Name: Why is the wedding industry lagging when it comes to sustainability?
Uploaded: 2022-01-19
Duration: 6 min
Description: How to make your wedding more eco-friendly.

How to make your wedding more eco-friendly.

Why is the wedding industry lagging when it comes to sustainability?

Environment

Why is the wedding industry lagging in sustainability?

In a typical year, there are about 2.2 million weddings that happened. So according to the not real weddings, study the average cost of a wedding in 2021 with $22,500 where you have your wedding makes a big impact on how much it costs. So we see big cities have higher costs associated with them. So for example, New York, New Jersey, that average range closer to $49,000 to $54,000 for an average wedding, 50% of the spend typically goes towards those big ticket items that everyone needs a venue catering rentals. So the global spend in the wedding industry is about $250 billion us. Interestingly, the millennial audience and the gen Z audience are really prioritizing sustainability. It's becoming one of those things that's top of mind in all facets of their lives. So naturally it's finding its way into wedding planning. In November 2019, my husband and I got married and we had, I think what a lot of people considered a fairly sustainable wedding. This was very important to us as we both care about the China a lot. So we did everything that we could make it as green as possible, something that was really important for us was to source our food as locally and seasonally as possible and we did that by working with the local caterer and then choosing our menu based on all of the ingredients that were in season and also available locally. And we were also sure to compost any scrap um or any any bits of food that weren't eaten at the end of the wedding as well because obviously we want to give that food back to the earth and it's really important for me to say as well that we're both part based. So our wedding was entirely vegan. Another consideration was flowers. So we also decided to source the majority of our flowers from my parent's garden. Um So they were super, super local and we just kind of really pared back on the flowers. We weren't very kind of wild and local and finally a big consideration and perhaps the biggest consideration to me was of course my dress and also suppose that our guests are going to be wearing. So I actually wore a vintage dress that had been worn at least a few times before it was over 100 years old. My shoes, I bought second hand and then I also changed into a party dress because I didn't want to dance away in antique lace and the party dress that I changed into for dancing was a rental. I rented that dress and that was really important to me because I definitely didn't want to want to wear any new clothes on my wedding day. Those who are already sustainable kind of already know the moves that they want to make for their wedding day to make it more eco friendly. It's those that don't have that as a regular practice in their lives that kind of feel like there's a, almost maybe a negative connotation of having an eco friendly wedding that makes them feel like they might be going without for sacrificing. That's what we run into so many times with the wedding industry though, is that people want to buy everything new, They want it all to be fresh, they want it to be the first time it's being used on their wedding day. So they're buying centerpiece bases brand new instead of renting them from their florist or drifting them themselves. So some of the higher level and or more time consuming ways that you could have a more sustainable event would be potentially drifting and reselling your decor afterwards using something like compostable plates and cups, making sure to use recycled goods for all of your paper items. And if you want to take it to the next level, maybe considering cutting down your guest count just a little bit. Not only will it save you money, but you'll have less food waste unless carbon emissions from all of your guests traveling there. And finally, one of the biggest ways that you can save and be sustainable for your wedding day is to consider getting used a tire. I myself purchased a used wedding dress and we allowed our entire wedding party to choose their own attire as well, as long as it fell within our color palette and it ended up saving all of us a lot of money and we weren't buying things brand new. The challenge the industry is having towards these more sustainable practices is historically clients haven't been asking for it, vendors are very keen to delight their clients. And so when more people prioritize sustainability, I think these options will be more universal, but that's why I think we haven't done it. And I also think that inherently it's a little bit harder, right? You have to care a little bit more and you have to go through some extra steps and a lot of these vendors haven't needed to do that, right. It isn't something their clients were demanding, so maybe they didn't choose to. And then there's some people who are revolutionary in this space and they really want to make that change. They want to be the thought leader in that space. And so they're offering these services and showcasing them in their meetings with clients and finding that a lot of clients like that and they want to participate in a more sustainable practice. So we've seen lighting companies for example revolutionize their carbon footprint by changing the equipment they're using. They're now solar powered lights, We've seen floral companies recycled throughout the event and then offer a full breakdown service, which means they're composting all organic matter of materials And really reducing that landfill build up. One of the things we always say is it doesn't have to be 100% carbon neutral wedding for it to be sustainable. You can make small swaps as a couple that will actually make a big difference in your day. I know a lot of people say that organizing weddings is really, really stressful, but honestly, because I think we have paired things back and really tried to just focus on the things that meant the most to us. Um I loved it. I loved organizing the wedding.