Irish couples planning on tying the knot are opting for greener versions of their big day.

Engaged couples are now looking to make their wedding day environmentally friendly as the impact of weddings on the environment becomes a concern.

Stepgreen.ie, a new company which organises carbon neutral weddings for the environment conscious couples, said the trend was already proving popular with Irish couples.

"There's a bigger appetite now for carbon neutral weddings," said Sandra Wright, the company's operations manager.

Advice

"We give advice on making decisions that will reduce the impact of weddings on the environment."

The carbon consultants organised carbon neutrality for the wedding of Andrea Murray and James Pollen on May 28, 2008.

"The footprint of the wedding was one 10th of those who just go ahead and have a wedding as planned," said Sandra.

To reduce the impact of a wedding on the environment, the company reviews everything from the food to the wine to the flowers.

"The one that has a huge impact is location because the big contributor to the carbon footprint is transport."

"It's better to have the wedding close to home and close to the homes of the guests." s

Andrea Murray and James Pollen had a carbon neutral wedding by basing everything in their local area.

"I had thought about doing the wedding reasonably local anyway," said Andrea.

"I was flicking through magazines and they were all about being environmentally friendly and I'd heard about another girl who did a carbon neutral wedding."

The couple had their wedding in a marquee locally to prevent the carbon footprint that hotels create with huge heating and electricity bills.

"It was brilliant. They're just so well finished off now. The sun was still shining and we could have the drinks in the garden before the meal. It worked well.

"Everything in the wedding was local, from the dress designer to the food. Stepgreen took details of what I was doing. They did all the ground work and found out how much carbon we were using."

The guests got cards with the invitations asking them how much mileage they were doing to get to the wedding.

"I really think it got them all thinking. They got together to car share. It was a novelty for them," said Andrea who said one guest cycled.

"They planted trees for me in Sligo as well ... I did absolutely nothing apart from contact them."

Andrea is delighted about her decision to go carbon neutral. "For me, it's the biggest event I've had as such, so I said 'Let's do my little bit for the environment'.

"I certainly think it's gotten people thinking. A few of my friends were asking about it."

However, the honeymoon was one part the couple couldn't keep local.

"We did go away! We realised that we can't keep that really local. But you can offset your flights as well."

Andrea and James went to Barbados, but it didn't matter since the trees were planted in Sligo.

"In nearly every aspect of a wedding, you've a choice to make on how to reduce a carbon footprint," said Sandra.

- Geraldine Gittens