How to go green on your wedding?

Make sure your wedding has a positive impact

The wedding season is in full swing and we know you all are excited and gearing up for it. The past year for us has been compelling contradictory/conflicting/ ironic/ paradoxical as it was filled with various experiences exposing us to environmental issues and simultaneously drowning ourselves in shooting the pompousness of big fat Indian weddings. We all love the grandiose and pomp with which we celebrate something as special as a wedding but at what cost? Or rather WHOSE cost?

This year, we had n unique opportunity to experience an eco-friendly wedding of good friends Deepa & Prashin. From this wedding, we gleaned some insights of how a wedding can actually be. Whether it’s your wedding or not, we’d want you to read and share this post with friends and relatives who’d be getting married this year.

So how many of us even bother to  ask “HOW does MY wedding affect the earth?” In our opinion this is how;

1. Plastic Bottles & Glasses – They generate an extra ton of garbage which pollutes our oceans and soil. Well, they get recycled, don’t they? Plastic bottles are made of completely recyclable polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastics. But PETs don’t biodegrade they photodegrade, which means they break down into smaller fragments over time due to exposure to sun and become toxic microplastic fragments and pollute our water bodies and contaminate our soil. Fish eat this plastic and plants cannot grow in such soil ultimately affecting our food and plastic enters our own bodies.

2. Crackers – C’mon we already have ghastly air that we breathe in and sound pollution to bear with. How about showing some love for the earth as you start your journey of love?

3. Single-use decorations – Decorations that are one time use end up into landfills creating more waste. A lot of the fancy flowers that we see at weddings are sourced from miles away creating a much larger carbon footprint than we think, especially the synthetic ones.

How you can you cut down on your carbon footprint?

Here are some ideas

1. Ditch those plastic water bottles/glasses. Wedding venues do have an option of keeping reusable/biodegradable glasses along with water dispensers Urge them to do so.
2. Say NO to plastic straws, spoons, and other single-use cutlery – Opt for edible eco-friendly cutlery.
3. Yes, we can do away with the air polluting firecrackers. Do we need to explain why? A lejhim, or any folk dance and music would add melody rather than war kind of sounds of crackers.
4. Spare the horse! Horses in baraat made sense when it was the middle age! Horses today live in pathetic conditions they’re kept hungry before the baraat commences just so that it eats the offering from the groom’s family in time. Moreover, the loud band and firecrackers are a pain for these animals. The horse doesn’t take you to the forest and starves you before his or her wedding, so just maybe you can treat them as they treat you?
   
5. Wedding invitations – E-invitations are cool, peppy and modern. If you really have to print, why not opt for recycled paper? Better still, you could also opt for seed-embedded cards that grow into plants when buried in soil.
6. Food wastage – Go for quality over quantity! Have minimal but wholesome yummy food like millets or non-dairy/sugar sweets etc. Rather than boasting about the variety of food offered, feel good about saving a ton of food from going to waste.
7. Gifting – Marriage is a start of a beautiful journey of two individuals growing together in love and life. Seed balls as eco-friendly wedding gifts for the guests are best to signify that. Our friends Deepa and Prashin did exactly the same. You could also opt for potted plants and khadi clothes.

   

8. Décor – Choose local flowers and reusable materials, handmade, upcycled decor like our friends did.

   

   

A bit Overwhelmed?

At first, this might sound way too much work, but it can really be done effectively by planning early and seeking help from friends and family. We’ve seen that most friends are super happy to help when they come to know that help is required in something like this. The effort that you would put would be equal or in some instances lesser than what you would have to put in a so-called usual pompous wedding. Perhaps you might think your small effort would be insignificant towards a task such as ‘saving the planet’, but honestly, the small efforts add up and drop by drop the ocean fills.

Blog Edited by: Priti Bhosale