10 Ways to Make Your Big Fat Indian Wedding an Eco-Wedding

The excitement of the wedding takes you to you the wonderland of fairytales with spic and span decor and large than life wedding festivities. But, the mere thought of wedding planning gives you jitters. Even if you have everything envisioned and planned way before it comes down, you are clueless when time unfolds.  The added challenge of having an eco-wedding makes it even more important to pay attention to minute details of the wedding.

Wastage and weddings are synonymous since a very long time not only in terms of finances but in terms of resources too. Luckily the tables are turning with couples becoming more aware of the impact. Eco-Weddings or popularly eco-friendly weddings are on the rise and the modern day couples are finding ways to reduce the carbon footprint at their weddings. With technological advancements, it’s now becoming increasingly easier to plan an eco-wedding.  Right from the wedding announcement to wedding entertainment we cover ways to make your wedding environmental savvy and inspiration for couples to follow.

Wedding Stationery

Wedding Invitation cards and boxes add up to a large chunk of paper wastage.  Printing an invitation is pretty simple and the look and feel are great. But with it comes wastage of paper and the ink. Instead go digital and create your own Save the Date cards and wedding invitation websites online, making way for zero paper wastage. They are eco-friendly and easy to make and share. If at all, you wish to print your invitations, use recycled paper and vegetable ink. Quite recently  Bollywood Diva Sonam Kapoor and her hubby Anand Ahuja discarded the paper invitations and had e-invitation for their wedding. An environmental conscious couple we must say. Every bit of effort makes a  huge difference.

Venue

The venue is extremely important and sometimes the venue costs are the biggest financial expense at the wedding. Choose a venue carefully. It’s preferred to chose the same venue for all your wedding functions. They key here is a single venue will mean sharing of resources and less wastage. Having a day wedding can cut down your costs on extra outdoor wedding lightings.

Transport

There were times when the bus was hired for the baraat.  This needs to be re-introduced, not only does everyone have fun together boarded on the same bus, but less number of cars, lower the fuel emission and no hassles to find a parking.

Fireworks

It’s not just the Diwali in India where the crackers are busted with utmost enthusiasm, but weddings too. While the baraat sets its course it begins by blowing out strings of crackers, that emit a tremendous amount of smoke. These can be avoided as there is always a Band and the Baja to announce the arrival or the departure of the baraat which too adds to the noise pollution but having a silent baraat altogether is one’s individual choice but the smoke can definitely be reduced. An alternative to fireworks, you can always go for eco-friendly fire lanterns.

Cutlery

In the years that have gone by we have been swift enough to discard the old eating methods, eating from hands have been replaced by spoons, knives, and forks. The leaves once that were used to make plates, which served food to all the guests have now been replaced with fancy cutlery or paper plates. However, some parts of the country still follow the same ritual of serving the guests at the wedding with plates made of plantain leaves. The plantain leaves are biodegradable and hence easy to decompose than plastics. Though the melamine has taken over plantain leaves and is reusable and washable, there is still lots of plastic and Styrofoam plates that fill up the wedding trash. It’s usually used to serve our very Indian mouth savoring chaats and snacks which are consumed in large amounts at weddings. While we fill our gut with these delicious delicacies we fill our landfills with plastic waste. Plastic water bottles and disposable water cups should definitely be replaced with re-usable glasses.  The plastic waste takes over 1000 years to decompose, plant leaves take around 6 to 8 weeks and also add nutrients to the soil.  There is also other eco-friendly cutlery available in the market one such startup that works on making eco-friendly cutlery is Pappco that make cups, plates, spoons, and forks from sugarcane, bamboo and wheat straw. Ensure zero plastic waste at your wedding.

Wedding Decor

Wedding decor has taken the wedding industry by storm with lot of creative ideas coming up each day.  There are a lot of flower decorations, thermocol, and Styrofoam name boards.  The key to nailing the wedding decorations smartly is to re-use the stuff . Look for creative ideas on Pinterest and find out the things that can be re-used. Its all about imagining and putting things appropriately at places.   Go for all flower decor avoiding plastic glittery strings and make sure to use flowers that are available locally. There are two benefits of going local, one you will get them at better prices than flowers that have to be transported, secondly you will be providing revenue to a local florist. You can ask your wedding planner for re-usable wedding decor such as fabrics in different colors combinations, you can use flower pots, old tires, bicycle, even cages that can later be used in your own house decor etc.

Food

It’s quite overwhelming to see the food stalls at any Indian Wedding.   The platter that is served at Indian Weddings is way more than it should be with guests having the choice from Indian, Chinese, Continental, Italian and so on. The variety is huge and so are the leftovers. There is so much food that is leftover at the wedding that you could literally throw another party with the leftover. While it’s difficult to predict in advance how much will be left behind, one must choose the options wisely. Having a smaller platter is definitely the way out rather than having everything on the menu and than wasting. In case of any leftovers make sure to donate them, there are a lot of people who sleep hungry every day . There are few organizations in India that collect leftovers from party and weddings and serve to poor people one of them being Feeding India.   It’s better to have the food served to those who need it rather than  filling up the dustbins. In return what you get will be the blessings of those people whose hunger you have freed even if it is for one meal.

Wedding Favours

Return gifts are a part of Indian Traditions, commonly returned gifts are sweet boxes. Go for a more environment-friendly return gift such as samplings, miniature garden, terrarium, seeds etc that guests can plant in their gardens or make a part of wedding decor. If you can also gift your wedding favors in jute bags instead of plastic and paper wraps. Jute bags will be re-usable for a very long time and can be decomposed easily once rugged and old.

Wedding Clothes

We all know for the fact, wedding clothes can be seldom re-worn. It’s an investment that holds an emotional value but not something that you can use very frequently. Instead of splurging over on wedding outfits and jewelry try using something from heirloom, you can use your mother ’s wedding dress with some changes and alteration one such example is Bollywood    Sensation Kareena Kapoor Khan who used her mother-in-law wedding dress for the wedding.  Heirloom dress or in that case even a jewelry not only will have an emotional connection but will also make your mother feel special on your big day.  If the idea of your mom’s wedding dress seems too boring and you are looking for something fresh and out of the box, you can either rent out latest collection. If that too doesn’t seem to enthrall you choose an outfit that is created from natural fibers sourced from fair trade. The Indian Textile Industry is set for revival and you can see the same in the latest collection of famous designers such as Sabyasachi, Anita Dongre etc which speak of Indian heritage and fabrics that are weaved in India. Also, there are brands that are coming up that make bridal outfits from organic materials   Benarasee weaves and  Chemical free silk is gaining a lot of popularity. The recent wedding of Milind Soman and Ankita Powar saw the couple in friendly attires where the bride’s saree was made of bamboo textile, truly eco –friendly.

Honeymoon

Of last and not the least, is the honeymoon. The much-needed honeymoon after the hustle and bustle of the wedding should be that relaxes your mind and souls and also helps you enjoy those beautiful moments with your better half. Opt for eco-tourism for your honeymoon. In India, there are a number of eco-tourism spots that you can discover Indi has a rich flora and fauna and you would love to experience nature popular eco-tourist destination are Coorg, Kerala, Gharwal In Uttrakhand, Kodaikanal, Ladakh, North East India.

Eco-wedding is not just a new trend to follow, but it’s a way to care more for the environment that we live in an opportunity to heal the environment. It’s conveniently easily to be carried off with the excesses and fall in the trap of ever-growing exorbitant wedding desires, but it’s more satisfying to become environmentally conscious and minimize the waste and better utilize  the resources