Your wedding ceremony is the heart of your day. It is also one of the most naturally low-impact parts of the whole celebration. But there are still small, meaningful choices you can make that add up. Here are some ideas for keeping your ceremony a little kinder to the planet, without it feeling like a compromise.
- Choose a venue that works harder for the planet
One of the biggest sustainability wins on a wedding day is having your ceremony and reception in the same place. When guests only need to travel once, you immediately reduce a significant chunk of the day’s carbon footprint, and it tends to make everything feel more relaxed too.
It is also worth thinking about how guests will get there. A venue with good transport links, or one that is easy to reach by train or bus, means fewer cars on the road. Sharing travel information with guests in advance, or encouraging a car share, is a small gesture that can make a real difference.
If you want a venue that goes even further, Larchfield Estate near Lisburn is a carbon negative venue, meaning it actively removes more carbon than it produces. It is one of my favourite places to work, and I am proud to be a recommended supplier there.
- Ask your celebrant about their values
Your celebrant spends more time preparing for your wedding than almost any other supplier on your day. It is worth having a conversation early on about how they work and what matters to them. An intro call is a perfect opportunity to ask whether they offer remote meetings, how they travel, and whether sustainability is something they think about in how they run their business.
For what it is worth, I offer online meetings as an option to all of my couples, which can cut out unnecessary travel on both sides. It is a small thing, but every little counts.
- Keep your supplier team local
The closer your suppliers are to your venue, the less travel is involved across the whole day. A photographer, florist and caterer who are all within an hour of your venue will collectively clock up far fewer miles than a team travelling from across the country. It is a question worth asking when you are putting your team together.
- Think carefully about your flowers
Fresh flowers are beautiful, but cut flowers flown in from overseas come with a significant carbon cost. If flowers are important to you, look for a florist who works with seasonal, locally grown blooms or who can source from UK and Irish growers. Spring weddings lend themselves to tulips, daffodils and blossom. Summer brings peonies, sweet peas and wildflowers. Autumn is gorgeous with dahlias and foliage. The beautiful flowers you can see in the photos throughout this post are by One Small Seed in Ballyclare, County Antrim – a cut flower farm growing seasonal, artisan blooms right here in Northern Ireland. If you’re looking for locally grown flowers for your wedding, they are well worth a visit.
Dried flowers and foliage are also a wonderful option, and they last long after the day is over. Some couples choose to keep their ceremony arrangement at home as a lasting memento.
- Skip the order of service booklets
Printed order of service booklets are one of those things that guests hold for an hour and then leave on their seat. Consider going digital instead. A simple QR code on a small card is all you need, or you can skip the programme entirely since your celebrant will guide guests through everything as it happens. If you love the idea of something tactile, a single beautifully printed card with just the key details is a much lighter alternative.
- Borrow your signing table decor
The signing table moment is one of the loveliest parts of a humanist ceremony, and it deserves to look beautiful. But there is no need to buy new decor specifically for it. This is the perfect opportunity for your something borrowed. A vase from a family member, candle holders from a friend, a piece of fabric that means something to someone you love. Borrowed items bring their own quiet meaning to the moment.
- Ditch the plastic at the end of the ceremony
That moment when you walk back down the aisle as a married couple is one of the best of the whole day, and it does not need to come wrapped in plastic. Single-use confetti sachets and plastic bottles of bubbles create unnecessary waste. Instead, consider loose petal confetti in a basket that guests can grab a handful from. Thinking about alternatives to confetti? Wooden wands with ribbon and bells or a simple tunnel of raised hands make for a brilliant send-off without the rubbish.
- Consider where your rings come from
Wedding rings are worn every day for the rest of your lives, which makes them worth thinking about carefully. Recycled metals, lab-grown stones, and fairmined gold are all widely available now and come with a much lighter environmental footprint than traditionally mined alternatives.
There are two brilliant jewellers based right here in Northern Ireland worth knowing about. Cameron and Breen, based near Belfast, make handmade bespoke wedding bands from recycled gold and silver and offer a remodel service for old jewellery. Mairi.co, based in rural Northern Ireland, works with fairmined gold and also specialises in remodelling family heirlooms into something new. Having a piece of your grandmother’s jewellery remade into your wedding ring is about as meaningful as it gets.
Thinking about a humanist wedding ceremony in Northern Ireland? I would love to help you create something that feels completely yours. Get in touch for a free, relaxed video call and let’s chat about your plans.
Stefanie Onipko is a humanist wedding celebrant based in Donaghadee, Northern Ireland, offering weddings, vow renewals and naming ceremonies across Belfast, County Down, County Antrim and beyond.
Photos of Jill & Gavin at Harry’s Shack Portstewart, taken by Kalie Reid.