A sustainable wedding, how to?
Sustainability is not just a trend. Aligning to the principle of Sustainability for events means taking action towards preserving our natural environment; promoting a healthy, inclusive society; and supporting a thriving economy.
It is a big thing and a big responsibility.
The Principles for Sustainable Events address all 17 of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
what to do then?
Hire a planner with focus on Sustainability
The choice of the right wedding planner is crucial when it comes to destination weddings. You hire someone who can take away the stress of searching for vendors, options and rates, someone who can be your eyes and hands in the country that you have selected, Italy in this case.
This choice is even more important when it comes to do all the above with the plus of a sustainable focus.
A sustainable wedding planner like me, will be able to assist you in the venue choice and vendors selection who follow the same principles of sustainability that you share.
What are the main aspects I should consider when planning a sustainable wedding?
VENUE
when it comes to the location of your wedding, Italy is the greatest spot for a sustainable wedding.
There is plenty of coutryhouses and eco agriturimos where your wedding can take place. Most of these venues are wineries or olive farms completely immersed in the nature and are directly involved in the preservation of the surroundings.
Some of them might grow their own vegetables and fertilise their fields thanks to their animals.
Get in touch with me to find the right venue for you! il tuo testo
FOOD & DRINK
Listen to your planner advices about local eco catering companies and restaurants/venues.
Once you’ve chosen your caterer, we will work with them to create a menu that’s as eco-friendly as possible. This means thinking about seasonal, organic products, and if you can, opt for those that are locally and ethically sourced.
And whist thinking about food and drink, we will also make sure to cut out use plastics by, for example, avoiding mono portions canapès with plastic spoons or beer served in cans.
STATIONERY
On the subject of ‘single use’ there are more and more companies now offering items for hire and what about biodegradable items too.
Do you really need to give wedding favours that might simply be left behind, or can you swap in favours that are natural or eco-friendly in some way, for examples, you might like to make a charitable donation instead and these are always gratefully received.
FLOWERS
When it comes to Flowers, working with seasonal blooms that haven’t been forced or grown out of season is an obvious choice to make and so is avoiding flowers that have been air-freighted half way around the world, particularly when so many local flower farmers are doing such amazing work.
But, we need to look beyond the blooms themselves and think about what’s going in to those fantastic floral arrangements.
Choose a floral foam free florist!
Floral foam is non-biodegradable and instead, it crumbles into tiny micro-plastics that end up in the water system whilst the larger chunks will sit in landfill for centuries. It also contains chemicals such as formaldehyde, barium sulphates and carbon black… so, this one is right up there on the sustainable, eco-friendly consideration scale.
Foam free floristry really suits the organic, natural style of floristry that’s just so romantic and current so there really is less of a need to use foam in your wedding flowers.
Lastly, we will let the wedding leftovers do some good and try to avoid too much being thrown away at the end of the evening.
We can encourage guests to take flowers home or reuse them for the farewell breakfast/brunch that we are having the next day.
ETHICAL & ECO HONEYMOONS
Finally, it’s not just about the pre and on-the-day impact, think about your post-wedding impact too.
You are in Italy, the most beautiful country in the world, choose to spend your honeymoon here.
You can stay longer in Tuscany or decide to explore other areas of this enchanting country.
And now?
Organising sustainable weddings is one of my main responsibilities.
Now whenever an event is organised, it is expected to cause a lot of waste which directly indicates that we are leaving a large carbon footprint. If reports are to be believed, each attendee produces more than 1.5 kg of waste per day out of which roughly 1.2 kg is going directly to a landfill.
As written in this article, we CAN and we HAVE TO make more environment- friendly choices.
Let’s work together and create your sustainable wedding!
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I'm Francesca, a wedding planner specialized in sustainable events in Tuscany with more than 11 years of experience.