Image by Sandra Henri Photography
Between the bushfires, and now COVID-19; wow this year is teaching us to live with uncertainty.
Yet like in our personal lives, chaos can bring about much needed change. Within the vacuum of the unknown, there is a realignment at work. It seems no co-incidence that our forced slowing down is also what our Earth has been calling for.
So how do we proceed, as couples getting married and as wedding professionals? We explore some ideas around wedding planning in these crazy times, ones that will reduce stress right now, and withstand the bumps in the road yet to come.
Image by Lina Hayes
Consider downsizing
Woohoo, you’ve always wanted a smaller wedding, and now you have the perfect excuse! You have the option to downsize your wedding to only include guests that are close to you.
Perhaps you’re an introvert, and the thought of saying your vows in front of 150 guests is overwhelming, or you want more time to spend with each guest at your wedding. You don’t have to invite that cousin that you haven’t spoken to in 10 years if it doesn’t feel right. Downsizing means you will have less people to manage, and more time to spend with just your partner on the day too.
Image by White Lane Studio
Eloping
Eloping gives you the freedom to create the best day from when you wake up to when you go to sleep.
An elopement can involve just you and your partner, or it can include your witnesses too. Hire a little holiday rental, hike your way to an isolated place, or just soak in the calm of being in nature. You aren’t limited by wedding venues and their availability, and you can choose any month and day of the week. Your day is flexible (no scheduled to the minute hectic timelines here!) and you can spend the day doing the activities you enjoy in a place that you love. Then plan a relaxed party later on to celebrate with friends and family (this is a great opportunity to share your elopement photos with them too).
Super easy to organise and you can plan it within a months notice. Your wilderness wedding awaits…
Check out Lina Haye’s guides to eloping in Australia and Scotland for some affirming guidance.
Image by Lina Hayes
Local all the way
Destination weddings where every guests flies in for the experience, are not only a carbon footprint blow out, but also so uncertain at times like this. Instead consider a local venue that can accomodate you all such as Crystal Water Eco Village or others in our Eco-Ethical Wedding Directory.
There are small businesses and sole traders who are all in need of work right within your local area, so let’s support them. Kinda like a 100 mile diet, but for weddings!
Image by Aimee Catt
Go eco
In perhaps what is synchronicity, making eco-friendly wedding choices will not only benefit our Earth but are also lower risk. Simple, homemade, pre-loved and locally grown are all our friends right now. For our complete kit of eco-ethical wedding guidance, check out our Mindfully Wed E-Guide.
After the storm
Hospitality and tourism have been hit hard and will need our support once things settle down. An elopement or micro wedding getaway in our very own country will ease your stress, and better still, you can officially go on holiday for a good cause!
Images by Lina Hayes
Or how about a roving dinner to support local restaurants? Small Wedding Trails share this fabulous idea;
“Progressive dinners were a thing in the 70’s & 80’s. It was the hallmark of a great night out when our parents were young. You would visit a different location for each meal, entree, main, desert. These adventurous night outs were cost effective and no one was lumped with all the cleaning up of a conventional dinner party.
Alternatively a progressive wedding party could look like; Ceremony (immediate family & wedding party), drinks (wedding party & work mates), entree & main (extended family), desert (family & friends). Imagine getting see everyone, visiting multiple fun venues and continuing to support a broad range of businesses.”
Image by Lina Hayes
We’ll wrap this up with some very wise words from Philosopher and Writer Alain Le Botton:
“For much of history, the status quo is made to feel impregnable. Nothing new can be tried; every provocative idea is to be batted away; this is the way we’ve always done it and always will. Visionary thoughts for reorganising society, for amending our ways of working, earning, loving or nursing ourselves, are made to feel outlandish and impractical; the current state is inviolable. Except, of course, it isn’t. Crises reveal that – under sufficient pressure, and with the imaginative restlessness bred by necessity – pretty much everything is up for being rethought: the money supply, the education system, the hospital service, community support, entertainment, leisure, love. We might live wholly differently and in some ways, far more fruitfully, joyfully, kindly and efficiently. We have over the years learnt everything we need to know about stagnation; we have a chance, once the storm has abated, to remember possibility.”
Nikita and Mitch‘s micro wedding at Thalia Haven, Tasmania, from The Love Lab on Vimeo.
Much love, from Team Less.
Written by Lina Hayes and Sandra Henri for Less Stuff, More Meaning.
