If you’re wondering if a sustainable wedding can still feel luxurious, I’m here to reassure you: YES, YES, YES!!!

Weddings and sustainability haven’t always gone hand in hand but with growing awareness of our individual impact on planet earth, more couples are planning their weddings with sustainability in mind. This is such an exciting time for wedding vendors as with increasing demand for sustainable products and services, they are innovating quickly! Looking for luxe but environmentally friendly port-a-loos? They exist! It’s a real thing!

When I first met Britt and Pete, I was excited to see how sustainability would be incorporated into their wedding day. Britt runs Britt’s List, a sustainable and ethical fashion website, which advocates for local brands that are kind to: people, animals and planet so that we can make informed choices. Britt and Pete have successfully married luxury and sustainability in a gorgeous celebration at the Groom’s family home on the Mornington Peninsula. From florals using flowers and foliage from their garden, a tree-planting to carbon offset the km travelled to antique plates found at op-shops, the couple made good on their sustainability promise! With all the thoughtful touches, the wedding felt personal, unique and true to the couple’s passion.

In this post, Britt shares her top three tips on how to plan a sustainable wedding and some of her favourite sustainable vendors. Britt found inspiration through Less Stuff More Meaning (another great resource!) and made considered choices around her event styling and who she would work with for her big day. To read more about Britt’s planning process and tips, read her extended blog post here.

Find their vendor list at the end of this blog post.

Thanks Britt & Pete!

Lei x

BRITT & PETE - A SUSTAINABLE WEDDING WITH ENGLISH CHARM by leilei.clavey

WHY DID YOU DECIDE TO GET MARRIED WHERE YOU DID?

It's Pete's family home and was his late mum's pride and joy (the gardens especially). We always wanted to get married there but even more so now as it will ensure that we feel her presence.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR OUTFITS.

I was feeling pretty uninspired by most things – in the sense that there's SO MANY beautiful dresses but they're all a bit same-y and not really me. When I found the Kamperett dress I knew it was the one for me. Relaxed but chic.

Pete's always dressed well. He did want to wear a three piece suit but was feeling he wanted to keep it light for the garden setting so decided to go with a lighter colour for the jacket. He's wearing his RMs and cuff links that his mum bought him.

wHAT ARE YOUR HONEYMOON PLANS?

We're off to NZ! Auckland / Waiheke then Queenstown, Wanaka, Lake Tekapo and Christchurch, all with a 14 month old in tow!

Advice for other couples

Chip away at the planning! It's all fallen together over the last 8 months.

Tell us a bit about Britt’s List and why planning a sustainable wedding was so important to you and Pete?

As a sustainable fashion blogger, I was always going to be focused on finding and purchasing beautiful, ethical and sustainable garments for our wedding, but to tell the truth, I hadn't thought much further than that.

With guests flying interstate, and food for almost 100 people, I quickly realised the environmental impact of our wedding was going to be substantial, which I wasn't comfortable with. I hadn't considered the option of offsetting the entire carbon footprint until I came across Less Stuff More Meaning – an eco-friendly online wedding directory and carbon footprint calculator. This tool made it super easy to punch in and calculate the total carbon impact of our wedding, and recommended a company to offset that with.

How did sustainability feature on your wedding day?

We had considered every element of our impact - from outfits to flowers and flight miles too. Ultimately, we worked across all these elements to reduce the total impact, and we offset what was left (mostly catering and flights) via GreenFleet.

In an effort to keep our carbon footprint down, we worked with local contractors including a caterer that was local to Mornington Peninsula and a Melbourne-based wedding photographer and celebrant. Other contractors included our cake maker, marquee and furniture suppliers (all local). We also managed to find solar powered port-a-loos which were both eco-friendly and chic.

WHAT ARE YOUR TOP 3 TIPS FOR PLANNING A SUSTAINABLE WEDDING?

1. Buy second hand and rent where you can – Buying second hand or renting products and garments is an easy way to reduce your environmental footprint. So many wedding dresses are worn once and resold on Stillwhite and the like. I bought my shoes secondhand on Facebook Marketplace and it saved me half the monetary cost and all the environmental cost. I bought all of our plates from op shops and rented all of our furniture, glassware and cutlery.

2. Shop local – Travel miles are a big contributor to event emissions. One way to bring this down is to work with local suppliers, caterers sourcing local produce, locally grown flowers etc.

3. Keep it intimate – The smaller the event, the less impact it's going to have. We had almost 100 people at our wedding (easy to do once you have two families and a few friends!) so the environmental footprint from the travel and catering added up quickly. But keeping it intimate really is the easiest way to reduce your impact.

DO YOU HAVE ANY SUSTAINABLE VENDORS YOU WOULD LIKE TO SHARE OR HIGHLIGHT TO MY READERS?

The groom and groomsmen's outfits were from M.J. Bale which is now Climate Active certified as "Australia's first fully carbon neutral fashion brand". That was an easy win. We also found some very chic port-a-loos from Gather Round which are solar powered and have recycled Who Gives a Crap toilet paper.