Zero waste wedding photography ideas
Around 220,000 couples get married in England each year. And most have some kind of photography – whether that’s friends taking photos, or hiring an expensive photographer. So switching to sustainable wedding photography, albums and frames can make a big difference to helping the planet.
Your wedding day is obviously a celebration of love. And you want to remember every meaningful moment. So whether you choose more natural ‘reportage’ photography or official portraits, there are many ways to make a positive difference.
The elephant dung photo frames are elegantly designed, to display your favourite photos. With a lovely brass elephant on top! They also have a serious side. In Africa, elephants have been killed by villagers, when venturing into areas to look for food (and accidentally trample crops).
So by paying local people to collect dung (the average elephant produces eat around the same as us munching 300 cans of beans a day, so that’s a lot of dung!) It means they come to see elephants as friends, as they are creating income for them. In short, this brand saves elephant lives!
Here are some practical and affordable ideas to create a more sustainable wedding photography experience, while keeping the focus on your love story!
What is sustainable wedding photography?
It’s simply an approach that respects the environment. Some traditional wedding photography involves expensive and wasteful printed proofs, packaging, photo boxes, leather photo albums or traditional cameras that still use gelatine (animal-bones – also used in some photography paper).
Other weddings use disposable cameras that are thrown away. And of course in a cost-of-living crisis, many people don’t want to blow their budget on a professional wedding photographer.
Some ideas to reduce the carbon footprint include:
- Choosing digital galleries over physical proofs
- Only printing photos you are going to display
- Selecting albums made with eco materials
- Reducing single-use disposable cameras
- Sharing photos digitally with family and friends
- Choosing zero waste photo frames
- Choose a photographer who shares your values
Some people don’t have anyone who can take photos! So if you do hire a photographer, choose a local sustainable photographer who shares your values. It’s likely they will also be more affordable.
Ask if he or she provides digital galleries and uses digital cameras to avoid animal by-products.
Embrace digital wedding galleries
Instead of automatically ordering hundreds of prints, a digital gallery shows you photos in an online gallery, so you just print the ones you want.
Posable is a good idea. Guests are all given reusable digital cameras, to take photos. These are then sent off and uploaded for you to pick your favourites (hopefully by ratio, not all of them will have taken 100% dud photos!) You can then pick your favourites and display them in a gallery for others to view. And print out your favourites for physical display.
Print with intention
When you choose photographs that you are actually going to display in your home or office, carefully select the favourites. These may include:
- One favourite portrait
- A photograph of the ceremony
- A family photography
- A candid moment with close friends
- A photo of the wedding venue
- A favourite photo from the reception
Choose an eco friendly wedding album
Most people who get married display the rest of their photos in an album. So choose one that’s made with sustainable materials. Ideally with recycled materials and free from animal ingredients like leather covers. Choose quality, to last for your children and grandchildren.
The elephant dung photo album is in a choice of bright colours with thick handmade paddy husk paper, acid-free to protect and preserve up to 20 6 x 4 inch photos.
Personalised linen wedding photo album
This personalised linen wedding photo album is a keepsake to last forever, printed on sustainable paper with linen (from flax) touches, for a greener album than most.
The luxury linen cover in natural stone is embossed in gold foil with your chosen name, a thoughtful gift for the happy couple.
The album lies flat when open, so it’s easy to add photos and flip through. Inside the pages are interleaved with translucent protective sheets. Contains 60 pages (30 sheets), use photo corners to add your photos.
