Greening your wedding
With sustainability and waste issues hitting the media daily, its no surprise that this has also had an impact on the trend towards "greener" weddings. Looking back over this wedding season, we have had an array of beautiful brides, bouquets and banquets. We have also noticed the move towards more green eco-elements across the aisles and tablecloths – lots of beautiful, fun and innovative ideas which are also mindful of the environment.
Eco-friendly wedding tips
Seasonal Flowers and Foliage. All around us in the Clare Valley, we have Eucalyptus, Pepper trees and Olive trees which work beautifully for dressing tables, creating arbours or for framing the head table (just check with the land owner first…. or if “road side gathering” be careful of traffic!). They of course can be dressed up with other flowers, but using what we have around us or what we can gather locally helps towards reducing our carbon foot print. Australian Native Flowers have been very popular again, and for good reason! They are stunning and look superb as bouquets and centre pieces, are resilient in warmer temperatures and can be dried as a keepsake after the event. Try your hand at simple arrangements or utilise the services of the lovely team at Mid North Party Hire who can provide foliage arrangements as part of their styling service. Local florists also provide excellent service, as well as those from further afield, such as Fleur de Lys who created beautiful floral art for one of our weddings this season.
Gum Leaf Confetti. We love traditional dried rose petals (even better if you can collect and dry them from your own garden) and think that using lavender buds or olive leaves are also great alternatives to paper confetti. However, our favourite innovative idea from this season is gum leaf confetti, which is so simple yet so fantastic. Got some loose Eucalyptus leaves lying about? Grab a hole punch and off you go! Host a pre-wedding confetti-making get-together with BYO-Hole Punch - ask some friends over, add in a bottle of wine (or two) and you’ll have your confetti bags sorted in no time. For some inspiration visit the MotherNatured website, or alternatively if you can't find the time to make your own, support an SA-based business like Fox and Fauna who can provide tailored packets of leaf confetti for celebrations.
Hiring. This is a classic – you spend so much time, money and effort purchasing everything to style your special day, only for the items later to sit in the garage until you sell them, a friend uses them or they get thrown out. What a waste. Hiring your items instead means that you can select from a wide range of quality items and don't need to worry about transporting or storing them. We have a range of hire companies locally, such Mid North Party Hire, that are very helpful and excellent at curating beautiful spaces. There is also a new local event company that specialises in bespoke rustic and custom pieces, MWG Event Hire.
Green Bonbonnieres. We love that this has become "on trend", with some standout ideas from weddings this season – one with adorable little succulent pot plants that were dotted around the woolshed and another couple utilised potted ferns as centrepieces. These plants worked beautifully as green decoration throughout the evening and then given to guests as a reminder of the magical day. Succulents in particular are so hardy, requiring very little maintenance in the leadup to the wedding – one less thing for you to worry about! Our favourite bonbonniere this season though was the appropriately themed "let love grow" bio-degradable seed paper.
Other Handmade Bonbonnieres. We loved the ingenuity shown this season, from beautiful personalised biscuits to handmade naughts-and-crosses pebble games.
Minimising wastage of drinks. Our bar team often comment on the barely touched wine glasses and bottles that get forgotten when the guests hit the dancefloor. Guests then come back to the bar for a fresh beverage, leaving their earlier tipple getting warm on the table. Themed stubby-holders help keep those beverages cool for longer, as well as being a keepsake for guests, but we particularly loved these "please don't take my drink" coasters at a recent wedding, which led to far fewer drinks being poured down the drain!
Eco-friendly disposable food service packaging and tableware. While traditional crockery and cutlery remains the "greenest" option for seated functions, its been great to see disposable plastic items replaced with compostable plant-based noodle boxes, canape cones, plates and cutlery by many caterers for cocktail style functions. These are also a great option for post-wedding brunches, when it can be difficult to find volunteers to wash up! For these items and other eco-friendly party supplies, check out South Australian-based business Eco Party Box.
We also work to minimise environmental impacts of events
An environmental management policy underpins our approach towards the use of natural resources and waste management. With weddings and other events at Bungaree, much of this happens "behind the scenes", including:
- Recycling – All bottles and cans collected from functions and accommodation are recycled through a depot in Clare
- Food waste – Our chooks benefit from food scraps from catering and accommodation, and they in turn provide us with delicious eggs!
- Composting - Much of the green waste from both our garden maintenance and from function centrepieces is composted
- Revegetation - We encourage revegetation through an active tree planting program and regeneration by fencing off vegetation corridors, helping offset carbon emissions
- Information – We provide information in our guest accommodation to encourage sustainable use of resources, including water, wood and energy.
We hope this has given bridal couples some ideas as they plan their weddings in 2020 and beyond. In the meantime, have a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year!
Charlie and The Bungaree Events Team x
