It’s March, and that means two seasons are upon us. Season 8 of Game of Thrones starts next month, and Wedding Season has officially commenced in Australia. March, and November are the most popular months to get hitched in Australia, presumably because of the generally excellent weather.
So if you planning a wedding, the first big decision – the venue – normally needs to be booked, or at least decided upon, at least 12 months out. That makes now the time to start making phone calls and sending emails to plan a 2020 event. This is of course if you are going down the traditional wedding planning route of using a bookable, and often high-demand wedding venue. But we’re guessing you’re not considering that traditional path, because firstly, you are already into paragraph two of this article and secondly, you are on the ekko.world website, so your inner eco-consumer is already rummaging around the internet for eco-choices for your big day.TRADITIONAL WEDDINGS AREN’T EXACTLY BEACONS OF SUSTAINABILITY. SINGLE-USE, STUPENDOUSLY ELABORATE & EXPENSIVE DRESS, FIFO GUESTS, INDULGENT CARBON-LADEN ALTERNATE DROPS ON THE MENUS, OBSCENE LAND GRABS FOR USELESS STUFF VIA GIFT REGISTRIES, IMPORTED CUT FLOWERS, RUBBISH, TULLE, HELIUM BALLOONS, MORE RUBBISH. A lot of good decision-making goes out the window in the name of a “once-in-a-life-time event” and making sure it’s memorable (read “impressive”). And that poor decision-making extends to over-spending within a retail sector traditionally full of waste and toxic materials. There were 112,954 marriages in Australia last year. That’s a hell of a lot of carbon emitting events, (half of which will end in a divorce party).Weddings are big ticket items in a couple’s lifetime, eclipsed possibly only by the purchase of a home or the car. However, unlike those purchases, this consumer experience involves multiple vendors and has the potential to involve a staggering amount of single-use products.
Green or Eco-weddings, done on point, are activities in mindful de-consumption. They aren't hippy events, but they are events that let couples unshackle themselves gracefully from the over-consumptive obscenity of the global wedding industry, which is worth $300 billion. Not million, BILLION.Often they have a delicate interplay with nature and the outdoors, or an intimate connection with a special idiosyncratic interior space. They can save couples A LOT of money and a bit of the planet while they are at it. They dance to their own wedding singer beat and can influence the entire wedding attendee group about low carbon footprints.
Plus, they are a hotbed of ideas for living sustainably. Weddings are one’s “big day”, but its greatness could be its power to influence every guest in the room, or under the fig tree as the case may be.
The sustainable wedding movement has spawned its own impressive sub-industry. Beware of wedding traders suddenly rebranding themselves as eco-friendly – really, really check that out. It’s already a competitive, over-resourced industry with not a lot of room for new entrants. Not all eco-friendly businesses will be coming in from scratch but existing business may be tailoring their offerings to involve the buzzword “green” or the prefix “eco-“. Be mindful and cast a discerning eye.
Eco-weddings aren’t just showcases for eco-friendly consumables nor are they a simple like-for-like swap out of products. Eco-weddings offer something more. Their streamlined approach sings deconsumption and an exercise in public decluttering. And the psychological pay-off is akin to Konmari’ing your wardrobe. Eco-consumers are inherently de-consumers who have programmed themselves to feel “more” with ‘”less”. This restraint of consumption is a psychological fillip in the regaining some semblance of control as a consumer. And it’s this point that ultimately defines the eco-wedding. You are favouring social standing over social status.
If you follow trends, Harpers Bazaar is touting waste-free weddings as a major wedding trend in 2019. And it’s the Reception more then the Ceremony that can be interrogated for excessive waste. Princess Eugenie’s plastic-free wedding followed her grandmother's lead and certainly drew a line in the sand for expectations for high-end weddings.
But swapping out plastic straws for the Tiffany Rose Gold variety isn’t practical, or even imaginable for most couples, there are plenty of affordable alternatives or no straw at all. Ultimately the goal of an eco-wedding should be low carbon and zero-waste. How you build your own brand of eco-chic into that offering will be the impressive aspect of the day - and the true statement of you.