Weddings are not only beautiful and glamorous, they can also be very wasteful and harmful to the environment. However, with our following tips, you can have not only a luxurious wedding but also a sustainable one!
Your wedding day will be one of the most beautiful days of your life, one that you will remember with happiness decades from now! That’s why many of you have weddings that involve millions of balloons, huge bouquets of flowers and over-the-top decorations, but remember: it’s not the number of extra goodies that make your big day memorable. In fact, we’d say that eco-conscious and sustainable weddings that follow the minimalist, zero-waste principle have their own special vibe that can create some very unique moments. For instance, you may want to consider adopting the following tips, as they’re not only cool but they’re also guaranteed to make your wedding sustainable!
Did you know? Daalarna Garden is located in Szentendre, Hungary – just 40 minutes from the airport. Check it out here!
Have a slow, conscious wedding
Slow weddings are one of the most popular sustainable wedding trends at the moment! It’s a concept that focuses on celebrating, connecting and experiencing the couple and their wedding together rather than the hassle of planning the wedding. Also, in this way, the wedding is not compressed into half an afternoon, but lasts for a whole long weekend! That way, there’s no unnecessary driving, travelling, rushing and stress, and you’re more sustainable than if everyone went their own way. After all, your wedding is going to be a great celebration, a holiday to remember! Slow weddings are great because you don’t have to postpone or compress any activities during the ceremony: with a slow wedding, you can create an everlasting experience for yourself, your future husband, and your guests!
Consider a micro-wedding
One of the most sustainable and eco-positive wedding experiences is to have a micro wedding, which is perfectly doable at Daalarna Garden in Szentendre. Even as part of a slow wedding theme! Micro-wedding, as the name implies, is a micro-sized wedding (i.e. a wedding with a small number of people), which allows you to save not only on electricity and consumption but also on all other costs. In our experience, you will save at least half the original amount of wedding expenses, if not more! Another big advantage of micro-wedding is that you can bond more intimately with the family and relatives at the wedding, as well as the venue itself. This is because personalised specialities and extras can be added much more quickly and cheaply than in a wedding of 100-150 people.
Pick environmentally friendly outdoor ceremonies
The more nature-based a wedding is, the more sustainable it will be. Less lighting, heating, cooling, air conditioning and energy are required for sustainable weddings, which, of course, means a significant cut in the budget. To make it happen, all you need is to take your wedding outdoors and say “I do” with your husband there instead of a fully decorated hall or indoor venue. Nothing is taken away from the visual appeal of such a ceremony, in fact, in our opinion, outdoor weddings can be even more beautiful than the indoor ones, as nature provides the decorations, which in itself is a fantastic decorative feature. The best way to save money on outdoor weddings is to organise them in late spring or early autumn when there is no reason to heat and cool the indoor space!
Think about how sustainable you want your wedding decoration
Wedding decorations are not only a huge extra cost, but they also waste a lot of materials: most decorations are not used at all after the ceremony; they go straight to the trash! If you want to avoid this and minimise your ecological footprint, you may want to look for a wedding venue that is beautiful and looks aesthetically stunning in itself. After all, a venue surrounded by really lovely plants, gardens, and parks usually doesn’t need to be fussy and decorated from top to bottom. These outdoor venues will be recognised by the fact that they are a pleasure to look at in themselves, without any decorations or plastic balloons, but are stunning in their simplicity. So, if a venue makes you feel good and gives you a sense of calm and harmony, decorations made of plastic would do nothing to enhance it, especially if you are looking to have a sustainable wedding.
Make wedding decorations from alternative materials
If you can’t give up on wedding decorations, go for minimalist, and the principle of less is more! It’s common for wedding venues to be so decorated by the organisers that they’re almost unrecognisable on the big wedding day, but you should forget about that. A beautiful, aesthetic wedding venue choice in itself does not require over-the-top decorations unless you want to add a little something to enhance them. In that case, forget plastic decorations and cut flowers. Think of decorations made of dry, pressed plants, pine cones, moss, and sticks of wood, which you can even get from the surrounding forest. Instead of paper confetti, for example, you can have your guests sprinkle leaves, wildflower heads, and dried flowers, but that’s just one idea. Not only can you save a lot of money on your wedding, but you’ll be taking a huge step towards making your big day an eco-friendly event!
Do not make your wedding bouquet from cut flowers
The wedding bouquet is less about the wedding venue and more about the bride’s outfit, but you can save a lot on this as well as on the other arrangements at the wedding. The first thing to do is to say no to cut commercial flowers shipped from abroad. Once you’ve got that, it’s up to you how sustainable you want your wedding bouquet! Cuttings from local retail shops are a more environmentally conscious option, so is buying your bouquet from a nice little old lady in a nearby village: you’re supporting her, but you’re also doing yourself a favour! Another level of sustainability is picking flowers from the local woods instead of cutting flowers, but if you don’t want to cut flowers at all, you can make a beautiful bouquet from ivy, pampas grass or other green plants. The most environmentally conscious bouquets, however, are those made from dried flowers and plants, which add nothing ecologically negative to your wedding.
Always think about saving energy at the wedding venue
As we mentioned in one of our previous paragraphs, you can make your wedding much more sustainable by cutting down on electricity, setting the right temperature and avoiding air conditioning and heating altogether. But there are still a couple of things to keep in mind when organising a wedding. For example, use lanterns for mood lighting (not all venues allow this, of course, so you’ll need to ask first), but if lighting is essential, use solar power lights just like Daalarna Garden does. Solar power can power a lot of electrical equipment and technology, which will help to balance your energy consumption, but if you just forget fireworks and replace them with a candle-lighting, star-gazing event, you’re still doing a lot for the environment.
Be environmentally conscious and say no to fireworks
Not many people know it because many people only see it as a pretty light, but fireworks release metal particles, dangerous toxins and harmful chemicals into the air, which can leave smoke in the surrounding area for days. In the event of fireworks being set off, these materials also produce fine, invisible particles and gases that can contribute greatly to air pollution. Research shows that some of these toxins can circulate in the air for decades, poisoning the air around us continuously.
Another reason why many nature reserves forbid the lighting of fireworks is that they are extremely harmful to the surrounding wildlife. The bright lights, sudden loud sounds and noise can cause stress to animals, which may even cause them to flee their habitats. They may also ingest chemicals and metal particles from fireworks. For this reason, most environmentally conscious, sustainable wedding venues do not allow fireworks at all! The short time it takes to set off fireworks can create a large amount of air and environmental pollution that would be impossible to balance during the wedding.
Wedding thank-you gifts should also be sustainable
It’s becoming increasingly popular to give a variety of small thank-you gifts to your wedding guests. This often comes down to an object or a souvenir, but the most sustainable thing you can give to your outgoing guests is food or a small potted plant! For example, a small bottle of jam, honey, olive oil, mineral salt or preserves from your wedding venue, or a sweet little plant is the perfect farewell gift that will certainly not go to waste. It’s almost 100% sure that all the guests will eat/plant them, which is good because they won’t end up at the bottom of a drawer. In this way, you’re not only helping local farmers, but you’re also contributing to a more environmentally conscious lifestyle, and even your guests will be grateful for your small act of kindness!
Photos by Kondella Misi, Daalarna, Pinewood Weddings, Venue: Daalarna Garden, Dresses by Daalarna
Daalarna Garden, located in Hungary, is the ultimate wedding venue for a sustainable wedding and an environmentally conscious outdoor ceremony. Take a look around the website and request enquire here!