highlighting the local provenance of the food. We also designed and produced the invitations ourselves on recycled stationery, encouraging guests to travel by train and stay in eco-guest houses.”
Do you think it's easy to be both stylish and green on your wedding day?
“Yes, provided your definition of ‘stylish’ isn’t the same as a footballer’s wife! We were lucky to have lots of friends working in fashion, design and interiors who helped us avoid any hint of the sackcloth look.”
Do you have any advice for brides looking to throw an eco-wedding?
“Don’t get hung up on being ‘perfectly green’ – it’s just not possible and you don’t want to feel stressed and guilty on such a happy occasion. We did what we could but there were some things, for example our wedding outfits, that we didn’t even try to make eco. And our attempts to get guests to arrive by train didn’t work either!”
Mandy & Jonathan
Mandy and Jonathan, who kept us up to date here at GreenUnion HQ about their wedding preparations, were married in May and here's an extract from an original article about their wedding by Julie Lastarade for French Elle on 4 June 2007 and translated for us by our partner Diane who runs covert cabin in the Perigord Vert region of France - the ultimate in honeymoon hideaways.
The greenest day of their lives
Dress made of fairtrade cotton, guests discouraged to come by car. In England, the eco-chic are getting married in the same way they live their lives, by respecting the planet. And from these good principles real businesses are emerging.
This is my first green wedding
"It's my first green wedding" a guest says enthusiastically, dipping an organic grissini into homemade houmous. She didn't buy a dress for the occasion and left the car at home, at the request of the bride and groom.
Mandy (30) and Jonathan (29) wanted their marriage, held at the beginning of May in the English countryside, to be the world's cheapest. "We always try to live a sustainable and ethical life" explains Jonathan, an environmental consultant from London. He travels to work by bike, she cycles whenever she can and their son wears washable nappies. "We wanted to keep our CO2 emissions down for this day as well", he continued.
"A wedding with 150 guests and two air tickets for a honeymoon releases roughly 14.5 tonnes of CO2" says Michael Buick, of the British company Climate Care. "That's nearly 4 tonnes more than one English citizen emits in a whole year." So Mandy and Jonathan encouraged their guests to take the train and, above all, setting their own example.
Their invitations were printed on recycled paper and their confetti was biodegradable. Mandy created her dress from two which she had bought from a charity shop and she dug out last summer's sparkly flip-flops. Jonathan hired his three-piece suit. She arrived at the church in a hired hybrid car. Mandy's wedding ring came from an antique shop and Jonathan's was found on e-Bay. Jonathan pedaled the couple over to the village hall on a tricycle after the ceremony. At the reception, all the drinks were organic, including the gin, and the appetizers were all made from seasonal local produce.
The guests fell under the spell of this chic, simple, ecologically sound wedding and it's becoming the trend in England.
Green is the new white
Everyone you talk to about weddings says 'green is the new white'. Over the last few months more and more internet sites and forums have appeared offering good ideas to help future brides and grooms plan an ecologically responsible reception. Rosie Ames, a 'traditional' wedding planner based in Devon has sensed the trend and 4 months ago refocused her business by creating GreenUnion, a wedding planning service specialising in eco-chic weddings. "I've been getting more and more enquiries in this direction" she explains, couples who want an organic wedding buffet using local produce. "A wedding takes time and energy to organise" says Rosie, "An eco-wedding takes even more!"
She has refused to work with a cake maker who was not able to tell her where his flour and eggs came from. Equally she said no to a jeweller who worked with China. "He didn't know under what circumstances his products were made. He'd never visited their workshops." Her partners must meet not less than 4 of the many criteria of her charter, including collecting rain water, insulating their premises, donating to charity and trying to conserve local traditions.
The hardest thing is to find good providers of services, but more are appearing every day. Mandy and Jonathan agree. "We found a fisherman who smoked his own trout, an organic butcher just next door and a company specializing in the production of wild flowers for the bouquets" enthuses Jonathan "and the bridesmaids lent a hand in making the wedding cakes."
The idea is that the wedding has minimal impact on the environment and maximum benefit to the local economy, giving support to local producers or to ethical businesses. But eco-weddings are not just the latest trend, it's obvious that we must reduce our consumption of energy to counteract global warming - it's up to us now to change our behavior.
