When sustainability is one of your main passions and you get engaged, you can be sure that a lot of planning will go into making the big day as sustainable as possible.

I got married in spring of 2022 and it was important for me that the wedding was aligned with my values; here goes X things my husband and I did to reduce the impact of our

• Outfits. My husband got his pants and shirt secondhand and the shoes from a sustainable Portuguese shoe brand. My dress was a 2-piece designed by a wedding dress designer based in Lisbon and she made it using deadstock fabric from a Portuguese textile factory. My sandals were also from a sustainable Portuguese brand. We wanted to find something that reflected our style and, very important, that we could use many times again in the future.

• Rings. Our wedding rings were our grandmas’ and we just had to change the size. Reusing what already exists is always better than using new natural resources, especially if we’re talking about gold which mining can be unethical and unsustainable.

• Food: The menu was vegetarian and delicious. Reducing animal products is one of the best things we can do to reduce our negative impact on the planet and a wedding is just another occasion to do it. We can create wonderful meals without eating meat or fish.

• Cutlery, tables, lights… We rented everything we needed for that day but that we knew we didn’t need in our day to day. Lights, tables, plates and cutlery were all used for the day and then returned after the event.

• Instead of throwing rice. It’s tradition to throw rice at the bride and groom for their first steps as a married couple. Rice is food and it seemed like a big waste; instead we went with bird seeds, confetti made from dried leaves and rose petals of the unsold flowers of a local flower shop

• Engagement ring. I didn’t have any say in this one, but I’m so glad my husband made this choice. Instead of going for the traditional diamonds, that in most cases are unethical and unsustainable (and very overpriced), he made the ring himself using a small piece of the wood of the tree my parents planted when I was born

• Flower bouquet. Many flowers we find in shops (depending on the type and time of the year) are imported and often full of pesticides. For my bouquet I chose local and dry flowers and the best part is that because they are already dry they still are as beautiful as the day I got married, whereas fresh cut flowers only last a few days.

• Invitations. We made our invitations on the computer and sent them online to all our guests. Most people would throw the invitation away right after the wedding, or even before, so we thought of avoiding this unnecessary waste by making the, digital.

Even when trying very hard to be sustainable, there were some things that had a big impact on the environment, for example some of our guests had to fly 3 hours and others 7 hours!

Like when trying to live more sustainably in our daily life, the goal shouldn’t be to be perfectly sustainable… because that’s an unrealistic and unhealthy goal for anyone! We can all do our part and become conscious consumers, educating ourselves and getting informed about the impact of our choices; all while putting pressure to governments and big businesses – who have more power and responsibility than us individuals – to make a bigger and faster change.