How this wedding became a ‘green one’ thanks to the efforts of the groom’s brother
Pranshu Kankane’s brother, Prateek, sent out potted plants as wedding invites and also introduced methods to reduce food wastage at the function.
At a time when we are battling climate change and environmental degradation, every small step towards the issue should be appreciated.
At Pranshu Kankane’s wedding to Sumi Choudhary in Bhopal, the family replaced wedding cards with potted plants. The groom, Pranshu Kankane and his brother Prateek were keen on a green wedding and hence decided to opt for ecofriendly alternatives.
The wedding couple along with the potted plants sent as wedding invites (Image: The Logical Indian)
Speaking to Indian Express, Prateek said,
“It all began with the idea of avoiding food wastage. We started off by sending e-invites instead of paper and requested people to RSVP. With the help of e-cards, we were not only able to avoid using paper, but the RSVP option helped us prevent food wastage.”
The groom’s mother however felt that invitation cards were an important part of the wedding. The duo was reluctant to use paper but came up with a novel idea of sending potted plants with a message printed on it as invites.
The potted plants were eight to 10-month old indoor plants with a life span of three to four years.
Prateek told the The Logical Indian,
“When we went to each house, their reactions were superfluous. According to their taste, some people even selected their own invite. We also spend 15-20 minutes with each invitee to guide them about taking care of the plants; we did not want them to just take it from us and then throw it.”
The message on the potted plants read, “don’t bring bouquets, and avoid single-use plastic bottles.” The decoration at the wedding was also completely ecofriendly.
Potted plants (Image: Indian Express)
Speaking about the cost, Prateek said,
“It was not right for this initiative to be unnecessarily costly. If it was costly, people would not be able to adopt this practice. Thus, the feasibility of the initiative was our biggest challenge”, reports The Logical Indian.
Each wedding invite cost the brothers around Rs 68-70. To manage the food wastage, the family partnered with Robin Hood Army, who would take the surplus food to the homeless and underprivileged.
In the end, out of 1,500 guests, only two turned up with a bouquet and only 40-50 plates of food remained, which RHA took care of.
Prateek added,
“It is very important to work in favour of the environment. We should find the means to conserve natural resources in every possible way we can. The wedding was an opportunity for us to do that; to ensure that natural resources did not get wasted,” reports The Logical Indian.
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