Turns out it’s not without issues, trying to plan a wedding with minimal impact on the environment. The culture of capitalism, with its insistence on subjugation of both people and planet, is hard to step out of.
Some aspects have been thankfully simple. A walk around the graveyard opposite where we live resulted in a huge collection of fir cones, so that was the bulk of the table decorations sorted.
I would have preferred to source on my high street some of the other things that on reflection (and there’s been a lot of reflection) would be needed. As we’ll be eating some of the food (especially the cake!) with fingers, we concluded we would need serviettes. Whilst we’ve hired glassware, hiring linen napkins was out of budget so the next best was compostable ones made from recycled paper. We have more than one shop on my high street selling party stuff, so I checked them all. Whilst it’s possible to buy no end of plastic encased paraphernalia, and balloons and other straight-to-landfill items, not a single recycled paper napkin option. Given the scale of the climate emergency, it shouldn’t be impossible to buy recycled products in our towns. It shouldn’t be a niche product only purchasable on the internet (that brings it’s own environmental consequences).
And so, like a lot of ethical decisions, there have been elements of compromise. I concluded that with not many days to go, it made more sense to ask a friend to bring a bag of ice rather than try and make enough and put into a reusable bag. I’m really hoping this will be the only single-use plastic to be seen in the whole of the day. But of course, in orchestrating a community participative event, people will participate on their own terms. And whilst it’s important to me that we tread lightly rather than assume we can treat the earth as a resource to be plundered, I have to remember that we’re all different and for some people, their priorities will not be the same.
It may well be our wedding, and some will respect our wishes, but some may well be oblivious. The challenge for me is to try and stay loving towards those whose views differ. If I’m longing for people to grasp why this is important to me, surely part of the solution is for me to be understanding of what is important to other people. My hope is that I will be able to welcome with gratitude, rather than exasperation, those accompanied by cling film. Right now I honestly don’t know if I can be the open-hearted person I would like to be. But I’ll keep aiming for it.