An eco-wedding closely resembles any other
Your guests aren't the eco type? A wedding like this can heighten awareness, without preaching. In general the guests appreciate their hosts' love of organic food, and are delighted. On the outside, an eco-wedding closely resembles any other, but knowing that everything has been hand-crafted, and chosen for being the most pure and eco-friendly warms the heart. And it needn't cost a fortune. Mandy and Jonathan spent a total of £6000 (8800 euros) "Three times less than a conventional wedding in England" stresses the young groom. They had time to do lots of things themselves. Obviously this type of wedding could cost more , and the more you can do for yourselves, the cheaper it is. At least you know where everything has come from. Mandy and Jonathan's wedding is proof that an ethical wedding is not necessarily more expensive than any other.
They're not hippies
But Rosie recognises that most of her clients are comfortably off. " They are often between 25 and 45, have good jobs, usually both work and most live in the cities. They might have bare feet under an organic cotton dress but they're not hippies" she assures. And, people aren't going to the Seychelles or Mauritius for their honeymoon anymore. Jenny, future green bride's perfect idea of a honeymoon is to go to China, but she feels guilty. "Do we have to choose somewhere less gas-guzzling and forget the idea or can we allow ourselves a Chinese adventure?" she asks on a wedding forum. Is there a way to take an ethical trip?
Mandy and Jonathan have resolved the dilemma. They worked a week on an organic farm in Spain in exchange for room and board before treating themselves to a week on the beach, and they went by train!
Mary & Tim
Why was it important to you to throw an eco-wedding?
Many reasons, and not necessarily in the order of importance:
It was a second-time-around and my adorable husband brought two equally adorable step-daughters to match my two sons - the girls are very environmentally conscious and because we had the family contact with Lynne of Gaia House, it was the most obvious way to go. I have known Lynne for many years and her gift was my outfit which was the most beautiful gown I have ever worn.
I had the option of organic silk but chose an even more alternative route: my outfit was totally 'recycled' - and the finishing touches consisted of a piece of silk which was ruffled, taken from a very old Victorian dress which Lynne had inherited and had been waiting for the right moment to use. The silk was so delicate that she could only save the skirt which she swathed from the top of the corset, nipped in at the waist and brought round to make the train. Another piece was used to make the most amazing shrug whose sleeves ended in 56yds of tiered recycled lace - all tones and textures mottled together. The same lace was stitched across the under corset and peeped over the top of the silk bodice. The effect was 'Gainsborough Girl' and totally stunning.
Tell us a little about the eco-elements of your wedding.
We kept the eco-theme as far as we could: one daughter in recycled chiffon and totally restyled - thankfully she is a perfect size 6-8 so we used every scrap of the fabric; second daughter was in fishtail silk - another perfect size 8-10. My eldest son was in a restyled suit jacket done by Mark of Gaia House whereby the jacket is reshaped and Paula of Gaia House, overprinted the jacket to my son's design (he is about to take up an Arts Foundation Course and is very strong in the textiles and fashion design areas). My youngest wore a vintage dinner jacket and looked (for a grunge 15 year old) hugely elegant!
It was a very small affair with just family and friends, and we did everything 'in house': all the catering, wedding cake, and photography was done by friends and family.
Flowers for the bride and groom and family, were limited to one beautiful large orange gerbera each.
We packed ourselves tightly into as few cars as we could possibly use - the registry office was some ten miles away, so transport had to happen! I confess the bride and attendants were 'gifted' a beautiful Bentley (hardly eco!) but at least only one heavy fuel guzzler amongst the bridal party.
Gifts were, for the majority, vouchers for our garden which has only just been completed.
Do you think it's easy to be both stylish and green on your wedding day?
I'm no spring chicken and two babes down, no perfect size ten either, but in answer to your question, it is totally possible to be beautiful and stylish in an eco-dress.
Do you think it costs more to arrange an eco-wedding?
We did the whole weekend (married on Friday, family reception at home, bridal party to local bistro for evening meal, family and friends reception on the Saturday, bride and groom picnic on the Sunday) for approximately £4000 - so eco can also be incredibly good value for money.
Do you have any advice for brides looking to throw an eco-wedding?
From the time of being asked to the wedding day we had 3 months, so not a huge amount of time to plan ...
I think my advice for eco brides to be would be to allow yourself time to investigate how much you can do within your principles, budget and what's available. It's amazing how the network extends once you say this is the way you want to do it - everyone wants to support and do their bit - a real feel-good factor even for the hardened cynics in their 4 x 4's!
The family joke is that we had the perfect recycled wedding - including the groom and bride!
Nina & Simon
We hired a local caterer who created a food feast using local Suffolk produce with organic wines to drink. We chose locally grown flowers - gorgeous sweet peas, roses, lavender and marigolds. The venue we chose served all purposes - we held the wedding ceremony there, the reception, the dinner and the party, hence no unnecessary traveling around!
We shared a most wonderful and memorable day with our family and friends.
