Eco Friendly West Coast Wilderness Lodge Wedding
Drew and Marnie's Wedding was so beautiful and what made it even more beautiful was how much thought and love for the environment, supporting local business and community went into making the day so special.
I find it so refreshing when I have couples that are mindful about the impact their decisions have on the environment and where what they are purchasing comes from and how's it made. I loved all the DIY touches and Ola of Flock Events did such gorgeous work creating the reception decor and other special creations.
Drew and Marnie are also really lovely humans and I had such a wonderful day celebrating and documenting their love with their close friends and family.
The Bride, Marnie shared some of her inspiration for her eco friendly wedding:
"Weddings are expensive, and a great opportunity to support local or more environmental initiatives. Yes, we could have saved a few bucks by picking more 'made in china' items, but we tried to steer away from that and choose less, but more important touches. It was intentional that the wine was from BC, even if it meant we had to source it and pay the corkage at the lodge. It's the little things. I didn't want throw away favours that were never used or kids flower baskets that would break soon and just end up in the landfill. Ola of Flock Events surprised us creating those thoughtful magical pouches with the hem of one of the bridesmaid dresses as the ribbon. The kids were delighted that there names were on their keepsakes and I loved that the hippy seed would biodegrade naturally in that pristine environment. We chose the West Coast Wilderness Lodge because of the natural beauty, steering away from that went against the entire reason we were there. It would have gone against a weekend that was completely surrounded by love and celebrating the natural beauty of beautiful BC.
We wanted to provide a usable 'favour' to our guests and say thank you for traveling to the wedding. The bags were designed and made by a tight group of friends of my moms. They banded together to design, make and even added a fern design to the reusable welcome bag. The soaps inside were inspired by the ocean and made by another friend of my mom's. The blackberry jam was picked by a friend of my mom's from my mom's yard and she also made the mini mason jars of yummy fanny bay blackberry jam. Made with love.
Drew's mom spent weeks baking cookies, making bits and bites and cheese treats so our guests could have something to snack on. The apples in the bags were also from BC. Another touch that the fruit was chosen because it was in season. Both sides of our community contributed and that made it that more special.
Ola and my Dad and step mom went foraging for moss and ferns the day off the wedding. When the night was done, they were simply tossed back into their natural environment to biodegrade and start over.
I was thoughtful about my shoes. I had pressure to buy 'wedding shoes' and instead chose to support Gentle Souls and picked shoes that I could not only comfortably go into the forest with, but ones I could wear again. Why would you buy a pair of shoes to wear them once?
The invitations set the tone. We only got engaged 4 months before the wedding and we had to get on that right away. We immediately started researching Canadian invitation printers. We created an oatmeal invitation with gentle ferns on it (our inspiration for the fern on the oatmeal wedding bags). The biodegradable invitation was a plantable card with wildflower seeds in it.
The wedding wasn't without a footprint, however we tried to make choices that minimized that"
Marnie found her whimsical wedding dress at Pure Magnolia who focus on ethical, sustainably sourced - organic, recycled and vintage fabrics.
Bride & Bridesmaids Hair: Tara Porter / Bride & Bridesmaids Makeup: Tara Cowie ( Hair Matters ) / Wedding Dress: Pure Magnolia / Wedding Decor: Flock Events / Florals: Flowers & Jules / Venue: West Coast Wilderness Lodge / DJ: Andy - Dancetraxx Entertainment
