Green wedding lists
Eco-conscious couples are increasingly opting for green wedding lists, says Rosie Niven
Wedding gift lists have long helped to furnish the homes of newly married couples. But as weddings and civil partnerships become more imaginative, and environmentally responsible, towels and kettles are increasingly losing out to composters and charity donations.
Recent surveys suggest that in the UK, the average spend on wedding gifts is fast approaching £100 per person. So it’s hardly surprising that many couples are harnessing their guests’ spending power through their gift list to support causes that are close to their heart.
Charity wedding lists
The trend for couples to live together before tying the knot means that many are already well equipped with household goods. Some are even deciding to forgo the wedding list altogether and simply asking guests to donate to charities.
For Christiane Pearl, wedding list giving was a way of involving the memory of her late mother in the celebrations. When she and her husband got married, they encouraged guests to donate to the Bournemouth Hospital unit where her mother was treated for leukemia eight years earlier. "It was a visible sign that even a few pounds made a difference and that she wasn't forgotten," she says.
Pearl took a subtle approach so that no one felt obliged to give, but in hindsight she thinks they would have raised more money by being upfront with people. "A wedding list is just that, a written document that states who bought what and for how much," she says. "No one wants to be the person buying your friends napkin ring for a fiver because the new Mr and Mrs can see how much you spent."
Couples considering using a charity wedding list are spoilt for choice. Oxfam, World Vision and Action Aid are among the growing ranks of charities that have launched their own gift lists. There are also websites that offer a choice of good causes for guests to support.
Wedding List Giving and its sister site Civil Partnership Giving represent a number of charities.
A quirkier option is Good Gifts, which allows you to sponsor a tea dance for pensioners or buy prize bull semen to help a Rwandan farmer to replenish his cattle stock.
Ethical wedding lists
In the past few years, ethical gift lists have really taken off. Once the preserve of the large department stores there are now many online services, including a growing number that only list products that are sourced ethically.
Katie Fewings, director of the website Ethical Weddings, says that the wedding list in itself is an exercise in waste minimisation. "That's why they were set up in the first place," she says. "You only got what you needed, nothing more." But some couples planning weddings are now taking things further and choosing gifts that support their green principles.
These can include fairly traded kitchen utensils and organic duvets. There are a number of gift list services that offer exclusively green and ethically sourced products, such as Our Green Wedding List and Natural Collection.
Fairtrade
However, ethical wedding lists are not just about the environment - with some, you can support retailers who source their products from Fairtrade producers. These retailers include Ganesha, a shop that imports home furnishings and accessories from Indian co-operatives and producer associations.
Couples bitten by the travel bug can ask for wedding vouchers from companies that try to limit the impact of tourism. These include tour operator Responsible Travel, which aims to help people to earn a fairer income from tourism. It supports local conservation and social projects, and seeks to reduce any negative environmental or cultural impacts.
High Street wedding lists
When Katie Fewings married in 2005 an internet search for ethical wedding lists drew a blank. So she and her husband opted for a John Lewis gift list comprising ethically sourced products. In particular, Fewings looked for gifts that carried the Soil Association logo or the Fairtrade mark.
There is a lot more choice around now, but Fewings still advises couples to talk to mainstream retailers about their desire for an ethical wedding. She believes it will encourage more retailers to introduce ethical gift lists and, more importantly, to step up their efforts to source products ethically.
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