Saying 'I Do' the green way

From inviting guests through e-mail, gifting plants and saying no to firecrackers, weddings are going environment-friendly this season.

"There are many families who want to take some eco-friendly measures during the weddings. We encourage sending wedding invites by CD and e-mail, which saves paper. There are others who use recycled paper for invitations," says Chiripal Kailash, a Delhi-based wedding planner.

"Our caterers offer dishes in earthen utensils and 'kulhads' which helps the local artisans to sustain their livelihoods and we do not promote use of paper plates and cups," says Chiripal.

The planner has tied up with an NGO, Empowerment of Youth for Environment  Conservation to gift a plant instead of a box of sweets along with the wedding invite.
"We promote green weddings. Gifting a plant carries the message that we care for our environment," says Annu Grover from Empowerment of Youth for Environment Conservation. He has arranged gifting a plant in two weddings so far.

"People are enthusiastic about the idea and many say they will promote it in future," says Grover.

Use of crackers creates a lot of pollution in weddings and Chiripal says he has been able to convince people not to burst crackers.

"It takes a bit of convincing but people do like the idea of not bursting the crackers. We have a rule not to use crackers at our wedding venues," says Chiripal.Keeping the green concerns in mind, Ashish Abrol founded a website taking the wedding planning to another level. The website has detailed information about how to plan a wedding and contact numbers of chefs, jewellers and others.

"Our website promotes green wedding in more ways than one. Its not only the wedding but the  planning for it also needs to be eco-friendly. People do not need to buy fashion and other magazines since they can find all the information on our website, which saves paper," says Abrol.