Ethical weddings

I'll be walking to the church, then to the venue. I'll also have local fresh produce.

I'll probably have a dress made, or I'd consider buying second hand. Not sure if that is environmentally friendly or not, as it's recycling!?

No fireworks, sky lanters and no animal chucking is a given.

I've started making bunting from old fabric, and other decorations will be things my mum and I already have between us or bought in charity shops/car boot sales.

Does that count?

I had the same idea with the dress!! Originally I wanted second hand but because I'm so tall I couldn't find anything. I wish I could have afforded a British made one, but went for Mikaella (made in Canada) as at least I know it's not been made in awful labour conditions in China.

We picked our reception venue partially because the food is all local and ethically produced, and they've got an extensive vegetarian menu that doesn't involve pasta and tomato sauce!! Hurray!!! I wanted a vegetarian meal for everyone but H2B didn't like that idea at all.

Ethical jewellery is quite easy to find, and is quite affordable so that worked out perfectly.

I did want ethical flowers - organically grown in the UK not in Kenyan greenhouses! That didn't work out as there aren't that many suppliers near our venue so delivery costs were really high.

My mum and H2B think I'm weird doing all this ethical stuff but it makes me feel more comfortable about the expense of the wedding.

It's got to be better than the mass of glassware that was produced for my wedding!

I don't base every decision on 'ethical/eco' considerations but there are a few things which are big no-no’s or musts. We try and eat locally produced food anyway so our wedding is no different. I also only eat high welfare meat or even better meat we produce ourselves so I know what kind of life the animals had. Releasing laterns etc. will most definitely not happen I hate them and the damage they can cause. Also animal releases/dead things in small boxes would never happen. But our church and barn are 30mins apart so we will need some cars to transport everyone. I will also pay more for a dress if needs be and not get one from China.

Yes our overall theme is eco sustainable reuse recycle. This has resulted in a woodland type theme because by using natural materials I can then use most items in my home

I'm hoping to get my dress made by a friend from organic cotton

Things like confetti and sky lanterns etc are a no no because of the poor cows/fish/birds etc

Most items for the wedding will be recycled second hand and made by local friends family or business this is not only because of shipping fuel carbon footprint etc but for budget too

x

My engagement ring is fair trade gold with a recycled diamond and my wedding band is recycled gold. My dress is vintage and we are borrowing/making/getting second hand all the decorations and finishing details we can. Hopefully nothing we use to decorate the venue will just be thrown out afterwards. We are not having favors because they often just get left on tables and thrown away.....There is much more I would like to have done though such as make my invitations out of recycled paper and making more of an effort to try and source higher welfare meat.

I wouldn't consider my wedding 'ethical' but, actually, some things I suppose would be:

- Restaurant for the reception has a reputation for good quality, locally sourced & seasonal produce
- No confetti at ceremony; bubbles instead!
- Making donations to Alzheimer's Society (for my nan who can't make the wedding due to late stage dementia) and the RSPB (cos I like birds!) as part of the favours
- Encouraging car sharing / lift sharing for people coming from farther away
- Set up a wedding website to reduce paper waste (information cards, RSVPs, etc)
- No lanterns / animals, etc.!
- Recommending local independent B&Bs for accommodation rather than large, chain hotels
- Minimising the flowers (none on tables, in ceremony, etc.) and those we are using for bouquet / buttonholes are in 'season' and available from the UK

Am also looking at a way we can offset the carbon footprint of our honeymoon flights, but that might work out a bit too pricey for our shoestring budget.

Although seeing on another thread that helium was a dwindling, non-renewable resource I may have to rethink my helium balloons! Unless...I still have them, but then use them afterwards to transport us to the Dom Rep (a la 'Up')? Might be taking the whole eco-thing a bit too far...

I've already got my dress, but it's from a UK based designer / company. Not sure if my dress is actually made here though, but they do still manufacture some of their dresses in the UK (I just checked their website!)

I've also gone out of my way to source stuff from independent retailers and people on sites like Etsy and Notonthehighstreet.com- I've been fortunate because they are often a bit more expensive, but we're having a small wedding, so I've been able to pay the little extra per head.

Great thread! :0)

Takes some thing about andmy family are scattered far and wide so lots of fuel consumption for guest flights and car journeys but-

Sent out simple invitations- No inserts. Rest been done by email

Using suppliers based within 5 miles of venue

Church 2 miles from home, venue a further 2 miles

Dress, suits and cars all from literally opposite the church

Dried natural petal confetti

Growing my own flowers to then create all displays, bouquets and buttonholes

Local caterer using locally sourced produce

Bought second hand, recycled, diying where I can and will resell some items afterwards to keep up the recycling bit

Giving economic friendly favours and gifts where possible

Hmmmm think that's about it...

Oo and I love fireworks and lanterns but sticking to tealights in pails outside and sparklers (left over from bonfire night so a great excuse to have some pretty fire type stuff) :0)

I'm loving this thread, it's brilliant that so many people are having ethical weddings!! Makes me feel like much less of a freak lol

No chinese lanterns or balloons for us out of environmental but concerns.I'm researching ethical tourism for the honeymoon but it's a tough one. I'm a bit gutted to discover my bridesmaid dresses were made in China. I thought they were American and my US based brother was getting them for me but then I realised they are shipped from China :-(

I think it's a lovely idea (and some people are listing things I would never have thought of) but personally, we're going to be on a very tight budget and I don't think we can afford to take ethics into consideration much. At least, not to this extent.

I don't like involving animals in weddings regardless, so that's one thing no butterflies in matchboxes here.

I don't really think ours has much, the food was important to us our venue only uses locally produced high quality ingredients. We also won't be having balloons, confetti or lanterns I think that's about it though. And definitely no animals, that's just strange (in my opinion of course)

The land that we've hired is a small patch on a 3,500 acre estate that supports conservation and restoration projects and aims to preserve (and create) long term, sustainable habitats for various forms of wildlife, among other things.

I'll be completely honest and say that this wasn't something we actively set out to find, but when we did we knew it was exactly what we wanted.

There are free roaming animals so we will most definitely not be having confetti, sky lanterns or anything which may have too much of an impact on their home- we're quite mindful of this.

We will be involving animals....but only our dog who will have no role other than to swan around and enjoy herself.

Oh you all kept reminding me of things! My ER is an old one found in a little jewllers so is recycled a bit I suppose. We are having confetti but dried petals so there is less of an impact on animlas etc. Although as Pavone said we will bring our dog down for photos but he doesn't have a role apart from not gettign too muddy at the farm before my OH takes him to the church. My horse may be in some photos too but he is a terrible teenager so it will depend on his attitude at the minute he's going nowhere.