Choosing a wedding barn as your venue is your first step towards a sustainable wedding day – we have the permanent infrastructure in place, which reduces the need to transport a huge amount to the barn for one day. We don’t think that making some more eco-friendly choices should mean you have to compromise on the details of your day though, so read our top tips to make your perfect day, perfectly sustainable…
Confetti
Here at Lapstone Barn, it’s real petal confetti only folks! We chose to implement this policy to take one small step towards being a moresustainable wedding venue.
There are lots of brilliant companies that sell natural confetti – a few miles away are the confetti fields at Wyke Manor, Pershore, which is a working farm that grows confetti! Make it a special day with your bridal party and go and pick your own confetti! For the ultimate sustainable confetti, ask your friends and family if you can raid their garden and try creating your own by drying petals at home.
There’s no doubt that the confetti shots in your wedding album will be ones to treasure!
Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue
It’s a long held wedding tradition, so borrow where and when you can! If you have friends who have recently tied the knot, see if they have candle holders, log slices or other decorations that could be reused. Vintage jars and candle stick holders make beautiful table decorations and this slightly more rustic look works so beautifully against the backdrop of our Cotswold stone barn walls.
Wedding hire companies specialise in supplying carefully chosen and original re-used and up-cycled accessories to add beautiful design details to your wedding day, so explore all your options for sourcing decorative pieces.
Flowers – fresh or faux?
Most couples opt for cut flowers to dress their wedding. Rather than just using cut flowers, think about using potted plants in beautiful up-cycled pots or bowls. Choose herbs and flowers that will fill the barn with their delicious scent too! Give some of them to your guests to take away the next day – which means that not only will they be enjoyed for weeks to come, there will be zero waste.
If you opt for fresh flowers, try to use seasonal stems and buy British where you can. Most wedding florists create foam free installations nowadays but always double check this is the case – flower foam or ‘oasis’ is harmful to the environment as chemicals within it leach in to water, and when it dries out the dust it creates can be harmful to breathe in.
Faux flowers are a highly sustainable way of filling large spaces in the barn – re-usable decor supplied by our recommended stylists means no waste too. Dried flowers can be incorporated along the way too and are proving popular as you can take them home and decorate your house with them for years ahead. Sustainable memories!
Wedding Favours
Think about choosing keepsakes that will last much longer than your wedding day – or even better, make something yourself! Small recyclable bottles of homemade cordial or homemade biscuits or sweets are always a lovely personal touch. Whatever you choose, steer clear of plastic or cellophane wrapping, and choose cardboard or recyclable packaging instead.
Stay Local
As a wedding barn in the Cotswolds, our location is not the most sustainable because the only way to get here is by car. So by choosing from our list of local recommended wedding suppliers, you can be sure that their carbon footprint is kept to a minimum by a short journey. Here in the Cotswolds, we have a wealth of fabulous wedding photographers, stylists, florists, cake makers, make-up artists and entertainers who all know the barn inside out – be sure to get in touch with them!
Your future together starts here at Lapstone Barn, and making that future more sustainable is at the very heart of our beautiful wedding venue. Rest assured that our catering team works hard to source the best food and drink produce as locally as possible, we recycle every item thrown away in the barn and office, and have electric car charging points in the car park for staff and wedding guests travelling to the Cotswolds. Let’s work together to make weddings more sustainable!
