So It was a Yes from both the sides and parents had given their green signal.
Both of
us had thought of a different marriage in which we had no plan to invite the
whole lot of relatives of the relatives or friends of the friends. Had no plan
to go for a big fat Indian wedding and never wanted to spend too much
money on our wedding. Both of us used to talk about having a simple marriage in
court OR do pheres ( Solemize marriage) in a temple. And given our Indian
Setting, It was tough to convince both sides of the family. On top of that we
wanted to organised an Eco- friendly wedding in which no single use plastic
would be used, had already decided to give away the seed balls to our guests
and relatives as a return gift in jute bags to encourage people to use
more n more jute and cloth bags instead of plastic carry bags.
All this sounded too
strange and unrealistic to our respective families. Of Course they love us for
our thoughts so they had to relent later on but the question was how to make it
all happen??
Now one thing they didn't
agree upon was a temple marriage or a court marriage.. Ok fine! but rest all
was going to happen as we wanted. Wasn't it?
The whole arrangement was
going to be very difficult task with all those ceremonies, rituals, gifting etc
given with our idea of a not so expensive wedding celeberations that too
without use of plastic. Once we begin the process we realised the idea of no
plastic was easier thought than actually done.
But we were also tough and
having a never give up attitude helped and we did it.
Now we tell how we
could do the unthinkable for many.
To start with we booked a
venue confirming to our thinking , ie they were not using much of plastic
disposables.
Then we were searching for
seed balls, jute bags at the same time an orphanage so that we could invite the
children for our wedding.
Hurdles-
1.
Seed balls were available online in customized packaging with customized
message printed…. but will they work??? as our previous experience was not
good, the sowed seeds failed to grow.
2.
3.
Jute Bags were expensive and not as per expectations. We wanted people to
actually use them daily so as to reduce plastic waste.
4.
5.
Calling orphans at the wedding venue amidst all the rituals
is not practical as we realised both of us won't be able to give them our time;
being involved various marriage rituals.
6.
The Wedding date was
getting nearer and we were not even able to decide and zero in on anything.
Just when we were coming to the zone of selecting out of what is available as
time was running out, we got connected with HELP BOX, heard of them on
FM while commuting to office.
Wow! We talked to
them and what wonderful people Mrs. KAVITA AND Mr. Suneel.
They are into collecting the unused clothes and Shoes and also helping kids in
their education by giving them “One Copy,One pen”. We got in touch with them
and invited them in our marriage to place a banner and also a box. The idea was
to request all the guests to bring their old clothes and shoes which they are
not using and donate it in our marriage. Help box were equally excited
for this as for the first time at a marriage function this collection idea was
going to be implemented.
The next big task to
convince the Parents. SO much resistance was there from both the sides and a
lot of things were like “Log Kya Kahenge”, Who will bring the Old Clothes in
Marriage and all. But somehow we both were able to convince them for the
same.
HELP BOX also got us
connected with our next Angels Ms. Mita Wadhwa and Ms Anita.
Both are so full of
positivity. Ms Mita Wadhwa is a social worker and also a Brand ambassador of
Nagar Nigam Bhopal just like Helpbox.
Ms. Anita founded a group named "सकारात्मक सोच"
Ms. Anita later helped us in a
different way. Will tell you later.
So now Mita mam
liked our idea of plastic free marriage and linked us to the Director of Career
College Bhopal, who in turn was very appreciative and cooperative in getting us
seed balls . Incidentally, Career college had purchased their own seed
balls making machine for their students. He liked our unique idea of
distributing seed balls at marriage. He introduced us to Prof.
Jaswinder Mehta. She helped us in selecting types of seed balls according
to the season and got them made for us in a matter of days . ( we were running
out of time, remember?)
The balls cost us one tenth
of the online purchase as well as with a guarantee that they will work.. So
happy we were..
Now first and third hurdle
crossed and the second one remained, i.e. Jute bags..
Mita Mam again came
to help and here we met Puja Iyenger who runs Maha Shakti Kendra
(MSK). MSK gives livelihood to lower economic group ladies.
With some discussion she
understood our idea and asked me to come the next day for a sample.
The sample was awesome..
Everyone at our home liked when we saw our beautiful and elegant jute bag; apt
to be given away at a marriage function.
So the order was placed and we were relaxed…. MSK also prepared very pretty colourful and beautiful small potlis to be used as seed balls cover bags.
Along with all this we had to convince our parents for a digital invitation Only.. No cards..
What???
Arre how will we invite our close relative..
As we wanted to do an Eco Friendly wedding so we didnt want our Wedding card to be
printed - Save Paper, Save Tree Initiative. We decided to design a card and send it through
whatsApp & E-mailer form. Also we
wanted to request people to “Sow More trees' ' so we specially wrote on our wedding card
to Sow More Trees.
