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Having an Eco-Friendly Wedding

How to Have a Green Wedding Day with a Low Carbon Footprint

Jan 28, 2009 Pam Griffin

A newly-married couple from Telford, England, planned a green wedding after being challenged to minimise their carbon footprint for their wedding day.

Jo Lewis, 35, and husband Martin, 36, who tied the knot the January 2009, were challenged to reduce their carbon emissions on their big day after being approached by the BBC at a wedding show at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, UK.

It's Not Easy Being Green

Paramedic Jo said: "There's a programme on BBC2 called It's Not Easy Being Green and they asked if we'd like to be involved and try to reduce our carbon footprint.

"Before we started I would have thought a green wedding would have been frumpy, but it's not. It hasn't blow our budget and it's been quite easy really, and the BBC has helped us.

"You can get what you want and still be greener.

"Someone gave me the phrase 'green weddings aren't frumpy and foo foo; they're eco-chic,' and it's true.

"The key is not to go totally green because you would get yourself in a tiz, but if everybody could manage to do a little bit then it would make a huge difference."

Ingredients for a Green Wedding

Eco-friendly ingredients for Jo and Martin's big day include sending out carbon-neutral recycled invitations, making their own organic wedding cake using locally-sourced ingredients, and asking caterers at the reception venue to use local Shropshire produce for the reception meals.

And they provided a coach for guests to travel from the reception venue to the wedding at Shrewsbury Castle a few miles away and back again so that the guests did not have to travel in separate cars - reducing traffic and emmissions.

Wedding Dress

Even Jo's wedding dress, from Jessica's Bridal in Frankwell, Shrewsbury, was chosen with their carbon footprint in mind.

Beth Swaffield, the manager of Jessica's, said: "She's chosen a beautiful silk dress which is being made in Britain, rather than being shipped in from the east, and that has reduced the carbon footprint because of not having to use aeroplanes."

A Perfect Big Day

But being eco-friendly did not mean cutting back on everything the couple wanted to make their big day perfect.

"We went green with the flowers, and instead of having masses of cut flowers we had silk flowers that we hired for the reception and can be reused for other displays afterwards" she said.

"But myself and my bridesmaids had real flowers. I really wanted to have roses, and because it's winter the growers aren't producing flowers in Britain at this time of year, so they will have to come from abroad."

The programme will be shown on BBC2 in Britain later in 2009.

The copyright of the article Having an Eco-Friendly Wedding in Green/Simple Living is owned by Pam Griffin. Permission to republish Having an Eco-Friendly Wedding in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.