In recent months, in the run up to wedding season 2022, we’ve been hearing from more of our couples wanting to plan a more conscientious woodland wedding, a wedding day more considered… a wedding which creates less waste and so we wanted to share our thoughts…
As a woodland wedding venue with a Leave No Trace policy, this is really close to our hearts…. the amount of waste generated over a wedding weekend can sometimes be astounding.
So let’s start with the decorations. It’s really worth thinking about right at the start of your wedding planning journey, it’s where most of the wedding waste is produced. On the Sunday morning clear down, we see so many decorations thrown away… those items which you’ve spend months lovingly collecting for the Big Day but what do you do with them on the clear up morning? These usually end up being binned the following morning purely for the fact that you have no further use for them.
Could someone else make use of your decorations, do you have a guest or family member who would love to re-use some items from your day? Can you join Facebook pages and offer them to local brides in our area (Bury St Edmunds)… they may even come and take them away from the venue on Sunday morning… win win, they help with the clear up and its stuff you don’t have to take home!
Or will you use decorations that can be re-used at home?
What are you going to do with your beautiful wedding flowers on the morning after? You have gorgeous displays arranged by the florist but what do you do with them afterwards… ?
We’d suggest having a plan for the used flowers. Is it possible to bring lots of empty jam jars or containers so that your guests can take a selection away with them at the end of the night? In order for this to work well, you’ll need to let guests know that you’re happy for them to do this beforehand. A lovely reminder of your wedding day for them to take home, not only does this help with the clearing down but brightens up someones kitchen windowsill too.
Forget the favors! Yes Really! I hate to tell you but most will end up in the bin on the morning after.
If possible try and avoid single use cutlery/crockery whether that be plastic or bamboo. Single use plastic for us is a definite no-no but bamboo also raises questions for me. Why use natural resources to grow Large quantities just to cut down, mechanically turn into catering items and then throw away after one use? Unless your guests respect and use a devoted re-cycle bin during your wedding day (which from 6 years past experience never happens) all re-cycling items will end up along with food stuffs and general rubbish going to landfill. Yes, bamboo will break down but that’s a lot of energy and air miles used for what is still a single use item.
There are so many hire companies nowadays who supply well priced cutlery, plates etc to hire, they even collect them dirty!
We have a company within 10 mins of the Wood https://www.cma-event-hire.co.uk who supply the most amazing range of coloured crockery and cutlery for you.
Our bar uses glass as standard and after every wedding we spend a rather large amount of time getting to know our local bottle bank!
On the gardening side of things we’ve planted Upthorpe Wood with solely weddings in mind. You’ll find honeysuckle, Jasmine and clematis growing over the entrance church doors (a perfect photo spot!) as well as around the Cartlodge, our flower beds are planted up to give summer long colour and many of the trees are decorative, along with the hundreds of budleia planted to attract butterflies. We don’t use pesticides or harmful substances throughout the wedding venue.
In our honeymoon suite, Bluebell Cabin, at the edge of the wood, you’ll find solar lighting but no electricity or Wi-Fi..a step away from the hectic all invasive world around us.
Throughout the car park areas you’ll also find solar floodlighting.
Any small way, to do our tiny part in the bigger picture and we‘ll certainly do our best! And we think with some pre-planning regarding your clear up there’s lots of ways for couples to decrease waste too.
Let us know your suggestions too, we’d love to hear from you.