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
