ZERO WASTE WEDDINGS – OR AT LEAST HOW TO BE A BIT MORE SUSTAINABLE

Sometimes convenience can be your worst enemy. It’s so easy to just quickly pop to the shops to buy that pre-packaged sandwich, or to chuck that plastic bottle in the bin without thinking about where it will eventually end up. The same applies to wedding planning.

Most couples have so much to think about when planning their wedding that who can blame them for going straight in with the convenient option?! We know that most people would always choose to go for the eco-friendly alternative, but it probably isn’t top priority, specially with so much else going on.

This is where we come into play. At Kemp and Kemp, we’ve always got our eye out for ways we can reduce our waste and do things in a more environmentally friendly way. It’s so important to us that we all do our little bit, this is how we do ours…

 

Keep it local

As standard practice, we always use local produce where available. That means from the beef on your plate to the butter we’ve seared it in. Not only does it massively add to the flavour of each dish, it also means we’re supporting local businesses AND reducing our carbon footprint (nobody wants ingredients that have been in transit for days and most of our meat – for example – has come from farms local to us).

This also means we won’t be tempted to use out of season produce (strawberries in November? No thanks!) and will design your menu with you to ensure as many food anachronisms have been eliminated. Asparagus for example should only appear on your menu AFTER St George’s Day – 23rd April which is also National Asparagus Day. Then you can be pretty sure it will have come 60 miles from The Vale of Evesham, rather than 3,600 miles from Israel.

 

Vegan/Veggie menus

There’s no denying that plant-based alternatives seem to have taken off in recent years. Karen has a new found love for experimenting with dairy, egg and meat-free dishes and we’ve actually catered a handful of completely veggie and vegan weddings. There’s plenty of evidence to show that a plant-based lifestyle is one of the best ways to reduce your carbon footprint, so a veggie/vegan wedding menu is a great step towards an eco-friendly day.

Yes, it can be daunting to announce that there will be no animal products on your menu, esp with committed carnivores on your guest list, but we can safely say that we’ve had plenty of fantastic feedback from non-vegan guests (pleasantly surprised that the menu wasn’t three courses of salad). Psst… a little secret, chances are if you don’t even mention it, they probably won’t even notice that anything is ‘missing’.

 

Doing our bit

We never ever (and I mean never) use single use plastic. Whether that’s the cutlery to the sticks we use in our canapés. Every product we use is either reusable, recyclable or biodegradable.

When you book Kemp and Kemp catering, we provide the crockery, cutlery and linen. We certainly don’t charge corkage, but we do ask that you supply the drinks, the glasses, refrigeration and anything else drink-related that you might need. Hiring these products is a lot kinder to the environment than single-use plastic and looks so much more elegant too. We have plenty of fabulous wedding hire suppliers listed on Independent Weddings who can advise.

You’ll also be pleased to read that the majority of the cooking and water-heating at our catering unit is powered by renewable energy from our roof-top solar panels.

Zero-waste when it comes to food is quite difficult when our job is to ensure everyone gets plenty at a wedding and we’d NEVER risk our reputation as ‘big feeders’ by providing small portions, but we don’t thrown away food waste into landfill, instead all food waste is now recycled using a specialist collection service.

We’re always looking for innovative ways to do our bit at Kemp and Kemp and next we’re moving to LEDs lighting in our catering unit to save 65% on power.

However you decide to approach your wedding, we’ll do everything we can to cater to your needs. Customer service is at the forefront of everything we do at Kemp and Kemp and we’ll never say no to a challenge.

We’d love to hear from you. If you would like a genuinely bespoke, exciting and delicious homemade wedding breakfast, get in touch.