Eco-friendly wedding venues

At Mount Pleasant Eco Park, the team re-thinks how weddings can be sustainable and affordable. They do not allow single-use decorations and they encourage couples to reuse items where possible. This can be done in many ways; through hiring from the numerous decor and wedding stylists based locally, or by purchasing pieces that are then re-purposed for use after the big day. Flowers are often sourced from local growers rather than abroad which eliminates milage. Roots Press is the on-site designer and printer that uses eco-friendly soy inks to print stationery allowing couples to make sustainable choices.

Canteen was welcomed on-site last year as the new cafe. The team have extensive wedding catering experience and showcase colourful and vibrant plant-based dishes. They have a strong ethos of sourcing local ingredients, with one of their main suppliers being from the on-site garden, Community Roots who deliver produce by wheelbarrow from their freshly picked harvest for Canteen to create seasonal menus.

The Mount Pleasant Eco Park wedding venue is forever striving to lessen its impact on the earth, collecting rainwater for flushing toilets to running much of the site from solar and wind power. All food and plant waste is used as compost to feed the indigenous plants and wildflower meadows and couples have the option to compost any floral arrangements after their wedding.

Many of the handmade Shepherd Huts and Eco Pods on-site are solely powered by solar panels with compost toilets which also are used to feed the plants. They have living roofs to nestle the buildings into the coastal landscape within this Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty while supporting insects and many other animals.

Mount Pleasant Eco park offers outdoor ceremonies in the Amphitheatre created from recycled tyres and surplus earth. The cob courtyard has become the perfect setting for canapés and reception drinks, with views stretching across to an old Cornish engine house. This area is embraced by a hand-built earth wall with curves to match the rolling hills in the distance of St Agnes.

To find out more and to book, visit www.mpecopark.co.uk

Located down a private lane in Tiverton, Devon is Middle Coombe Farm, set against a picturesque backdrop of the rolling Devon countryside with hedgerows frothing with colour.

Sustainable weddings come naturally here. Founded more than 40 years ago when owners Angela and her husband Tim took over the family estate, they established the ecological philosophy that still runs through every inch of the 400-acre estate and every wedding today.

Just a handful of weddings are held on the estate each year to ensure the minimum impact on the landscape and nature has time to rest and recover. These exclusive weddings have full use of the woodlands, organic meadows, traditional cider barn and Grade II listed farmhouse that provide unlimited inspiration whether couples choose a barn, farm or woodland wedding – or a bit of everything!

At the heart of the woods is the ancient oak tree, standing for centuries this tree makes a perfect setting for a unique ceremony site under the branches. The wedding aisle is one of the woodland glades dappled with sunlight, music birds, bees and breeze. With the changing seasons, couples will be delighted with native plants and flowers – from the wood anemones and bluebells of spring through the blaze of autumn colours dancing in the woods to the winter wonderland of a crisp winter’s day.

In addition to the land, the licensed traditional cider barn is characterful and full of charm and is complete with a cider press over which nuptials can be made. The barn can be filled with vintage furnishings, wildflowers and bunting for a simple rustic-chic theme. During the summer months, there is also a beautiful marquee for couples to put their stamp on and bring the outdoors inside. There’s also a private glamping hut nestled into the meadow providing the perfect accommodation for the first night of married life.

Accommodation is provided in the Grade II-listed classic 17th-century farmhouse. Cited in Pevsner’s Buildings of England as a spectacular survivor of the era, the farmhouse still retains many of its original features including thatch, mullioned windows and Jacobean panelling fronted by the late medieval gatehouse that can only hint at the farmstead that once sat on the site. There’s also a sensitively converted barn to holf more wedding guests. A highlight is the solar-heated pool and hot tub.

To find out more and to book, visit www.coombefarmwoods.co.uk

Indulge in over 400 acres of wooded glades and rolling Devon countryside for your perfect country, barn or woodland wedding.

Sustainable & Eco friendly Licensed for civil ceremonies

· Exclusive use · Luxury Grade II* listed accommodation

· Cider barn & marquee · Woodland ceremony site www.coombefarmwoods.co.uk

Contact Clydie or Angela for your exclusive visit and Devon Cream Tea.

