“The Business Resource For Wedding Entrepreneurs”

What is a sustainable/ethical wedding business?

Sandrachile, a photography vendor and an eco-friendly wedding properties supplier, defined sustainable wedding business as a line of business that offers wedding products or services which at the same time feels responsible for the social impact, so the couples, as the clients, can feel the gratitude of giving a little something back as a response to that privilege, while keeping in mind others, and the planet.

The sustainable wedding business is currently gaining its popularity in the Western. This trend will eventually arrive in Asia very soon. Etsy trend expert, Dyna Isom Johnson, said that there were 107,000 searches of "eco-friendly bridal items" keyword in the last four months. Couples' interest in collaborating with sustainable wedding vendors is also rising, especially the wedding gown vendor. As one of the most polluting industries, today's fashion industry is dominated by a pre-loved shopping trend. According to Google, "used wedding dress for sale" keyword search has increased 100% in the last five years.

The pre-loved wedding dress online search has risen dramatically. This fact is supported by data from Lyst, a fashion search engine, which revealed that the search for a pre-loved wedding dress had increased 93% last year. At the same time, the biggest pre-loved wedding dress marketplace StillWhite agreed with this new phenomenon by publishing their internal data in February 2019 that their online transaction has doubled in the last 24 months.

Why is sustainable wedding concept a rising trend?

One thing that makes more couples looking for sustainable wedding vendors is because the millennials are the generation that awares of social and environmental impact the most. Recent weddings are dominated by millennial couples (born between 1981 - 1996). There are three things that influence interest in sustainable wedding vendors among them:

• The positive impact on the social environment
  One of the sustainable wedding business' missions is to contribute back to the social environment through creating a business that is responsible to the human welfare. One of Bridestory's vendor which is actively practising that is Gardens of the Sun. In fact, the brand which headquarters in Bali is the only designer and producer in Indonesia that creates 100% ethical and eco-friendly engagement rings.
  
  Meri Geraldine, both owner and creative director of Gardens of the Sun, makes sure that all rings have been through processes with low impact on the environment, and every production chain is doing a responsible business practice. It was proven by utilizing local materials and making sure their staff receive proper welfare.
  
  
• The positive impact on the natural environment
  According to The Green Bride Guide, an average wedding can contribute to 272 kg of wastes and 63 ton CO2 emissions. Of course, this has a horrible impact. The sustainable wedding business offers various vendors that provide eco-friendly products and services, such as plastic-free catering, a zero-waste souvenir vendor, or recycled paper invitation vendor.
  Canada's Botanical Paperworks, for example, designs and prints invitation on seed papers. Instead of disposing of it, the guests who receive the invitation can "plant" the paper onto the ground or another planting medium. Uniquely, Botanical Paperworks is also able to mix different kinds of flower seed into a single paper that will result in a beautiful flower bouquet when growing.
  
  
  
• Respect for humanity
  Whatever the vendor categories, doing a wedding business is not easy. It will be better if the vendor's products and services are appreciated more than that.
  One of the most waste contributed vendors in the wedding industry is catering. Did you know that 60% of most weddings have a food surplus? And, most of them end up in the garbage, for sure. It is regrettable knowing how many ingredients and how much of energy of those delicious meals have been wasted miserably. Besides, it is such a pity remembering there are a lot of underprivileged people out there desperately seeking for food.
  A Blessing to Share is a service provider who wants to change that. A collaboration between Bridestory, Food Cycle and Grab Indonesia, A Blessing to Share offers a service to handle food surplus at the client's wedding to be distributed to underprivileged families. Not only decreasing the negative impact on the environment, but the couples are also able to help to resolve the famine issue and to improve the surrounding people's nutrition.
  

If you are interested in starting a sustainable concept to your wedding business, start from small things. For example, a wedding planner can begin to organize a food surplus distribution, or a souvenir vendor can donate a part of its souvenirs order to a philanthropic organization. Your consistency in doing it will eventually result in a satisfying output.