Planning your wedding should be an exciting and wonderful journey. It’s a time of happiness, celebration and new beginnings, but it can also be a daunting prospect and even more so if you wish to plan a Sustainable, or less environmentally impactful day.
It is calculated that the average UK wedding produces the equivalent carbon emissions as 5 people would generate in one year. This is a scary prospect, but it doesn’t have to be the case.
As a venue, we have long been invested in, and working towards, minimising our impact on the local and wider environment while balancing the three pillars of Sustainability; people, profit and the planet. Sustainability is a value which runs to our core and as a demonstration of this, and our progress so far, this year we have achieved accreditation with the Sustainable Wedding Alliance. You can read about our current carbon emissions, our progress so far and future plans in our Sustainability Policy, here: How we make a Green Crockwell | Crockwell Farm.
But back to you and your wedding. We hope that if you share our values, you will be buoyed by our efforts to ensure that we are delivering weddings in a Sustainable manner while continuously seeking to improve. But while venue choice is a significant factor in your wedding carbon emissions, it is only one piece of the puzzle. We wish to help our couples to make sustainable choices in planning (something which isn’t always straightforward), so in order to help you do this, we’ve produced this step by step guide, with handy resources which we hope will aid your decision making and ensure that your wedding carbon emissions fall well short of the UK average.
Here are a few practical things to consider if you would like to strive for an environmentally friendly wedding:
- Travel is a significant contributor to your weddings’ overall emissions. Look at how your guests will be travelling to the venue and if possible, encourage car sharing, or consider providing bus travel where many guests are coming from the same location. For train travel, our nearest stations are Banbury and Long Buckby.
- Consider a seasonal menu. Our sole caterers, Ross & Ross Events are entirely aligned with our sustainable goals and as venue and caterer, we work together to reduce waste and emissions generated in catering. We have eliminated single use plastics and crockery & cutlery is washed and re-used time and time again. The area in which you can help is your menu choices. Ross & Ross will be delighted to advise you on the produce which is in season, and locally available at the time of your wedding. You may wish to go a step further and consider a low meat, or only locally available meat menu. Fruit and vegetables should be in season – the worst contributor to menu emissions would be air freighted goods which should be avoided entirely.
- Make use of seasonal flowers. Similarly to menu emissions, those associated with your wedding flowers will be dependant on the distance the flowers have travelled. We’re lucky to have some wonderful local growers who can provide seasonal British blooms from March through to October. In the winter months, foliage and candles are hugely impactful in the starlit marquee. Ask your florist for seasonal inspiration around your date. When it comes to this, the more flexible you are able to be on colour schemes, the better. You may be surprised to discover new flowers that you never knew you’d love. Avoiding foam in arrangements is also key and you’ll find that our recommended florists are talented in using wire for styling.
- Decorations: consider carefully any further decorations or wedding props. Should you decide to have garden games, props, photo booths etc, ensure that you are hiring them and that they are not being used for one occasion only. Avoid at all costs single use plastics or products that will find their way into landfill when your day is done.
- Ask your suppliers about their Sustainable practices; do they have a Sustainability policy? Many wedding professionals take a pro-active approach to protecting the environment but it is important to check which practical steps they are taking to do so. Ensuring that they have a Sustainability policy in place, or even better, a form of accreditation, will mean that you be assured that those you are entrusting with your day share your values. We are in the process of compiling a “green list” of those suppliers who are working hard to make their business more Sustainable.
- Consider hiring or buying second hand dresses and suits. This won’t be a step for everyone, but, remember that a wedding dress is a wear once item. There are some brilliant businesses which sell and alter existing dresses and that environmental impact of doing so is far less than investing in an item which will be used once. Second Hand Wedding Dresses | Buy & Sell Pre-Owned Gowns (bridalreloved.co.uk)
- Create a gift list that features items that you will use forever, or experiences or charities. Ensuring that your guests aren’t buying items that may go unwanted is a sensible step.
