give it

Green weddings and why we do what we do...

Green weddings are all the rage but there's such a range of advice that it must be difficult for couples to wade through it all. Two items I saw recently;

One, on a 'green wedding' organisers blog, recommended a 'green venue' that had all manner of recycling options, had some solar-power etc - the recommendation, however, was that only a summer wedding could truly be considered green (as during the winter months there would be the need for 'traditional' power sources, the need for a hot meal rather than, maybe, a cold buffet etc). What absolute rubbish I thought; 50 people at a summer wedding = a saving on 50 lighting/heating/cooking bills for a summers day versus lighting/heating/cooking bills for those people in one location (i.e. a little more efficient, but being summer not much). However, the same number of people at a winter wedding = an even greater saving in bringing those people together, as instead of 50 people heating/lighting/cooking separately (i.e. at a greater level than during the summer) they would all be in one location, and so would generate a greater saving per person than during the summer. So winter weddings, arguably, are more environmentally efficient than summer weddings...just a little thought (and simple maths) might have helped.

The other item (in a wedding magazine) talked about being able to offset your honeymoon flights (a worthwhile activity), but the very next article encouraged couples to find a venue for their wedding in an exotic a place as possible, meaning that all of their guests would then have to fly there as well - the carbon footprint issue wasn't mentioned at all. I'm not suggesting couples should only marry in their nearest church and invite no-one (I certainly didn't) but as more and more options become available to marrying couples an eyes-open approach to all decisions wouldn't hurt either - sadly I'm not sure they can expect many in the wedding industry to help them.

Final thought for the entry; I was reminded at the weekend why we do what we do when someone I know had a stroke - at 43 she's on the young side but this isn't by any means unusual. It's early days and we're hopeful of a full recovery but we know it'll be a long road - it reminds me how lucky most of us are.

Andy

   

Wedding shows = exhaustion

We're coming to the end of the Autumn wedding shows that we attend. They're great fun but absolutely exhausting - a typical three day show involves Thursday set-up followed by three solid 8-hour days on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Over the last few weeks we've been to The National Wedding Show at Earls Court in London and the NEC in Birmingham as well as The Designer Wedding Show in Battersea Park, London.

Piccy is of one of our volunteers, Lauren, at Earls Court.

We've got two more to go in November, one in Manchester, one in Brighton, both are Gay Wedding Shows - based on our experience of previous years shows they'll both be great fun as they tend to be more relaxed than other events (fewer mother-in-laws).

As we don't get let out that often we find all the shows are really good for getting a sense of how couples are taking to the idea of having a charity wedding list and getting feedback on lots of different aspects of the various services (types of charities, how it's used etc). From when we first started going to wedding shows more than three years ago (when we first launched The Alternative Wedding List) we've found that more couples have heard of the concept (not necessarily obvious as it's a new group of marrying couples every year) but also that more have already made their decision (even though it's often a 'no' most are kind enough not to give us our leaflets straight back, even though we prefer it if they do!). The conversations with couples who are thinking about going for it have become even more in-depth over the years - they're really good for challenging us about how we're going about things.

Popular discussion this Autumn was around The Green Gift List, our newest gift list service with a range of environmental and conservation charities - very topical!

Andy