Em & Lachie
Apr 14th, 2008 by Katie
ETHICAL WEDDINGS BLOG CONTRIBUTOR
The couple: Em & Lachie
Wedding date: 30 June 2008
Venue and location: A register office in Cumbria, UK
Approx budget: We haven’t really set a limit but I suppose about £5000
What inspired you to have an ethical wedding?
I think it started out when I was horrified by the expectations of the ‘wedding industry’! We live a pretty simple life and try to be as eco-friendly and ethical as we can: it never occurred to me that this was unusual in a wedding context until I first started looking. With time and more research, our determination to have an ethical wedding grew.
What has been the most difficult part so far about organising an ethical or green wedding?
I didn’t want to get married in a register office! I spent literally around 100 hrs of determined internet searching trying to find a venue in the area that we wanted that met our wishes to be ethical and simple.
What has been the most fun bit?
Visiting our reception venue and realising it was a billion times better than we had hoped!
It was also lovely to read through our vows for the first time: it made it real and really affirmed the commitment we were undertaking.
What would be your 5 top tips for brides and grooms planning an ethical wedding?
- Stay true to yourself. I’m a simple girl but even I found myself ogling pretty sparkly things on the internet because the wedding industry told me that’s what I wanted!
- If you get carried away, take a step back for a minute. You find those niggly arguments go away when you take a day off wedding planning and remember why it is you’re getting married in the first place.
- I read this elsewhere on Ethical Weddings: go easy on yourself! The guilt factor involved in choosing one less than perfectly eco and ethical friendly item can vastly overshadow all the good you do. If you find yourself getting upset, take a look at a regular wedding site and remember how much good you’re doing with your other choices!
- Share ideas.. and ask others! You can spend hours looking for the right fabric, or the right venue on the internet, only to find that a 5 minute chat with another bride or bride-to-be would have been as successful. Once you find something special, let others know about it. They’ll appreciate it!
- Avoid the word ‘wedding’. A venue is a venue, a cake is a cake. Adding the word ‘wedding’ really does double the cost!