HOW TO MAKE YOUR CULTURAL WEDDING MORE SUSTAINABLE
For more and more brides and grooms, sustainability is becoming an increasing concern. With disposable invitations, decorations, glasses, confetti and more, weddings can have an impact on the environment. Add into that the cost of transport, the impact of the lights, music, and other electronic devices and it’s something that you may be trying to find a solution for before your big day.
Asian and African weddings especially can oftentimes be much grander, larger events than the average British wedding. For an African or Asian wedding in the UK, you could expect between 350 and 500 guests, with some guest lists hitting 1000! This is compared to an average UK wedding which according to a survey by Hitched, would have 82 day guests and 103 evening guests. Additionally, the larger guest lists oftentimes mean higher costs with the average Nigerian wedding costing £20,000! More guests mean more supplies, larger venues, and oftentimes longer celebrations.
With that considered, the environmental impact may be something weighing on your mind. At Holiday Inn London Brentford Lock, we have a lot of experience with cultural weddings. Our venue, The Waterfront has played host to hundreds of African and Asian weddings, giving us years of experience.
So here are our tips for having a more sustainable cultural wedding.
Ask the right questions to your wedding suppliers
When a supplier tells you that their products are ‘locally sourced’ or ‘organic’, look into certification. When it comes to sustainability, oftentimes companies may try to jump onto the trend without putting in the actual work. Make sure you’re not getting duped!
Talk to your wedding planner
If you have a wedding planner for your big day, it can be important to go over your aims and your intentions with them before you start booking venues and suppliers. Sustainability can mean different things to different people so discussing just how much you want to commit – even if the prices start to rise – is key to getting the results you’re looking for.
Choose items that aren’t disposable
While custom-made signs can be a wonderfully thoughtful touch for your wedding, reusable items like chalk boards can mean less waste is being produced. If you don’t have the space to store these items, perhaps share them with the next person in your community getting married or even sell them afterwards. Reusing your supplies is a great way to help everyone be a little more sustainable.
Think about food waste at your cultural wedding
For cultural weddings, oftentimes large, elaborate meals are served to the guests. However, there can be a lot of food wastage involved at the end of the day. A typical Indian wedding for 500 guests can produce over 8000 kilos of waste.
So instead, consider discussing with your caterer what they feel would be the appropriate serving sizes and how you can reduce waste at the end of the night. Inviting your guests to take food home can be a lovely touch, or you can even work with local charities to help deliver that food to those in need.
Choose more sustainable travel
For cultural weddings in the UK, a large contributor to their environmental pollution is the guests’ travel. With a large guest list and guests travelling from overseas to attend, air pollution through flights can create massive carbon emissions.
Additionally, travelling across the country to larger venues that might be outside of city centres can be detrimental. Consider your guest list carefully and who you’d really like to attend. Try choosing a venue within close distance to public transport or suggest that your guests carpool or use a coach. All these measures can help reduce the carbon emissions created.
Luckily, Holiday Inn London Brentford Lock is located just outside of London, 20 minutes from London Heathrow Airport, and only a 12-minute walk from Brentford Train Station.
Look for alternatives for your wedding supplies
When looking into planning a sustainable wedding, you’ll find there will be more sustainable alternatives to the key customs and traditions you’d like to incorporate into your wedding. For confetti, you can choose a biodegradable option, leading to less waste and litter. For your save-the-date cards and wedding invitations, think about e-vites instead.
Choose local for your cultural wedding
Floral decorations are a huge part of many weddings. By choosing flowers that are in season and shopping with local florists, you’re able to reduce the emissions needed to transport the flowers.
This advice applies to catering for your wedding too. If your venue allows outside catering (like Holiday Inn London Brentford Lock), choosing a local supplier not only helps ensure your food is as fresh and delicious as possible but also cuts down on the emissions generated by your supplier travelling.
Rent instead of purchasing
While many venues perfect for a large guest list will just provide the rental of the space, others may offer packages that include chairs, decorations, sashes, and even more. This means that when you’ve used these touches for your special day, you can return them to the venue to be used again.
The Waterfront offers a variety of such packages, meaning you can both cut costs and cut down on the environmental impact of your wedding.
Set a good example
If your guests and family can see that the bride and groom are choosing more sustainable options for their wedding, they’ll be more likely to follow suit.
If you’re interested in hosting your own sustainable cultural wedding, contact Holiday Inn London Brentford Lock today. With a large open venue perfect for everyone you hold dear, packages to rent decorations and bring your day together, and years of experience in the cultural wedding sector, we’re on hand to help.
We can’t wait to make the wedding of your dreams a reality.