ethicalweddings.com

ETHICAL WEDDINGS BLOG CONTRIBUTOR

Your name: Jenny Coates
Wedding date: 15 March 2008
Venue and location: Eagle House School, Crowthorne
Budget: £8000

Read all Jenny’s posts

What inspired you to have an ethical wedding?
My fiancé Phil and I have always tried to be ethical shoppers and energy savers. When Phil proposed to me at Everest Base Camp, one of the most spectacular natural landscapes in the world, we decided to make our wedding as green as we could. We are also part of a local fair-trade committee and our work there provided lots of inspiration for fair-trade food and dresses!

What has been the most difficult bit so far?
Finding a venue within budget that gives us space to invite 250 people and is close to our home – we want all our family and friends to be able to get there easily without too much carbon wasted!

What has been the most fun bit?
Choosing my ethical dress. I wanted to get a charity shop or e-bay dress and have it altered, but I am very small and a bit of a funny shape, so in the end I decided to have one made from scratch, from ethical fabrics, by Jo Mackin of ‘Wholly Jo’s’. I’ve found a picture of a dress I really like and Jo has said she will make it for me, but we haven’t started the fittings yet!

What are your 5 top tips for brides and grooms planning an ethical wedding?
Well… I haven’t got very far with it yet, so I don’t really know, but I think borrowing from friends who have had weddings is a great for m of recycling (we’re borrowing a cake stand and all sorts of other things) and having the wedding near home, with supplies bought/made locally, saves a lot of fuel energy.

Also, being realistic – I think you probably can’t do EVERYTHING in the greenest way possible, unless being green is actually more important to you than getting the most out of your wedding day. So choosing the things that you think are most important and focussing on them is a good idea, I reckon.

Read all Jenny’s posts