It’s difficult to swerve words like sustainability, climate crisis, net zero and carbon footprint as we make our way through each of our days here on planet earth. Last week I turned on the radio and spent half an hour engrossed in a talk about democracy and its relationship to addressing the climate emergency. There was a lot of talk about Trump and China and there was, as with all good Radio 4 debates, some light, thankfully, as well as all the darkness
But it’s hard not to despair isn’t it? As we listen, read and watch all manner of impending doom pieces, on a daily basis, I could, if I allowed myself to, go down some rabbit hole of anxiety, and find it difficult to come out of it ever again. But a while ago I decided to do something about my near constant state of anxiety and began trying much harder to make as many small changes as I could in my personal and business life. By doing so I always have something to make me feel a bit more positive about the whole damn mess of global warming, and I find that it really, really does help.
One of those small changes has ended up turning into a big change…from a seemingly simple action of trying to run as green a business as possible when I set up Bude Botanical five years ago, has snowballed into something quite different and hugely more positive.
Sustainability and planet positive actions now run through my entire business and every decision and action usually has our environment and our fellow human beings at its centre. It’s been a very positive experience, gathering like minded friends, colleagues and clients along the way, and becoming part of a brilliantly positive movement for change.
Part of the work, I think, is to keep banging the drum for change, to keep reminding people that we all have it in our power to make changes in so much of what we do…and one of those things is how we can make positive and brilliant changes when planning our wedding day.
Simple changes to make your wedding day more sustainable
Having a wedding day is, for so many people, a wonderful rite of passage, and of course, one of the most amazing days of our lives. How can surrounding ourselves in so much love and joy not be? It can, therefore, be really difficult to bang the drum for change without appearing like a complete killjoy. How can I move from congratulating my clients’ engagement news, to telling them about the carbon footprint of their wedding day without stamping out a little bit of the joy and happiness?
But over the last three years, since I really changed my business from one that mentioned a little bit about being green, to one that embodies sustainability in every decision I make, I have realised that it’s as simple as giving my lovely clients some solutions to the problem of carbon emissions and weddings.
The Problem
The average carbon footprint of a wedding in the UK is more than the average annual household footprint and in the UK we have, on average, around 280,000 weddings each year.
We know that the average wedding emits 14,500 kgCO2eq (or 14.5 tons CO2e).*
Can anything be done?
At least half of these emissions could be reduced by making sensible, considered choices when planning a wedding day. If we could reduce all wedding emissions by half… that’s a potential saving of over 2 million tons of CO2e which is the equivalent to taking over 2.5 million medium sized cars off the road for a year!*
*data from the Sustainable Wedding Alliance (SWA).
What sorts of things can you do?
Choose better flowers
Of course, you’re reading about this on a flowery themed blog, so one of the things you can do is choose your florist wisely. There’s no argument to be had really; local grown flowers are better for the environment, and so if you’re marrying between April – October, find a florist who works with local flower farmers and sources their flowers from the UK, and not from overseas.
Outdoor, field grown UK flowers can reduce the carbon footprint of your wedding day flowers by a staggering 90% compared with imported flowers. If you’re marrying in the winter months, work with a florist trained in sustainability…they will know what certifications to look for when importing flowers from overseas. Imported flowers aren’t all bad…but using local grown alternatives when in season is always going to be better than flying them in from across the planet. Out of season, work with someone who knows what they’re doing when it comes to making sustainable choices.
By the way, Bude Botanical is accredited by the Sustainable Wedding Alliance and has also completed in depth training with the Sustainable Floristry Network 🙂
If you’re not in the South West (like me!) you can find other accredited Sustainable Florists, on the SWA’s Conscious Couples website
Choose a venue with a purpose
Many wedding venues now have sustainability at their heart – look out for those that talk about sustainability but also those that can demonstrate it too. Through our membership of the Sustainable Wedding Alliance we have met so many inspiring venue owners, many who have even bigger goals beyond just the operation of their venue, supporting things like rewilding, improving soil health on their land or water conservation. If you’re planning a wedding in the South West of England (where I am based) you can see venues who are part of the Sustainable Wedding Alliance community from our area (as well as across the country) on the Conscious Couples website
Consider rental or pre-loved outfits
Like many brides, my wedding dress from over two decades ago, loiters in my attic – I suspect it will never to be worn again. Recently we discovered my husband’s grandmother’s wedding dress from 1936 – this one had done 90 years of loitering in a cardboard box. Such beauty, but such waste too – worn for a few hours and destined for a dingy non-existence beyond the wedding day.
A couple of years ago I was at an event about sustainable weddings and was shocked to hear figures from Kate, the owner of the Bridal Reloved franchise, about the unbelievable amounts of wedding dresses that exist, worn once, if they’re lucky, destined for a cardboard box and then landfill beyond their few hours of wear. You can read all of her crazy figures about the wedding dress industry over on her blog. If you’re needing a nudge to consider rental or pre-loved, this is surely it. I’ve personally committed to only buying pre-loved, or renting outfits for any weddings, parties or similar in the future. It’s an exciting time I think with rental sites popping up all over the place and the pre-loved market seemingly having a huge resurgence right now.
There are also sustainable options if you still would like to buy new. Again, at a SWA conference, I met Hayley from Rolling in Roses. Her dresses are exquisite and like Bude Botanical, sustainability is at the heart of her business.
Hire your decorations and furniture instead of buying
If I had a pound for every candlestick or table plan easel that had been bought for just one day, well, frankly, I’d be loaded. My tip here is to avoid that and hire or borrow stuff instead – florists will often have a beautiful stash of bud vases, candlesticks, tea light holders and the like. There are tonnes of vintage hire and wedding furniture businesses, just a google search away. They will beautifully kit out your marquee or your venue and then reuse it again at another wedding the following week.
Think about your wedding day menu
By working with the right catering team, they can help you make more sustainable choices around the food you serve on your wedding day. We are lucky enough to work regularly with another SWA accredited supplier Fig & Smoke – and like Bude Botanical they run their business with a commitment to local ingredients, seasonality and reducing the environmental impact of their business.
If you’re just starting out on your wedding planning journey, then a great place to start is the For Conscious Couples website. This is a brilliant online resource created by the Sustainable Wedding Alliance, where you can search for wedding suppliers from across the UK who are passionate about making positive choices for our lovely planet. They also have cool things like an online wedding carbon footprint calculator on there too – which helps you understand your wedding’s carbon emissions, empowering you to make conscious choices and celebrate your special day with a positive impact.
Photo credits:
Yeah Mike Photography
Elizabeth Jayne Photography
Hannah Barnes Photography
Amy Sampson Photography
