The Concept

Our intention is to focus on moving forward with kindness and in a mindful manner as responsible wedding vendors and occupants of this earth. This styled shoot focuses on having a conscious wedding - from working with suppliers who are known for the mindful business practices to learning how to create a zero-waste, eco friendly and sustainable celebration. All while producing something truly beautiful! - Weddings By Andrea

How The Styled Shoot Came To Be

Having more time to reflect during lockdown, I kept asking myself how can channel this crazy year into something positive, push forward with good intention and make a difference. I wanted my business to not only create magical experiences for my clients, but also help to make small changes for the good of our earth (as cliche as that may sound - I am so letting my hippie flag fly here! haha). This intention coupled with my years of conscious festival planning experience (as a part of the Retreat Yourself Festival production team) made me realise I already have the knowledge to educate and discuss these important changes with my vendors, ensuring we share the same ethos.

The very next day Natasha from Lou and Co called saying she and Sasha Westgate would love to partner on a styled shoot (thank you universe for answering my call) and suddenly the wheels began to turn. I immediately contacted SA Weddings to ensure together we can give this shoot the strong voice it deserves. If just a few couples start asking their suppliers the right questions due to seeing this shoot and article the team would be overjoyed - as a team we truly wanted to start the conversation and spark curiosity in our clients. If we all start asking simple questions we will effect change and invoke a new consciousness. - Weddings By Andrea

Tips

This amazing dream team of suppliers share their best tips on planning a mindful and waste-free wedding!
From wedding dresses, to stationery to a chic reception space - the best advice is served!

Natasha from Lou and Co

Tips on how couples can plan a mindful and waste-free wedding
I would recommend that a bride chooses to work with a local bridal designer. That they purchase their fabric from a local fabric store. It is always nice for a bride to incorporate something old into their bespoke gown whether it is making use of fabrics such as lace or beads from a family members wedding dress or wearing a veil that has been passed on through family generations. After their wedding day a couple could make use of the bride's dress/veil by making a christening outfit or a baby mobile to hang above their newborns crib.

How do you as a supplier offer a mindful service/run a conscious business?
I work from home. All of my clients' outfits are bespoke and handmade locally by women. All of my clients' fabrics and trimmings are purchased from local fabric stores. All of my packaging and printing is done locally. I keep all fabric off cuts and donate it locally.

Madeleine from Madeleine Hair & Makeup

Tips on how couples can plan a mindful and waste-free wedding
When you plan on booking an artist, do not be afraid to ask about the contents of their kit. With hair and make-up, one has to always be conscious of the products, tools, and disposables that are being used. Luckily, these days, ozone-depleting chemicals have mostly been banned, but in some cases some brands have found loopholes which cause these products to still be used -especially in aerosol hairsprays.

Educate yourself, read the labels, google the products. Check out sites like Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep Cosmetics Database, or purchase Faithful to Nature products that are kind to the planet.Ingredients used on you might not only have an effect on the environment, but on your own health as well.

How do you as a supplier offer a mindful service/run a conscious business?
Communication and advertisements are done electronically. When a client is booked for hair, I try to use non aerosol bottles that do not contain toxic propellants. There are also paraben free aerosol options available.

For a make-up application, natural light is preferred over electrical lighting. My kit consists of multiple wooden make-up brushes that are often sanitised with alcohol for water conservation. When washed with water, green cleansers are used. With disposables, towels or tissues or reusable cloths are used instead of wipes, otherwise kind to nature wipes are the way to go. Also, bamboo cotton swabs are great!

Some make-up brands sell their products in sustainable packaging that can easily be recycled. When returning 6 empty containers at MAC for recycling, you receive a free lipstick. *Did somebody say bonus! 70% of cosmetics that end up in landfill are not actually empty. Ensure to use every last bit of that glorious product before it's thrown away. Every day new, eco-friendly products are created to replace the old, harmful ones. Stay educated and informed by doing your research, and never be afraid to ask about ingredients.

Fiona from Love Wildly Design

Tips on how couples can plan a mindful and waste-free wedding
1.
Go digital for your save the date & invitations: wedding websites are the way to go! It's so convenient to have everything digital for your guests nowadays, plus you're saving the environment by not printing everything out.
2.
Choose recycled paper: Print your stationery on recycled paper, there are lots of beautiful options to choose from and it does make a big difference to the environment.
3.
Minimise: Try to keep your paper goodies to a minimum to avoid waste. Skip the extras, print a menu or two per table instead of per person and have couples share a program or even go for an order of the day sign to make a statement.
4.
Opt for recycled perspex for your signage (now available on request) or use wood so it can be repurposed again.
5.
Recycle after the wedding: Collect all your stationery leftovers like menus/programs or name cards after the day and try to recycle or reuse where possible.