Middle Coombe Farm, Uplowman, Tiverton, Devon. EX16 7QQ | 01884 821176 | info@coombefarmwoods.co.uk

One of Cornwall’s most unique small wedding venues, Pengersick Castle is steeped in history with tales of shipwrecks, smuggling and hidden treasure. Grade I listed and dating back to 1520 the castle oozes charm and character with ornately carved fireplaces, massive beams and fine carved stone mullion windows. The castle makes the most magical backdrop for your special day.

PENGERSICK LANE, PRAA SANDS, PENZANCE, CORNWALL TR20 9SJ 01736 763973 | weddings@pengersickcastle.org.uk | www.pengersickcastle.com

The Sustainable Wedding Planner

Wedding planner Jenny Dell from Anomaly Weddings designs, plans and manages beautiful weddings that are also imperfectly eco. “What I mean by imperfectly eco is simply doing the best that couples can do with the tools they have at that precise moment whilst thinking about how things can improve going forward,” Jenny tells us.

Jenny has woven this ethos into her business in several ways, such as ensuring that the majority of her meetings are over the phone or online rather than travelling. She buys pre-loved items where possible that can be fixed, maintained and upcycle to look new, and ensures that any new items are perfect for multiple use or recyclable, using no single-use plastic items. Jenny has also purposefully aligned herself with other imperfectly eco-conscious suppliers and those that choose to do the right thing over the easy thing. She supports local suppliers in Devon and the South where possible, reducing her carbon footprint.

Jenny expertly styled our Festival of Love shoot in this issue at Hawke

Barn, pictured here and also seen on page 47, collaborating with a selection of hand-picked local businesses that also have the imperfectly eco-philosophy and photographed by www.freeformimages.co.uk. The macrame props were homemade and the tableware was all preloved.

Jenny believes in creating weddings that support the environment and are kind to the planet by using local farms that don’t use chemicals that harm nature. She also supports sustainable farming practices, encouraging plant-based eating and reducing meat intake.

Anomaly Weddings loves supporting charities, reducing waste, and donating items after weddings and events along with the best working practices, including handmade items that last a lifetime. Finally, Jenny is also an advocate for natural health, utilising the earth’s resources and using diet and lifestyle choices where possible for healing.

To find out more and to book, visit www.facebook.com/anomalyweddings

THE PLANET-FRIENDLY WEDDING STATIONER

Laura Shirley is the designer behind Laura Likes creating carbonpositive, botanical-inspired sustainable wedding stationery and paper goods in the greenest possible way. Ecologi has calculated the carbon footprint of the business and not only plant trees in Laura’s name every month across the world and in the UK, but also fund world-leading climate change solutions to, more than, offset her impact.

She has created these invitation sets using 100% recycled and beautifully textured seed paper which is tree-free and can be enjoyed and then planted. It’s handmade using traditional techniques, from 100% pre-consumer waste cotton which is biodegradable and then embedded with seeds and air-dried to give the seeds the best chance to germinate. The paper includes a mix of Sweet Alyssum, Common Poppy and Black Eyed Susan – these varieties have all been named by the RHS as ‘Plants for Pollinators’, because they are rich in nectar –attracting butterflies, bumble bees and other insects - and they do!

The signage is printed digitally and then mounted on to 4mm eco board - unlike other stationers, Laura doesn’t work with a Foamex inner, but those made entirely of corrugated card and which is recyclable.

Except for signage, Laura’s beautiful, intricate wedding stationery is printed in-house and she uses a mix of three different eco-friendly papers. For printing, there’s a choice of premium white recycled card stock or plantable seed paper and recycled Kraft envelopes as standard (FSC-coloured envelopes are also available).

Within the production of her wedding stationery, every effort has been made to keep wastage to a minimum. Any offcuts or waste printed paper is in turn recycled, or shredded to create packaging and she also recycles all Canon ink cartridges for the benefit of a local charity where 97% of each ink cartridge is recycled into other products.

When you receive an order from Laura Likes, the packaging is 100% recyclable with no bubble wrap, plastic mailbags or polystyrene. Everything in and on the box can either be popped in the recycling or if the order has been packed in shredded seed paper, Laura encourages couples to plant it in their garden and support our pollinators!

To shop, visit www.lauralikes.co.uk