October, 2020 | The Wedding School

Want to build your career as a wedding planner

While eco-friendly weddings have been in vogue and trending for quite a while, it is only now that it is no longer such a challenge to plan such a wedding in India. There are enough options for hosting an eco-conscious wedding, more than ever before. With the warmer melting summers and severely cold winters, we are all witnessing the consequences of climate change with the harsh seasonal weather. A healthy lifestyle is the need of the hour, and the same is now being focused on Indian wedding plans as millennial and Gen Z couples tie the knot. If you have that specific place in the corner of your heart for nature, you might as well dedicate your BIG day for the environmental cause. And just to make it clear, as you might think that this would make your wedding day dull or unattractive, it might not be true.

Most people these days are pretty eco-aware, and also conscious of the need to treat the planet well, even when you’re planning a wedding. There are many ways you can incorporate a green-friendly ethos in your celebration, like recycling to repurposing. To minimize wedding waste or reduce the carbon footprint of your celebration, there are several different eco-friendly wedding choices you can opt for.

Facets for an eco-friendly wedding

When you aggregate several small decisions over time, they add up to better consequences. In your wedding choices, being mindful along the way produces a ripple effect. No option is too little, and when we’re trying to do our part for the environment, every bit counts. Because earth-friendly choices become readily available, adopting this theme and making it part of the identity of your wedding is a brilliant idea. We have some excellent ideas about how to have a green and sustainable wedding as well as fun. Here are your eco-friendly wedding ideas that would make your wedding stand out from others.

● Wedding invitations

Eco-friendly wedding invitations like e-invites or even updates to social media and online event calendars are alternate solutions, all of which continue to grow in complexity and appearance. Younger guests may not have a problem navigating the idea, but you may find that older guests prefer a written invitation. But, instead of that, what you should do is call them or visit them if they live in the area.

That may not always be possible, so we have some great ideas for your invitation to your wedding. Set the course for your environmentally friendly wedding with a sustainably made paper by designing your wedding invitation. By not selecting virgin paper, you can make a huge difference, so use 100 percent recycled paper instead. Seed or the plantable paper is another fabulous choice, which implies there are seeds blended into the paper pulp. Therefore, it can be soaked in water after the invitation is read, and the resultant pulp can be planted in a pot or garden. Long after it is done, the plant that will flourish and bloom will be a happy reminder of your wedding.

● Venue invitations

Your big green wedding can be organized in the arms of Mother Nature in the outdoor arena. There are also impressive green credentials in several more formal venues, so it pays to look around. Even holding your ceremony and reception at the same location is one of the best ways to reduce your footprint, which will lower the number of times of travelling your guests will be doing. Or you can consider organising a shuttle service to minimize the number of cars making the journey to attend your wedding celebration if your ceremony and reception are in two separate locations or there is a decent ride involved for most of your guests. If you are enthusiastic about the setting, choose a wedding venue that eliminates the need for lights and decoration. Through selecting an outdoor garden location with a naturally beautiful landscape, the best way to achieve this is to choose in advance. All feasible choices include a farmhouse, hotel lawns, or even a vineyard. Having a wedding in the day would also minimize energy usage, as the sun will provide all the light you need as well as guarantee great wedding pictures as well.

● Decoration invitations

In preparation, explore your plans to decrease your carbon footprint with the wedding planner. It will provide them with a guide to recommend sufficient elements of decoration. An eco-friendly wedding doesn’t mean drab, so remember to do some homework and offer some suggestions about your preferences to the decorators. We can all consider that flowers are an essential part of the wedding decor, so make sure the seasonal flowers are bought from your nearby market. You can go one step further and add faux flowers or fake flowers as an accessory but make sure they are made out of paper or recyclable materials thus reducing your carbon footprint. As they add to the romance but still look absolutely stunning, candles are a practical and pretty choice. Procure some of nature’s style aspects and integrate them into your organization’s plans. For example, for your guests to locate their seat at the reception, use real leaves as place cards. There are several other lovely decorations, plus a wide variety of tableware available in recycled cardboard or tissue paper.

