If that’s a priority for you then step number one is to look for a wedding venue like Tythe that is doing ‘great sustainable work’ says Anne O’Brien, a celebrant and founder of Bluebell Ceremonies.

At Tythe, that means being family run and close to its suppliers so that being sustainable can become part of its everyday life. Anne was invited to visit Tythe back in 2023 when owner Emma Deeley noticed that couples were often not considering a celebrant-led wedding over a church or registrar.

As the values of Tythe and Anne’s business are well matched, it seemed logical that the two should work together and Anne is now a regular supplier at Tythe. ‘Everyone we work with is increasingly aware of their environmental impact, but I hadn’t come across this much, if at all, with any registrars so discovering that Anne was infusing sustainability into her work as a celebrant was very interesting,’ adds Emma.

Anne has more than 30 years’ experience working in the sustainability business and has cleverly combined her two passions in life to help couples host beautiful weddings that have less impact on the environment. She talks to Jade Beer about the most effective, simple and creative steps you can consider.

Some couples, according to Anne, will do a couple of small nods to sustainability across their wedding day, like renting furniture or borrowing key pieces of decor. While for others it will be the guiding value that will influence every decision they make during their wedding planning. ‘But most couples are moving in this direction and not least because it feels good,’ she says. ‘In the most recent survey by the Sustainable Wedding Alliance, 98% of couples said that sustainability was a factor in planning their wedding.

And I couldn’t be happier about that. I personally plant 25 trees for every ceremony that I deliver, and it gives me a great deal of joy from my little office in Oxfordshire to know I’m planting trees in Kenya or Madagascar.

Something is always better than nothing. Retaining all the beauty of your wedding day but also making decisions that are kinder to the environment is easier than you might expect.’ 

It is entirely in your power to work with the ones who you feel align with your own values, reminds Anne. ‘You don’t need to look too hard to find creative suppliers in the wedding industry, producing incredibly stylish work, who also want that work to be easier on the environment. In my experience, most of them enjoy the challenge of pushing that even further.

Chat to them in detail about the choices you make together. They may very easily be able to offer something you hadn’t considered that’s every bit as beautiful but a little kinder to the planet too. Ask them,what more you can do together to reduce the overall impact of your event without compromising the look of the day.’ 

If sustainability is important to you, then looking for a venue that is family run is a fantastic place to start, according to Anne. ‘Naturally a venue like Tythe that has been run by the same family for generations will have a close relationship with its suppliersand the environment they occupy. Being family run means having control over key decisions and, in Tythe’s case, how they generate electricity on the farm. It means sustainability is ever present in the culture of the business.

Isn’t it wonderful to know that the apples grown in their orchard are what your guests are drinking when they order a Tythe Apple Sour, that the mint in their Pimms is farm grown, that all the wine corks from your party will be recycled or that guests will be hydrating with water from the farm’s purification system that allows Tythe to serve still and sparkling water in re-usable glass bottles.

All those details count for a lot alongside the bigger decisions like investing in a biomass boiler that runs on wood pellets creating enough energy to heat the entire venue while solar panels on the roof of the grain store produce enough power to light Tythe’s estate. When you’re posing for photographs, reflect on the fact that Tythe has planted over 1000 trees around the estate. 

It’s also worth considering the fact that they have more outdoor ceremony spaces than your typical venue and that means you’re saving on heating and lighting large rooms inside. Seasonal and local produce is a passion for their in-house caterer, Absolute Taste, and owner, Emma Deeley, has spent considerable time curating a collection of props and décor that can be hired, negating the need for couples to buy lots of new one-use materials for their wedding day. They’re doing great sustainable work.’

‘When it comes to sustainable weddings, small is beautiful. But, if that’s not for you, there’s still plenty you can do to reduce your impact on the environment. Travel, meat, and flowers are the significant areas to look at first. Ask yourself, can you reduce the number of journeys required to attend your wedding. Liaise with guests to see if they can car share or provide them with all the public transport information they need. Tythe has accommodation, ceremony and reception spaces all on the same site so merely by choosing to marry there you are reducing the miles travelled by a lot of your guests. Most prefer it that way and it makes the whole day more relaxed. 

You can expect most large-scale events that are professionally catered to have vegetarian or vegan options which is a great starting point. But also ask how you can reduce food waste – consider grazing tables or buffet style or sharing platters when people take just the things that they like. One of the easiest ways to bring down the food miles is to work with local growers and producers. 

Next, I would say take a minute to look at Flowers from the Farm for information on where you can source your flowers from a local flower grower. Perhaps set yourself the goal of reducing how far your flowers are transported. That can be as simple as avoiding tropical blooms, as they’re generally chilled in transit, making a hefty carbon contribution. Locally grown seasonal flowers are as fresh as they come and always offer something creative and unique. 

As your wedding celebrations get underway, move the flowers from one area to another. There’s little point keeping huge displays in the church once everyone has left. Or create designs that can be  reworked as gifts for guests to take home. Who wouldn’t love that!

The Sustainable Wedding Alliance wedding carbon calculator

This will measure the impact of your wedding across various categories like travel, accessories, food. It will calculate how much carbon is associated with each of them, according to the decisions you make. You can use it as a base line from which to pare back from or as a guide to where you could direct your efforts to bring down your carbon footprint and make your day more sustainable. 

Ecologi – An international organisation planting trees and supporting carbon reduction projects.

Green Union – A brilliant UK eco-friendly wedding and lifestyle resource.

Mindfully Wed – A useful Australian community inspiring couples to plan eco-friendly, ethical, vegan or zero-waste weddings.