An Ethically Produced Dress For a Zero-Waste Wedding

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It’s always such a pleasure to get the chance to look at other people’s wedding photos and to read all about their inspiration, but the wedding I’m sharing with you today struck such a chord with me that it feels extra-special.

For their wedding on 18th September 2016, environmental policy advisor Justine and software developer Augustinas chose to make nature a focus at their wedding, and wanted it to be as eco-friendly and as close to zero-waste as they could – truly inspiring!

Justine chose a Sanyukta Shrestha dress, as it matched her personal philosophies.

“We wanted the day to reflect our values – connection with people we love, family, respecting nature, authenticity. I loved the story of the dress – the sustainability of the supply chain, the empowerment of women in Nepal. I loved that it was all cotton and looked like it was hand-crotched by a grandmother. It had that cosy warm feeling that I was looking for. It was also very comfortable – I felt completely relaxed and very much myself in it.”

Photography by Balti Remeliai

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Justine and Augustinas chose Balti Remeliai to capture their day.

Balti Remeliai is a photographer I would definitely recommend and work with again, his style is very non-intrusive and the pictures are very natural. He’s very pleasant to work with. And of course, the pictures are really gorgeous.”

Justine and Augustinas live in London, but wanted to return to their hometown of Vilnius in Lithuania for their wedding; the place they met and fell in love.

“Our stationery designer, Jone Aleksiunaite, did a brilliant job at creating a gorgeous invitation, but also on designing the component parts so that there would be as little cut-off material as possible at the printers. It was a funny story when after that much efforts the printers still managed to make a mistake and therefore print more copies than necessary! However, we didn’t give up and used those elsewhere, as the basis of seating and sleeping plans, as name cards on room door handles, etc.”

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Justine kept her accessories simple, choosing to wear Toms, no veil and traditional Lithuania amber earrings. It was important to Justine that she be able to use her bridal outfit again, as well as other items bought specially.

“We have put a lot of effort into ensuring we were as environmentally friendly as possible. There were so many choices we made it would be difficult to list all of them… But it was almost a zero-waste wedding and we have reused a lot of the things that we bought (and we bought them with that in mind). I have worn my shoes, and have shortened the dress to be suitable for other occasions. The ring box is now a jewellery box.”

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For their ceremony, Justine and Augustinas chose to walk down the aisle together, to the sound of River Flows in You by Yiruma, performed by Silko Garsas. The couple also chose to do the readings themselves.

“We chose from a classical list of readings from the Bible that spoke about love – my husband and I did the reading ourselves, and it was sort of ‘a wholly word dedicated to each other’. He read the Hymn of Love (1 Corinthians 13) and I Love in Action (Romans 12: 9-18).”

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Justine and Augustina also chose their jeweller and stationery designer with these same guiding principles.

“It was important for us to use Fair Trade certified gold which Cred do. They were also very pleasant to work with and very patient throughout our whole decision process.”

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When reflecting on her wedding day, Justine spoke about how her vows were at the forefront of her mind when she looked back.

“I loved it all of course! But the vows stood out the most – it’s the essence of the wedding after all. I nearly cried when my husband was saying the vows, it was such a magical moment, promising to love each other forever. I would not have done anything differently, it was all magical. The only thing I’d change overall would be to get more sleep during the week before the wedding day.”

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“The planners-decorators, Pinjata, used what the barn already had (old furniture, ladders, etc.) or what they already owned – because we didn’t want to create additional waste by purchasing one-off decorations. There weren’t too many cut flowers as that would have created unnecessary waste as well. The venue had some fairy lights and we rented some more. We bought some hay to sit on outside that was later fed to local horses. They were covered with some burlap that was leftover from another friend’s wedding.”

“The table centrepieces had a simple wooden tray and some old bottles with some baby’s breath flowers and recycled jars with natural beeswax candles. The seating plan was created with some potted plants.”

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They also had a truly beautiful moving approach to gifts – I had a lump in my throat when I first read this!

“We asked people to bring an apple as a symbolic gift, which was used in a symbolic ethnic ceremony (where everyone put an apple in our basket wishing us something in one word, e.g. ‘love’, ‘magic’, ‘patience’. etc.). Later these apples were made into an apple jam and we gave them back to the guests with some thank you cards. The jars were recycled and I made the labels myself.”

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Justine and Augustinas carried this over into their flowers and decor too.

“Because the whole theme was eco-friendly and natural I wanted wildflowers. But the florist, Antribos,   advised that most wildflowers don’t keep well out of water and I could only really carry it around for a couple of hours… So we went for a mix of various seasonal flowers, leaves and grasses that created an autumnal/wildflower feel.

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It was really important to Justine and Augustinas that their wedding feast be vegetarian.

“We used Vegafe, a local vegetarian restaurant in Vilnius. They don’t normally cater for weddings but we persuaded them to! We really wanted a fully vegetarian dinner with some vegan options and it was not something that could be easily found among wedding caterers in Lithuania, which has a traditionally very meat-heavy cuisine. So we thought who could do it better than a specialist vegetarian restaurant chef. Even the meat-eaters were impressed!”

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The couple also wanted to focus on taste, rather than a traditional wedding cake look, for their dessert table.

“Our dessert table was probably assembled from four or five different bakeries… The main cake was from Ali Sokoladine and we chose it simply because it was the best cake we have ever had! They don’t specialise in wedding cakes so it was just a normal cake and didn’t look at all like a wedding cake. But the fabulous taste was more important!”

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Justine and Augustinas chose not to have traditional favours but had a wonderful and unique way to keep the chill at bay.

“It was a very cold day so we had some blankets where my mother has embroidered our initials and the wedding date, and some people took these away afterwards.”

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Justine and Augustinas chose a Katie Melua track for their first dance. During the reception, Justine and Augustinas arranged some actors to organise activities for the guests, as well as a band.

“We felt the lyrics to Thank You Stars were fitting for our love story as indeed we felt very grateful to ‘the stars’ for having found each other and for ending up at the altar.”

“We had an absolutely amazing band called The Voiceless – two cellos and drums. It was legendary! Covers ranged from Rihanna to Nirvana to Game of Thrones…”

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Words of Wedded Wisdom

“I would say do not ever forget the point of a wedding. Don’t get so sucked into the planning process that you forget to spend time with your future spouse. Don’t get so stressed that you stop enjoying the process. Choose the suppliers that are pleasant to work with so that they don’t frustrate you during the process or on the day.”

“Co-create with your other half and listen to your guts when making choices. Get lots of sleep the week before. Make sure the right people have all the information and phone numbers so that during the day no one has to ask you anything and all you have to do is enjoy all the love and happiness. Have the honeymoon right after the wedding. You’ll feel incredible and you will want to keep those emotions high for as long as you can!”

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Wow! Justine and Augustinas; I am absolutely blown away by how grounded and special your wedding was. How did you get to be so wise?? Thank you so much for allowing us to share your day, and to Balti Remeliai for the wonderful photographs.

Sarah x

Credits & Thanks

Sarah Starling

Sarah Starling View all Sarah's articles

Sarah has been writing for pleasure for as long as she can remember. She's been blogging since about 2008 and when not writing and editing she teaches tiny children part-time, and teaches and hosts workshops on all sorts of crafty things.

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