I think nowadays, it doesn’t matter if you are generation X,Z or J, leading a more sustainable and eco conscious life is the only way we are going to be able to preserve our beautiful planet for years to come.
As a sustainable baker I have seen firsthand how wasteful and throwaway the wedding cake industry can be, so hopefully I can shed some light on certain areas and set you off with some tips which will will help you on both the path of sustainability and keeping money in your pocket.
Back in the olden days!
Just kidding! Back in 2016 when we were planning our own wedding, we were on a tight budget which made for a very DIY wedding.
I had genuinely thought looking back that we had done it all in a fairly sustainable way, but after having a Pinterest board purge recently, I’m thinking perhaps not!
We (ok, likely myself in a pit of “but we really need this”) had saved some hilarious pins for our special day and although I’m pleased to say we didn’t get them all, here are some of the things we considered.
Plastic drinks glasses to avoid the cost of hiring.
Bubbles in tiny champagne bottles and tubes.
Flip flops for the evening for our guests. I mean, we married in April. In a cow shed. In England. And flip flops are hardly comfortable! What on earth was I thinking
Balloons for the evening.
Foil streamer wall
Thankfully, we only had the top two, however there are of course some things I would have done differently if I had my day again which neatly leads me on to -
DIY weddings
Not all DIY weddings are on a budget, but for us it was a big factor which came with its own positives and negatives. You will likely not buy as much unnecessary crap and stick to the must haves and things that are important in your day.
Like us, you may end up making some cost cutting decisions which impact negatively on the environment.
For instance. We used paper plates, cups and napkins. Sounds fairly harmless right, but any recyclable tableware that has been soiled with food is landfill.
If we had budgeted to hire plates and glasses etc, it likely wouldn’t have cost the earth and they would have gone on to be used dozens more times for other couples.
We could have even bought mismatched plates from a car boot and resold or donated them after the wedding. We live and learn!
It’s not all doom and gloom, we did make some pretty great decisions as well like -
We bought charity shop board games for the kids, made a ring toss with old bottles and a bean bag toss. Some games we still have, some we donated.
The hessian fabric used for our barn curtains was re sold for someone else’s wedding.
The jars for the flowers were recycled.
My fake fur was a second hand shop find!
The bunting went on to be used at my brother in laws wedding and we now use it for family parties.
The lights were used at a school prom. Some we still use now.
We used dried flowers for my bouquet and hair clips.
Seasonal daffodils and tulips for the tables.
You can have a nosey of our day over at -
Tips on how to start!
Start with your suppliers. How sustainable is their business? It might seem like a simple one, but there are a tonne of fantastic wedding suppliers out there consciously making eco choices in their businesses and the likelihood is that if they are passionate about it, they will very likely talk about it on their website or social media.
If it’s something that’s important to you, are you going to be a little disappointed if you find your caterers wrap everything in clingfilm or if your invites and stationery are non recyclable or if your florist is importing all of your flowers?
Here are a few South West based suppliers you will love who are consistently working on their environmental footprint. I will continue to update when I find more!
It’s worth asking yourselves what is truly needed and what could be skipped.
Do you need that much food in the evening? How many times have you gone to a wedding and everyone is too drunk or full to eat the buffet at 9pm?
Do you need to buy sunglasses for your guests incase it’s sunny and they happen to not have brought their own?
Have a think back to weddings you may have been to and make adjustments to minimise the chances of waste.
Can a wedding cake be made more sustainable?
Absolutely! There are loads of options when it comes to your cake!
Some of the biggest changes that can be made are down to the individual cake designer and there method, but here is what I am doing to make my business more sustainable
. Whenever I can, I like to use seasonal flowers and foliage. If it’s a a naff season here in England, I like to use organic dried flowers from Brothers Farm, pressed, painted or piped flowers or work on minimalistic beauties.
. I use wooden dowels instead of plastic.
. I use whenever possible reusable silicone cling film, silicone lids and plastic boxes.
. Fruit fillings are made using berries hand picked and bought in our beautiful British summertime and frozen straight away or I use Dorset jams.
. As long as it doesn’t impact the flavour in any way, I swap out dairy cream for plant alternatives.
. I use rainforest alliance chocolate and cocoa and organic white chocolate.
. Cake offcuts and buttercream are donated to my local community as a little sweet treat boost to their week.
. All paperwork is printed on recycled paper and a fair chunk I keep as digital books.
. My cake tasters deserve a space to themselves so will go into more detail on that labour of love shortly!
Is there anything you would advise against
There are a few cake making practices which are not particularly environmentally friendly but here is my biggest pet peeve.
One big one is using fake tiers for larger cakes. Some cake makers suggest using dummy tiers for couples wishing to have a taller statement cake, but when less cake is needed on the day. However, cake dummies are made of a non recyclable material, polystyrene.
I believe there is a chance that industrially it can be recycled, but it will almost certainly end up in landfill after your wedding.
There is a myth that it will cost less to have fake tiers, but I can tell you this now, they are no easier to decorate than an actual cake (if anything they are a pain in the bum because they are so light) and the time to decorate is the same. So basically, you are paying the same price for a decorated hunk of foam and actually only saving a small amount of money by it not being actual cake.
Here are some alternative options for a show stopping cake!
. Hire a beautiful cake stand. Adds so much height and grandeur to a cake.
. Use a spacer. These can be made in different shapes and sizes and can be dressed with gorgeous flowers to create a floating effect.
. Dress up your cake table. Don’t have your cake displayed on a dusty old table on a white table cloth with no pretty bits around it. Make the cake table an extension of all your beautifully decorated guest tables.
. Give your cake an insane backdrop!
Sustainably made cake tasters
Now I’m giving cake tasters their own little space in the spotlight because they were a labour of love and I did a tonne of research to make them as sustainable as possible.
Here’s a little breakdown of what makes them special.
. Beautiful boxes from The Tiny Box company . Really pretty yet still able to be recycled
. The stationary is printed sustainably by The Sustainable Print Company
. The plastic around the cake samples is fully compostable and is by Eco Craft
. Even the tape and the stickers are compostable.
. Each pack has some delicious Dorset Clipper tea in it.
If you would like to order one of our Classic or Deluxe boxes, head on over to our shop, but don’t forget to pop me a message to check for wedding availability. No one will be sad they are a box of cake, but they may be sad if they fall in love with our flavours and we are already booked!
So what can we takeaway from this?
The biggest thing I can advise it to do your research, check around and ask questions. If having a sustainable wedding is important to you and flows on from how you live your eco conscious lifestyle, then check your suppliers have the same passion as you.
Really think if something is necessary. Maybe have a sleep on it. Impulse wedding buying must be a thing! It’s like if you go shopping when you are hungry. Bad move!
Go make yourself some fridge cake! You definitely won’t regret that!
And lastly, if you are in search of an eco friendly cake designer and would love a cake which reflects the season, then pop me over a message. I would love to hear about your amazing wedding plans.
Much love
Tash x
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