Weddings are a time of joy and celebration, so it really does cause a bit of a damper to discuss how the typical wedding is environmentally unfriendly. The average wedding can generate about 180kg of waste or give you all a better visual – this is the weight of a blue whale’s heart. Likewise, the average wedding also generates around about 63 tonnes of CO2 (carbon dioxide). This amount of CO2 is enough for 70 car rides from Oxford to Istanbul and back!
We don’t mean to scare you with all these statistics, but it is something to think about when planning your big day. Although exceptions are often made for “lifetime” events such as these, you can still have an incredible wedding without putting the environment at stake.
The Bodleian Libraries is a member of the Sustainable Wedding Alliance, whose mission is to drive change amongst wedding venues and suppliers to create a more sustainable wedding industry. So, if you’re thinking of creating a more sustainable wedding, do read on for our top tips!
Catering
It is no surprise that food waste eats (literally) into the sustainability factor of a wedding. No host wants to see guests go hungry, and this can lead to couples overcompensating. However, when working with our exclusive wedding caterers Oxford Fine Dining (also accredited by the Sustainable Wedding Alliance), they will sit down and discuss with you the best options for your day.
Oxford Fine Dining also pride themselves on using seasonal, local produce as well as having a “Conscious Collection” menu. This will also reduce the carbon footprint created overall, as the produce will use less fuel in transportation from farms to the Oxford Fine Dining Headquarters. Another aspect to consider is vegetarian or vegan catering. We’re not asking you to eliminate all meat from your wedding – but by even just having a vegetarian or vegan starter or even main, you can drastically reduce the environmental impact of your wedding breakfast. Apparently, a vegan meal has 14 times less the environmental impact of a meat-based meal!
Another method of reducing waste is by making takeaway boxes available for guests to take home. Not only will guests appreciate you providing (yet another!) free meal for them, but any leftovers taken home and eaten keeps them from going in the bin. If your guests aren’t hungry, then why not offer the food to the venue staff or catering teams to take home with them? Trust us, they would really appreciate it after a long shift working your big day! And even if the catering team isn’t hungry, Oxford Fine Dining can also dispose of food waste via a biofuel generator – ensuring that no mouthful gets wasted.
Our final catering top tip is to use your wedding cake as a dessert, rather than having a separate dessert course. If you think about it, at a Wedding you have a lot more food than usual. First, there’s the canapes and drinks during the reception. Sure, doesn’t seem like much but once you add on a three-course meal (with a bread roll of course), and cake on top of that – it can be quite a lot of food in an evening. Many of our recommended cake creators can create multiple tiers to not only provide enough portions for all your guests but also bake the sponges in different flavours of cake. So, everyone gets a dessert they will enjoy. Even if guests don’t have a sweet tooth, why not box them up for others to take home?
Florals
It’s hard to picture a wedding without flowers, and we’re not saying you shouldn’t go without flowers at your wedding. In fact, compared to pieces of plastic tat or one of the worst environmental polluters: balloons – flowers are biodegradable – so once you’ve enjoyed them on their big day, they’ll go back into the earth (if you’ve composted them properly).
But there are some really easy ways to be even more sustainable on your big day! Like catering, a simple way you can be more sustainable is by using flowers which are in season. Not only does this help the earth, but since your florist doesn’t have to import flowers across seas and skies – this also will decrease your costs overall. Who said sustainable must mean more expensive? If you’re unsure of what will be blooming on your wedding day, do chat to your florist for their advice. If you haven’t chosen a florist yet, do start with our recommended florists on our website – they’re all fantastic choices!
Likewise, our recommended florists are based in Oxfordshire, or the surrounding counties – meaning that’s less distance to the Bodleian Libraries for your wedding. Not only are you supporting local businesses in your area, but you’ll also helping to cut down on carbon emissions as well. The elephant in the room, one synonymous with weddings is confetti. Originally, hundreds of years ago confetti was, ironically, biodegradable, as grains and rice were used. But this eventually evolved into paper, as it was cheaper, and of course glitter as it gave a sparkle. But traditional glitter can take centuries to break down, whilst also realising harmful chemicals to the environment.
Even biodegradable glitter, whilst substantially better, can still take a while to break down. But, an eco-friendly solution to the glitter issue is to use dried flower petals instead! Dried flower petals break down quickly, don’t harm the environment, and have a lovely scent as you use them. What’s not to love? Additionally, talk to your florist about using flower petals for your confetti. Quite often, they will use cut flowers which are starting to come to the end of their lifespan. So, you’ll also get to give these flowers one last use before they go back to the Earth.
Our last floral tip needs a bit of teamwork, which is putting your cake creator in contact with your florist to decorate your cake for the day. Floral decorations can of course be composted after use – or if you talk to your cake maker, you can ask about what flowers are edible too! Cake bakers can also advise what potential flowers might be toxic too, just because they are natural doesn’t mean it would be good for your tummy.
Clothing
How many items of clothing do you have in your wardrobe that you have only worn once? In any other instance, you’d normally sell on or drop an item off at the charity shop. But wedding dresses often are only ever used once, before they’re kept in storage forever. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with keeping an item with great sentimental value – rather all it’s better off in the wardrobe than in a landfill!
In fact, you could start by asking to see if you could perhaps wear a wedding dress that belongs to your Mum, Auntie, or Grandma for not only a vintage touch, but it could also count as your something old or borrowed. Otherwise, you can always turn to reselling websites, such as Depop or Vinted to find the vintage wedding dress of your dreams. If the thought of buying a dress before you’ve never tried on makes you apprehensive, then why not check out Bridal Reloved? They specialise in pre-owned and ex-sample wedding dresses and have plenty of bricks and mortar shops up and down the country – so you can absolutely “try-before-you-buy”.
For a truly unique memento of your day, you can always have you dress handmade. Whilst you might think a handmade dress might run into the tens of thousands, you might be surprised. Oxford Bespoke Gowns, a local dressmaker, gives a ballpark cost of around £500 – £2000 for a wedding dress – although the individual cost depends on complexity and materials. Additionally, by picking fabric which is more environmentally friendly, such as organic/recycled cotton or linen – you can make an active choice in being more sustainable!
Of course, this isn’t a fully exhaustive list of anything and everything you can do to make your wedding more sustainable – and we’re certainly not pretending everything we’ve written here is the be all and end all! At the Bodleian Libraries, we are always available to give advice and guidance for our couples leading up to the big day. So, if you’re interested in booking with us – do email us at weddings@bodleian.ox.ac.uk and if you’re curious, you can check out our sustainability statement here.
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