Your Hampshire & Dorset Wedding - Mar/Apr 2020 (Issue 79)

C elia Gaze is the founder of The Wellbeing Farm, and says, “As we’re getting more conscious about our environment and how we can protect it, the idea is also flooding the wedding market, as brides are looking for a lush wedding day that doesn’t cost the planet. As a venue that has always had a green centre, here are our 10 top tips if you’re planning a sustainable wedding...” DITCH THE PALM BEACH WEDDING IN FAVOUR OF SOMETHING LOCAL This may be an obvious one, but it’s a good starting point. As nice as those pictures of destination weddings look, think of all the air miles to fly everyone over, and then transport from the airport… that’s a lot of CO2 emissions. With that in mind, if your venue is accessible by public transport, even better. 10 tips for planning your dream sustainable wedding 1 PLAN A VEGETARIAN OR VEGAN MENU One of the biggest trends is cutting out a lot of meat and other animal products from your diet. Whilst your wedding has been considered the one day you can indulge, this now doesn’t mean that you can’t splurge on taste without cutting out the meat. Even as an omnivore, some of the nicest food I have had is vegetarian and vegan. If your menu is seasonal, organic, or uses fair trade ingredients, or a mixture of all three, even better! SPEAKING OF SEASONAL, KEEP YOUR FLOWERS SEASONAL TOO Seasonal flowers save the air miles, there’s no need to import tulips from Holland in the middle of September. Also start thinking about what you are going to do with the flowers afterwards, and if your florist avoids using foam in their arrangements, that’s a big fat green thumbs up. If they are also supplying confetti, look at a kind that is bio-degradable. Think about transport If your venue isn’t easy to get to via public transport, instead of a million cars arriving at your venue, think about hiring a coach from a suitable meeting point e.g. the hotel your guests are staying at; this will hopefully cut down a lot of emissions even before your big day starts. 2 3 4 106