Here are some ideas to get you started, compiled by David Shreeve, Environmental Consultant for the Church of England.
1. Dress conscious: Buy bride’s and bridesmaids’ dresses second-hand - Oxfam have at least seven bridal departments throughout the country and grooms have been hiring their suits for years.
2. Grow your own: Use flowers from your own or other local gardens, with permission.
3. Re-use, re-recycle: Presents on your wedding list can be from recycling sources, or second hand.
4. Green gifts: For those with a passion for home-grown produce, why not consider an allotment or some hens on the wedding list?
5. Wrap carefully: Request that family and friends use recycled wrapping paper for their gifts.
6. Thoughtful invitations: Wedding invites and orders of service can be done on recycled stationery.
7. Less fuel: Consider your transport to church. If it’s close enough, walk to the wedding, or consider ways of travelling that cut down on fuel use – a horse and carriage for example.
8. Catch the bus: Rather than having guests travel from the church to the reception venue in their cars, arrange for a bus to take them all together.
9. All under one roof: Some churches have facilities to hold the reception either in the church itself or in an adjoining church hall. Ask at your church what they can do.
10. Romantic lights: Candles in church are not only romantic but save on electricity too.