I spend a lot of my time helping couples create weddings that are a little kinder to the planet, so it only seems fair to show you my own, warts and all.
And I do mean warts and all. Ours was a destination wedding near Bath (we were living in England at the time), which meant a lot of our guests had to drive a fair way to get there, or fly over from NI, and there is no pretending that was the low-carbon choice. So we tried to make plenty of our other decisions count, in the hope they would offset it a little. Here is what we did, in case any of it is handy for your own day.
We let the flowers choose everything
We used a local florist and asked only for what was actually in bloom nearby. We married in October, so that meant dahlias, and oh, they were glorious. We had no fixed colour scheme at all. We simply let whatever was growing that month decide the palette for us. It took the pressure right off, it cost less, and it meant nothing was flown halfway across the world to sit in a vase for a day.
The cake came from Marks and Spencer
I will happily admit it: our wedding cake was an M&S cake, dressed up with some of those same local flowers. It was delicious, a fraction of the price, and nobody was any the wiser until now. Sadly M&S do not do this here in Northern Ireland, but French Village offer something similar if you fancy the same trick.
Not a scrap of paper went out
We sent no paper invitations at all. Mr O, my husband, built us a wedding website himself, and everything lived there: the details, the RSVPs, the menu choices, the song requests. It all came back to us by email. Mr O does love a spreadsheet so needless to say he was in his absolute element.
The food grew where we married
Our venue grew its own vegetables, and we married right at harvest time. So the veg on every plate had been grown, picked, prepped and cooked on site. You cannot get many fewer food miles than a walk across the garden.
Little gifts that kept on giving
For favours, we gave everyone a personalised wee sachet of wildflower seeds, so they could take a bit of the day home and let it grow. We kept a few and our kids have now sown them in our new home in Donaghadee – an extra special corner of the garden now! And we made little bottles of cherry vodka using cherries from the tree in our own garden, a nod to Mr O’s Russian roots. Homemade, homegrown, and still talked about by our guests. They were quite sizeable bottles, yet somehow didn’t last long when everyone sat down… That might explain the ensuing party, lasting until 4am.
A 99 pound dress and no wasted outfits
My dress came from eBay, second-hand but with tags, for the grand sum of ยฃ99. I figured it was worth a punt, and it arrived absolutely perfect, no seamstress needed. My shoes, both the ceremony pair and the dancing pair, were second-hand too. We had no bridesmaids or groomsmen, which we loved for its own sake, and which also meant no outfits bought for a single wear, no matching pyjamas, none of that. And I made the signage, the place settings and the table plan myself. I sourced a vintage typewriter and used it, nerd that I am, to create the pieces.
We kept the whole team local
Every supplier we used travelled less than ten miles to be there. Our photographer, our florist, our hair and our makeup, all of them local. That meant fewer miles on the day, yes, but it also meant working with people who knew the area, loved it, and were part of the same wee community as us.
That closeness is a big part of why I so love working locally as a celebrant myself. Some of the venues I find myself at most often are right here on my doorstep in County Down: Clandeboye Lodge, Culloden Hotel, Cultra Manor and Orange Tree House. There is something rather special about marrying people in the very same patch of the world you call home.
A proud wee footnote
I am also honoured to be one of the recommended celebrants for 2026 at Larchfield Estate, one of the very few carbon-negative wedding venues in the UK and Ireland. So when a couple has their heart set on a genuinely sustainable venue, I am always delighted to be there with them.
Was it perfect? No. Did we try? Yes.
That is really the heart of it. Our wedding was not a flawless zero-waste affair, and I would never pretend otherwise. But we made a lot of small, deliberate choices, and together they added up to a day that felt completely like us and sat a little easier on the world.
If you would like a hand doing the same, this is exactly the sort of thing I love helping couples with. Have a read of how to have a more sustainable ceremony, or just get in touch for a wee natter.
Venue: Guyers House
Photographer: A Tall Long Legged Bird