Regular readers of ‘Greener Me’ may know that I also write for the blog ‘Wedding Planning Tips’.  ‘Wedding Planning Tips’ are my inside the wedding industry secrets from a professional wedding photographer’s perspective.

 

Many of my wedding couples are not only sharing my concern for the environment but also share my desire to actively do something about it.  I have been impressed and inspired by many couple’s knowledge, actions and decisions in regards to having a ‘green wedding’.

 

I mentioned in a recent post ‘A Green Wedding’, a couple I photographed last year at Balmoral Sydney.  Instead of paying money for guest bomboniere, they donated the money to ‘Climate Change’.

 

On my personal journey to live a greener life, I have been investigating the carbon offsetting scheme that many companies offer.  From my basic understanding, the scheme works by honestly answering a number of questions about your life i.e. how much petrol you spend each week, what is your power bill etc etc etc.  Then these companies calculate how much carbon emissions per year your lifestyle and business are creating.

 

This emission figure then translates to a money figure that you can pay.  These companies will then plant the number of trees needed to cover the amount of carbon emissions being emitted from your lifestyle / business.

 

I have to admit my knowledge on these schemes is at present limited (still researching), however even though my current personal opinion is that the idea isn’t bad; I feel I could do better.

 

I would rather try to eliminate the carbon emissions in the first place rather than simply offsetting them.  Therefore instead of paying $200 a year because I run a heater all day during winter, I would rather put on another jumper and turn the heater off.

 

However in saying that I have decided to do both.  My goal is to pay less money each year for offsetting because I am not having a lifestyle that is emitting as much carbon as the previous year.

 

So for couples trying to organise a ‘green’ wedding, perhaps their thinking may be the same.  In my post ‘A Green Wedding’, there are some more information, links and ideas about how to have a wedding that will create less carbon emissions. 

 

To be fare it is probably highly unlikely that couples will be able to have a wedding that is totally carbon natural without offsetting (unless you plan to stand naked in the forest and forage amongst the trees for berries to eat at the reception).

 

It is my great pleasure now to direct you to a website that I stumbled across only recently.  Sally Miles, is a Sydney lady who recently held a carbon neutral wedding.  She has created a website dedicated to Australian Brides wanting to do the same.  She named her website the ‘Green Wedding Guide’.

 

She offers ideas and also the option to calculate your wedding’s carbon emission and even offsetting them.

 

I will be personally contacting Sally to congratulate and encourage her new green wedding venture.