“Green wedding” – M’sian Couple Saves The Environment by Making Wedding as Waste-Free as Possible

Weddings can be very extravagant and at the end of the function/dinner, there will be a lot of waste produced. 

Keeping this in mind, a Malaysian couple, Tejasvini Shanmuganathan, 29, and Shatish Rao, 29, set out to make their wedding as waste-free as possible. 

“We are against the idea of food wastage and plastic usage. So we decided to prioritise our principles during our wedding.”

Cheaper than your conventional wedding

With a “green wedding” as their goal, one would think that the couple had spent a lot of money on it but that is far from the truth. In fact, the couple told us that they spent a lot less as compared to a conventional wedding. They said,

“Our friends and family members stepped up and took on many roles from planning, decorating the temple where we had our wedding and even serving food!”

Other than that, the couple did not splurge on any unnecessary expenses such as pre-wedding photoshoots, luxury car rental and expensive attires and accessories that will only be worn once.

They also decided to forgo the live wedding music entourage. They downloaded music from YouTube and played it on an old speaker instead. 

What’s more, the bride even did her own makeup as none of the makeup artists that she contacted wanted to do the minimalist, bare makeup look that she envisioned. So, she learned how to do it herself!

Saving the environment 1 biodegradable plate at a time

The couple had their wedding procession in a small temple in Simpang Renggam, Johor and during the ceremony, here are some of their efforts to make the wedding as environmentally friendly as possible.

• Biodegradable plates and cutleries made of Areca leaves & corn starch
• Photodegradable plastic bags
• Served 16-course wedding food on banana leaves 
• Plantable wedding cards which will sprout into marigold flowers & e-invites
• DIY wedding dais using palm leaves and other leaves from a nearby jungle

“We may not have been 100% eco-friendly but we tried our best!”

Elaborating more on the food, the couple made sure that there was no mock meat or processed foodstuff in all 16 courses and it is 100% plant-derived. 

“We wanted our guests to leave our wedding with a full stomach & a wide smile. The food is still the talk of the town even after almost a month!” the couple added.

A wedding should be affordable and not according to trends

The couple is very happy with how their wedding ceremony truly shows who they are. 

“Formatted wedding plans that are the norm now may not be affordable for everyone. But many are trying their best to have that which will, in turn, affect them financially in the future,” they explained. 

“Through our wedding, we hope to send the message that it is possible to have a simple wedding without compromising traditions & customs; weddings should be done according to the couple’s preferences and not by following in trends.”

Lastly, the couple says that the small effort on their part to be more environmentally friendly might not reduce greenhouse gases or pollutants but they hope that it will cause a positive ‘butterfly effect’ to the current environment and towards the future generation. 

Well, that is certainly very admirable of them! We definitely see more couples opting for smaller weddings with less expenditure nowadays. We hope that others will follow suit to make it greener as well.

Also read: Filipino Couple Goes Viral For Having Their Simple Wedding Reception At A Fast Food Restaurant