Anyone who attended the wedding of Lipika Dugar and Rishab Bhansali on 7 December 2021 would tell you it was the dreamiest affair they have ever witnessed.
The arrangements looked nothing short of royal at Miraya Greens in Bengaluru.
But what set the wedding apart was that it was beautiful in more ways than just the ambience.
“We have witnessed many big fat Indian weddings, where we have seen a large amount of plastic being used in the forms of water bottles, packaging, cutlery, etc,” says Lipika.
“Additionally, there is tremendous wastage of food and lack of proper disposal methods.”
This eco-friendly event was a testament to the fact that a wedding does not need to be detrimental to the planet.
Explaining how they went about things, Lipika says that they laid major emphasis on the ‘three R’s: reduce, reuse, and recycle.
Among the many eco-friendly steps, they decided against plastic water bottles.
“We did not want any plastic. We have often witnessed how thousands of these plastic water bottles are often thrown into the trash or lie around half-filled,” says Lipika.
The water was instead served in steel mugs and earthen kulhads, lending a homely feel to the event.
In addition to this, the tableware and decor too were void of any single-use plastic and cutlery, crockery, etc were all made of ceramic and glass.
For the wedding invites, the couple decided to resort to the new trend of e-invites to avoid unnecessary paper wastage.
They also opted for the excess food and waste to be converted into manure at the venue itself by using a food digester machine.
For the wayboard at the entrance, they used chalkboards and cloth flex and instead of paper serviettes, they opted for cloth.
The decor was done with natural flowers and this lent a dainty effect to the set-up.
Lipika adds, “We had to stretch our budget 10-15 per cent more to achieve this than in a conventional wedding.”
Meanwhile, the Miraya Greens management was impressed!
They say while they have witnessed many weddings at the venue, this is the first time they have seen no food being wasted, no plastic use and no litter.