How do you as a supplier offer a mindful service/run a conscious business?
I keep mindful of recycling leftover materials when I do production and I prefer to use recycled papers as much as possible. My own business stationery is all printed on recycled paper and I'm looking into packaging our stationery items in the best eco-friendly way. I also always encourage my brides to be minimalistic with their stationery. Wedding stationery can still be absolutely amazing, maybe even more so, when it's kept clean and simple.

Andrea from Weddings by Andrea

Tips on how couples can plan a mindful and waste-free wedding
The biggest tip I can offer any couple who’d like to plan a mindful celebration is ASK QUESTIONS. Don’t be shy to ask your suppliers how they strive to offer a conscious and sustainable service. Whether it be as simple as whether the venue recycles, what happens to the floral/food waste and dropping the use of straws at the bar - every small change is one step towards a more conscious and caring industry.

The more obvious answer ;) Connect with a like-minded wedding planner who will execute your wishes and carefully select a team of vendors who together will work to produce and conscious and waste-free celebration
Support local and make use of suppliers local to your wedding venue. Make use of florals in season (rather than importing), support our local nurseries all while ensuring emissions remain as low as possible.

Upcycle, recycle and reuse - a good example of this would be to use a conscious supplier like Muse Decor for hiring - they offer unique and gorgeous furniture pieces many of which have been refurbished. Hire where possible rather than cutting new fabrics.

How do you as a supplier offer a mindful service/run a conscious business?
I’ve spent the last few years blessed to be a part of a conscious festival planning production team which sparked my love for carefully considering our impact as event hosts. When planning a wedding for my clients I aim to team up with vendors who I know run their services in the most sustainable and waste-free manner, this in itself already sets the platform for a more mindful event. From this point I ask questions and educate my clients on their options - whether it be choosing upcycled wood for signage or recycled paper for the stationery (you would not believe how beautiful this can be! Just check out Love Wildly) I am passionate about setting the stage for a waste-free and mindful wedding.

Crisna from Bouwer Flowers

Tips on how couples can plan a mindful and waste-free wedding
I would love to advise couples to take a considered approach to the type of floral decor that they want to incorporate for their wedding day. Be mindful of the amount of decor you want, when it comes to flowers less can definitely be more. For example, if you have your heart set on having installations, don't have plenty of flowers on your tables. Also, ask your florist if certain arrangements can be re-purposed in other areas than what they were initially meant for. A good example of this will be the ceremony flowers. This is an area where a large amount of your flower budget will be spent, but you only use it for a short amount of time, this can easily be used in other areas of the wedding.

Always opt to use local and seasonal flowers instead of imported flowers, any florist should be able to advise you as to what is in season in your wedding month. This saves on CO2 emissions and your supporting local growers.

Some helpful questions that you can ask your florist to determine if they have an eco-conscious studio are the following:
1. Do you compost?
2. Do you use traditional floral foam, chicken wire or bio-foam as the base of your arrangements?
3. Where do you source your flowers from?
4. Do you re-use the water in your flowers buckets when you're done designing?

How do you as a supplier offer a mindful service/run a conscious business?
We try our best to educate our clients about what flowers are in season and urge them to opt for having locally grown and indigenous flowers in their decor over imported flowers. We also advise clients to choose large feature elements in their decor that can be moved and repurposed in the various areas of the wedding. Our aim is to have our clients think carefully about what they want and then adapt the design to be compatible with our philosophy of using local and indigenous flowers. We advocate for sustainable foraging and support local farmers and suppliers. We also compost all of our natural waste and recycle the rest.

We're moving to become a completely foam-free studio, but for the time being, we've swapped out traditional plastic floral foam for biodegradable floral foam. It is a process of learning and adapting your skills to suit a new medium, but hopefully, we'll make the transition to only using chicken wire as the base for all of our arrangements. Our floral design style is also very natural and seasonal and we love to incorporate dried foliage in our designs, which helps save on our water usage. We also re-use our leftover water to water our studio garden.

We only use biodegradable cleaning products. Most of the candles that we use for our weddings are rental candles that are returned and remoulded afterwards.

It may all seem like little changes, but creating floral designs for weddings require so many different elements and I believe that if you can make every element of that process more sustainable that you'll make a big impact on the overall environmental impact of your business.

The Official Highlight Reel

Abi from The Wedding Crashers totally blew us away with this insanely beautiful highlight reel capturing the magic and splendour behind this incredible shoot. Meet some of the faces behind the shoot and see how you can implement some of their easy to follow tips, tricks and advice for your next mindful celebration! A massive thank you to each and every single supplier for allowing us to witness this masterpiece. Let's do it again and SOON!