Aren’t weddings supposed to be simple, family-oriented, eco-friendly and close to heart? That’s how weddings were, until a few decades ago. Instead, today’s weddings are overwhelming– gaudy decors, useless gifts, piles of leftovers and never-ending guest lists. Here is a couple who managed to pull off a no-waste green wedding without compromising anything on their checklist.
Ratheesh and Sathya wanted a ceremony where their family was happy and there was no food wastage. Once they began working towards these goals, they had radical and innovative thoughts encouraging them to custom design a wedding suiting their needs.
Crowdsourcing the ideas:
In spite of it being an arranged marriage, the couple wanted a simple wedding without unnecessary frills. They wanted acceptance and blessings of their family for their new-age wedding. They felt it was important to get views and ideas from family. During their engagement ceremony, they gathered their family and voxpop-ed ideas for their wedding. Taking in their valuable suggestions, they cancelled the reception. They also sat down with their priest, understood the meaning of each ritual, eliminating 60% of the rituals they did not believe in.
Sourcing locally:
The couple wanted to support local businesses and hence sourced all their requirements from within a 5 km radius. They wore garlands made by a local flower shop. They followed a strict no-gift policy and borrowed clothes and jewellery from family, making them more sentimental and personal.
Food and Waste management:
The food was catered and locally sourced only using the organic indigenous vegetable that was specially grown for the ceremony. The couple worked towards a no waste-system and had a person designated to make compost out of the leftovers. They brought in 2 cows which made it possible the easiest way.
Carpooling:
Consciously, a wedding hall without a parking facility was booked to encourage people to carpool. They connected people attending their wedding from the same neighbourhood and arranged for carpool service minimizing pollution.
Gifts:
They created a QR code and used cash registry service “Wedding Wish List” for their honeymoon fund. They are collaborating with "Pick Your Trail" for organizing their honeymoon to Japan.
Instead of compromising on return gifts, they worked with “@kumaran-silks#” and gifted clothes to 45 members of their immediate family. As a brand-building exercise, they explained to them why Kumaran silks was their best option to buy from.
They gifted a kilo of vegetables that were grown locally and organically with the help of "My Harvest Farms", making sure that their guests use them for making the meal. They also gave an option of subscribing to a farming service where they would be supporting a farmer who would grow vegetables for them every month.
The children of the family collected handwritten notes to farmers who grew vegetables for their wedding meal. Small gestures like these make their wedding a heartfelt one!
Invites and décor:
Unlike today’s weddings, they went décor-free. The had no printed invitations but choose e-invites and made a video for inviting their guests.
Photography:
They chose not to have a pre-wedding or post-wedding shoot. They chose "@studio-lumieres#" to capture moments as it was happening without fabricating any emotions.
Ratheesh and Sathya are a model couple and have brought about a radical change in the way the wedding is conducted. It is refreshing to learn about such an inspiring wedding. We wish more couples are conscious of the impact they have on the surroundings and follow their feat, bringing about a change that is desperately required in today’s wedding scenario.
