Byrony Claire’s Guide to an Ethical Vegan Wedding
While sorting through our old publications yesterday, I found this some of our older photo features in the New Zealand Vegan Society Magazine and thought Byrony (our beautiful bride up above) had some awesome words about planning her absolutely stunning vegan wedding… why not share them with our entire photo blog?!
Below is everything about planning an ethical vegan wedding from Byrony’s perspective! (Dated March 2020.)
It’s spring and that means wedding season is fast approaching! We were fortunate enough that our wedding occurred earlier this year on 14 March, before lockdown within the country happened. Covid-19 has changed the way the entire world works. It has taken so many lives and has provided us with an opportunity to reflect on what’s important to us. I know so many of us have been deeply affected by what has happened this year. Plans have had to change, events cancelled, jobs lost, it’s been a really intense time for us all. Love, family and friendship are worth celebrating and I’m here to help you regain some hope as we adapt to a new normal and a way to make our celebrations more ethical, economical, sustainable and of course vegan.
I had always dreamed of a fairytale wedding, but the way events like that most often work is by using throwaway items and wasting packaging, resources and food at a huge expense. That didn’t really sit well with me, so I worked hard during our 2.5-year engagement to find ways to make our big day have a smaller carbon footprint. I’m pleased to be able to share with you what I’ve learned on this journey along with my top tips.
Firstly, your wedding and how you celebrate your love is entirely your choice. The ones who love you will support whatever choices you make about your day. We had an entirely vegan wedding and I did face opposition about it, but as I explained to my family: this is a celebration of love, so our money wouldn’t fund the killing of animals because that is not a loving thing to do. There are probably things that you will want to do that might not be “traditional” or “feel right” according to some people, but again, it’s your money, it’s your celebration, you need to do what is right for you and your ethics.
Since we’ve started on the food, let’s dive in.
Food
We wanted a sit-down, plated meal for our guests to enjoy. We have always loved Italian food and wanted to have the food reflect exactly that. Jess and the team from Unique Food Geeks worked really hard with us to get the perfect Italian vegan menu for the event. Everything that could be was grown locally (much from the garden of our venue), they catered for our gluten free guests and they also made the food platter at lunchtime. If you’re designing a menu for a plated event, I recommend sending out the options to your guests prior as they can choose what they’d like on the day in advance. This means that your caterers do not have extra ingredients that would otherwise go to waste. This worked out so well for us and I highly recommend it!
If a buffet is more your style, grazing platters have been quite the craze for a while now and there are many ways you can make these work incredibly well for a vegan spread. Be sure to add in proteins like hummus and maybe some cured faux meats and cheeses so that people will feel full. They will also be exposed to foods they might never have had before!
Another even more cost-savvy thing to do is have a food truck wedding. You can hire one or two food trucks to be at your wedding and serve vegan food and they’ll typically have two to three options for people to choose from. These work great for more informal affairs if you want everyone to feel comfortable, at ease and have a more flexible approach to the day. Check with your venue first to make sure there’s the power and water required for these food trucks though.
Wedding Cake
Probably my favorite bit of the day was the wedding cake and seeing it properly for the first time. Janine from Temptation Cakes is quite well known in the New Zealand vegan community and the cake was stunning and delicious.
I saw a petal cake on Pinterest a few years ago and just fell in love with it. Janine created a vegan and gluten free cake for us and included some freeze-dried raspberries – it was such a showstopper on the day and tasted even better. Wedding cakes can be made vegan and there are more and more cakeries open to this idea which is really wonderful.
If a wedding cake is not to your taste, there are more trends to try. Perhaps go for a doughnut wall (maybe using Doughnut Haus), or you could offer cupcake cakes or candy bars. Really, the choice is up to you. People have even hired out Mr Whippy. Their franchise isn’t vegan, but you surely could get some delicious vegan ice cream and have a sundae station for your guests to enjoy (sounds perfect for summer). The candy station can act as your favour for guests too, if you are one with a sweet tooth.
There are so many options now for a sweet way to end the day that it just takes a hint of imagination to get that spark going (and it can be a great way to make things fit to your budget).