For a dreamlike effect, brightly coloured fabrics could be used as drapes. Elements such as brass lanterns, earthen pots, and temple bells, and so on will make the decor look fantastic while eventually being reusable can be enlisted in your eco-friendly wedding decor. Moreover, if you select your wedding venue wisely, it will have its own atmosphere without the need for too many extra decorative elements. Another way to do well with your wedding day after your event is to resell or donate wedding objects. Offer anyone else the chance to reuse them for their own case, instead of trashing things or throwing them away!

● Food cateringinvitations

An intricate menu is the foundation of a good wedding, so you can make sure it is in line with the theme with a few subtle touches. Ingredients collected locally and processed sustainably may be the basis for preparing the wedding menu. It could be entirely organic for the salad section, which would satisfy even the pickiest person. People may not consider this, but there are really some beautiful ways you can also think green with your food.

The far more environmentally friendly wedding choice is to select a local catering company that locally sources its goods and other sources and then customize your menu to the seasonally available foods. Indeed, the reception cutlery should exclude anything and everything plastic and Styrofoam. Plant-based biodegradable crockery is an excellent alternative, and reusable (such as glass) cutlery is also a great option.

● Gifts

Friends and family are likely to consider a gift a must, so there are a variety of things you might do. First of all, you might ask them to give you presents that are either wrapped or newspaper protected. Yeah, maybe it doesn’t look so fancy, but Mother Nature is going to thank you for the gesture. And as for your return gifts, you might also send your guests gift baskets of organic fruit / dry fruits or khadi silk pouches with unique flavours and aromatic items for an environmentally friendly wedding. An eco-friendly, beautifully crafted kitchen garden gift collection is also an excellent choice for a return gift. That’s also sure to build a sense of curiosity and interest, complete with a collection of small pots, vegetable or floral plant seeds, and an instruction manual. Any plant that grows from that same collection will leave a massive impression of your marriage for days to come.

● Select recyclable decor elements

Recycling and reusability are the keys to eco-friendliness. You can select an environment-friendly décor, which brings a natural feel to your wedding by using potted plants as the key parts for your table. The signs can also be rubbed with hand-written chalkboards and decorated later.

There are several approaches you can take a sensible approach to your celebration, whether it’s something you want to concentrate on for a little, or you see it as the guiding factor behind wedding planning. A wedding is spectacular and extravagant as it says volumes about the families involved, their role in society, and marks the newly married couple with a positive collective identity. Through wedding arrangements, an attitude of responsible luxury would ensure the love and esteem of your friends and family, while also providing a healthier world to future generations.

Want to build your career as a wedding planner

2020 will go down in the books as something that has irrevocably changed everyone. Many have plunged to the bottom due to the coronavirus crisis; the ‘big fat Indian wedding’ is undoubtedly one of them. Sadly, those big fat Indian weddings now present themselves as ominous super-spreader events in our coronavirus-affected world, to only be scorned by everyone.

So while the government rules still enable a limited number of individuals to gather for a wedding, It calls for new ways of living and celebrating as the pandemic took away most of what we took for granted. And when it comes to weddings, virtual weddings are the perfect way to minimize the ‘distance’ from social separation. They encourage you to get married while staying healthy and also include all your loved ones as a part of the celebration without putting anyone at risk.

Since many couples are still wrapping their heads around the virtual wedding concept, they do get a little bit distressed regarding which wedding traditions and customs to include. Here we have come up with a list of all the Indian wedding traditions that can be organized during a virtual wedding celebration.

Engagement- exchange your hearts.

We just want our wedding day memories to last forever. And you can get just that with virtual weddings as well. While dressed up, visitors can post selfies, leave messages in the guest book, and even share videos giving blessings to the couple. With confetti and background dancers on the stage too, the engagement ceremony or ring ceremony is often celebrated in full swing. You could host a virtual ring ceremony while that idea is off the table for quite some time due to the lockdown and pandemic. They can purchase their separate rings and wear them on a video call if the bride and groom are not in one spot. They will exchange their rings if the bride and groom are together, while their nearest and dear ones bless them via the video call. Your photography team can still capture photographs of various rooms inside the discussion, as well as of guests celebrating. These memories and blessings can be compiled into a lovely video or album, according to your liking.

Colourful Mehndi ceremony

In our Indian wedding traditions, when the bride has the red-orange mehndi “stain” added to her wrists, back of hands, and feet, it is considered as a Mehndi party and is the pre-wedding celebration. Usually held the day before the wedding, with colourful pillows, the celebration also has a lounge feel. The Mehndi group has the most influence on girls as far as wedding celebrations go. Since it may take a long time for Mehndi to apply, entertainment is a must. Indian music and dances are usually there. Through video calls and virtual meetings, you can make sure that your aunts and sisters can dance on those Bollywood numbers and sing songs for you.

Virtual Haldi ceremony

Mostly on the morning of the wedding day, the Haldi ceremony, sometimes referred to as the pithi ceremony, takes place. The bride and groom in their individual homes are applied a thick yellow paste made out of turmeric and sandalwood. The yellow colour means charm, fertility, and integrity, and it also wards away darkness and harm, preparing the couple together for life and blessing both with good fortune. Although only a handful of individuals can be physically present with the turmeric and sandalwood paste bowl in hand, on virtual platforms, the rest of your friends and family members from your guest list who could not make it to your wedding can watch it via a video call.

Sway at your virtual Sangeet ceremony

The Sangeet Ceremonies should usually be part of the formal engagement event, but they are individually performed in recent times. Thus, with this festival, the joy of the wedding expands once again. Although the sangeet ceremony has been put on hold for a more significant cause along with the wedding, you still might enjoy a virtual sangeet ceremony. Please ensure that your friends and relatives have a strong internet link to buffer their dance performances so that you do not miss any moment. All those dance practices can still be fun and lovely. Together with your aunts and relatives, your cousins, nieces and nephews can all do their bit of performance within their homes while recording it live, and from the comfort of your house, you can enjoy your virtual sangeet. Being at home doesn’t mean that you can’t go all out with your dresses. Groups can discuss and agree to wear the same coloured outfits or the same type of jewellery to stand out in those video calls and make the event a blast!

Wedding day virtual celebration

Most couples have indeed started experimenting with wedding celebrations online. There are several ways in which online weddings can use technology today. Facebook Live or other virtual platforms will broadcast the wedding. There were also times where the bride and groom were both in one location, but via a video call, the priest who was to commemorate the marriage was on board. Guests can dress up in finery and participate from their lounges via video calls. And delivery services will provide the exact same menu to each guest when the time comes for the feast.

Greetings session – raise a toast.

We stand for ‘Atithi Devo Bhava’ or ‘Guest is God,’ as a community. This has historically been the hallmark of our weddings. It’s no different from virtual celebrations. The level of engagement that guests experience is what makes a virtual ceremony a success. And every part of the wedding needs to be thought through to make that happen.

The wedding website is where the couple shares their story, details of functions, gift registry, photos, live stream, and video chat content, guest book, and more. Guests can come here and leave comments, talk and live stream the ceremonies with other guests. Including some time for an open mic session where your family members can say just a few words in celebration of your big day is really special for you. To get the party started, they should share a funny story or two. The secret to getting a perfect virtual wedding is a good website that is updated frequently.

FaceTime photography

Taking those family photographs is a wedding tradition. Numerous models and photographers have pledged to resume working by FaceTime or any other video calling medium with all the companies at a break. At one end of a FaceTime call, the photographer is, and the subject is on the other. Hopping on this all-new trend’s bandwagon is easier than it sounds. It has its own challenges, but when sitting locked in a cage in our homes, it’s all about letting the imaginative juices flow and thinking out of the box. Photographers get a rare opportunity to challenge themselves creatively by making inventive use of the limited spaces with a FaceTime photo shoot.

But, to make every picture count, there are a few basics that a couple must get correct. Please ensure you recruit a photographer who might assist you with the FaceTime photoshoot idea. Dress for the virtual photoshoot camera and encourage your friends and family to capture those fun screenshots and images over the video call as well. You could also appoint a photographer who could really click on the incredible images of your virtual wedding ceremony in your courtyard or patio. In the end, let loose and enjoy the moments of your eternal tie-up.

A wedding’s purpose is to commemorate the couple with their loved ones and relatives and their love story. We urge couples to prepare ahead full throttle, strive to be motivated, draw inspiration, and share their information. You know your wedding will be remembered and celebrated, for years to come! Be prepared and have your arrangements in place for the best wedding ever.

How to plan an eco-friendly wedding in India