Decor
Decor can be highly sustainable or highly wasteful. It’s also where you can really splurge or save. It’s honestly surprising how much you can rack up with some items and I recommend you keeping a spreadsheet like I did. Second-hand, upcycling and hiring are key.
Firstly, really think about your venue. What do you want your day to look like, and what do you and your partner value the most for your day? For us, the food was a key item (as you can probably tell) and decor was an opportunity to incorporate an even more sustainable approach. Charity shops, Facebook marketplace (and wedding groups) and Trade Me are all fantastic options for finding second-hand goods and this is where I got nearly all of our decor from.
Some things like the candlesticks I found were all different colours, shapes and sizes, so I spray-painted them silver to all match. I bought little sherry glasses from charity shops to put fresh flowerheads in; this is also a great way to have low eye-line decor so that people can easily talk to each other. I found picture frames for $1 each and hand-painted silhouettes to be our table cards.
As for favours, this is where things can get not only xpensive, but wasteful too. We opted to buy seeded paper hearts from a local company to be our name cards, which I wrote every guest’s name on. They then took these home to plant in their gardens which meant that nothing went to waste. We didn’t even print menus for the tables as people already knew what they were getting. We even bought our cake topper second hand! The possibilities are really endless. I’ve seen stunning weddings where they’ve used cheap greenery and hired candles for the tables, kept things beautifully low-key and simple and it looks incredible.
We hired the suits for the groom and groomsmen because nobody would wear the suits again. We hired the easels and arch and we decorated them ourselves with second-hand flowers and help from our bridal party. Sometimes, buying second-hand is too time consuming, or you don’t live in an area where this is possible. In those cases I do recommend hiring items as it means they will be used again and again.
Wedding dresses can also be hired these days. There are also so many that are second-hand (I’m even selling mine second-hand) and this is a fantastic way to save money. This also extends the life of a garment that would otherwise only be worn once. The carbon footprint of a own like this is massive and the more they can be used, worn and loved, the better for your wallet and the planet.
A small budget doesn’t mean you have to miss out on your dream at all.
Hair and Makeup
Sophie, the owner of Belles and Brides, was our hair artist who did the hair for all of us girls. If you’re also having a vegan wedding, you’ll want to look into who will be doing your hair and makeup. Or, if you’re doing your own like I did for my makeup, check out my videos on YouTube as I have tutorials on there to help with exactly this!
It was really important for me to hire a local company who used cruelty-free and vegan products. There are many makeup and hair artists in NZ who are now expanding into using just cruelty-free brands, so I do recommend just asking them as they’re normally more than willing to adapt to a growing market. This can be quite expensive to pay for your bridal party and maybe the parents too, but it is becoming more common for bridesmaids (if you’re having them) to pay for their own if budgets are tight. The same goes for dresses.
Flowers
Flowers are very traditional at a wedding but they can pack quite the carbon punch, as lots of flowers that are sold around the world come from Africa, Holland and parts of South America – that’s a lot of air miles.
I found a small company called The Flower Patch that grows all its flowers locally from Ruakura, except for the roses which were grown in Auckland. It was really important for me to support a small business and buy as locally as possible. The owner, Brooklyn, made our beautiful bouquets and boutonnieres and we just loved them. If you ask around, you can normally find a company like this that will be thrilled to work with you to create your low-carbon dream.
If flowers aren’t a key thing for you (or costs are racking up) but you want to have a bouquet, you can make one yourself using market flowers. In the time of the internet, there’s literally a tutorial for everything on YouTube and this could really be a great option if you just want something simple.
The Rings
We had our wedding rings made locally to support local artists. Julian Bartrom created our rings with us and really helped us customise the pieces to be more than we could have hoped for. He also sources everything ethically, so when you’re buying from him you can buy with confidence.
Wedding bands can be whatever you want them to be, to fit whatever budget you have. Some people are opting for tattoos, some for more of a “token” ring because they work with their hands and don’t want to damage it. Some don’t even wear them at all. Again, do what is best for you and how you feel comfortable.
Now that you have some tips and hopefully some fun ideas to build from, I wish you all the best with your upcoming nuptials! If you ever want to chat about your big day, please feel free to reach out to me (Byrony Claire!!) via Instagram or YouTube. We had so much fun planning ours that I would love to share that joy and advice with you.
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