We added on our card and requested our guest not to use single use plastic for their daily
routine.
As we were in association with “Helpbox” so we requested our guest to donate one pen,
one copy when they come to our wedding and we mentioned this message too ,on our
Wedding Card.
Our dear friend Shikha Pandey extended her help here and Card Design was done by her and also she made a cute video invite which was superb. Now
it was time to send the card to our guests.
it was time to send the card to our guests.
We got a lot of resistance from the Relatives and friends some of them were not very happy
and were mocking our ideas and decisions. Our families were with us and we were confident for we were initiating something which could be a revolutionary idea or could help many people who plan to marry in such ways.
We started sending the cards on Whats app and made a video invite also.(The Card is below) Lot of People Admired our idea and lot of people dint seem happy, some were clueless as it’s a wedding so they just wanted to Enjoy.
During all this, Help box Founder Mr. Sunil forwarded our story ahead and Dainik Bhaskar
team got connected with us to cover this in their Newspaper. We said ok and it got
published on 18th January 2020 in Dainik Bhaskar,City Bhaskar, Bhopal Edition. We
started getting lot of calls and wishes from many acquaintances and congratulating
us for this sort of idea of marriage and we got some encouragement and we felt more
happy on our decisions.
team got connected with us to cover this in their Newspaper. We said ok and it got
published on 18th January 2020 in Dainik Bhaskar,City Bhaskar, Bhopal Edition. We
started getting lot of calls and wishes from many acquaintances and congratulating
us for this sort of idea of marriage and we got some encouragement and we felt more
happy on our decisions.
Article published in Dainik Bhaskar- Bhopal
We needed a couple of invitation cards for offering to Lord Ganesha at the temple.
( a custom followed in our families)
( a custom followed in our families)
No printing.. We went for a handmade paper card which was handmade by a sweet
creative college girl Ankita. Just see how classy it looks…
All this done But the Bigger challenges were waiting for us.. and those were
- Finalize
the Sweet box without Plastic tray which is usually used in the sweet box
- To
ensure all the food items should be served in coconut bowls or melamine
bowls/ plates and no plastic disposables to be used .
- We
had to ensure that tea, coffee water or any beverages should be served in
kulhad or in paper cups. No thermocol or plastic cups should be used.
- Our
all guests were staying in the same hotel where the venue was, so we had
to ensure that all the rooms should have the water container with the
glass tumblers so that no disposable or mineral water bottle will be used
- The
Bigger task is to do the packing of all the gifts like sarees, all the
clothings, gift items should be packed/wrapped in handmade paper or in
news Paper cloth bags.
- Packaging
of seed balls was also a bigger task so we decided to go for a beautiful
cloth designer potli.
- Reminding
all the guests not to bring any plastic bags in their luggage or they
should avoid the single use plastic for any gift items
- Reminding
guests to bring the unused clothes and shoes and also the copies and pens
to donate in our marriage. The reminder was given till the last day of
their arrival
- We
also ensured and discussed this with Pandit ji to get all the samagri in
the paper envelopes and not to bring anything in plastic carry bags
- We ensured breakfast for our guests who were from outstation and on their return we packed lunch packs in cardboard boxes.
Now How we overcame the above challenges –
- We removed the plastic partition in the available sweet boxes and asked the shopkeeper to fill up without it. It came out good.
- At the venue crockery , wooden spoons, melamine bowls , paper cups were used to serve all the water and food items. At home we borrowed steel utensils through Ms Anita , from bartan bank run in Bhopal at several places.
- The food was carried in home containers , we also used bamboo plates, bowls for once and twice.
- Kulhads in bulk could not be arranged in time and were used for day time tea and coffee serving. For water we used paper cups.
- We had meeting with the venue owner and steel flasks along with glass tumblers were kept in each room filled with water and there was water dispenser available on each floor, thus we avoided disposable plastic bottles waste in a big way.
- Here again Ms Anita helped us in connecting with Rama a very sweet and creative girl. Rama helped us in a big way with packing of our return gifts , clothing etc to be given away the rituals. She was so glad to come up with unique ideas every day with the packaging without the use of any hint of plastic. Ashish insisted and didn’t let her use cello tape also .. ☺ phew…( just have a look at the packing) We used auspicious thread called kalawa (Traditional thread) in hindi for the purpose.
- Ms Puja at MSK prepared very pretty and cost friendly designer potlis for us in a couple of days. My brother and little sister were glad to help us in packing seed balls in them in matter of few hours..
- Prepared a broadcast list of our guests ( on whatsapp) to give updates on our event , since no formal print out of invitations were sent, all the schedules were broadcasted as well as the reminders were also sent till the last day of their arrivals.
- Most of our guests brought things packed in newspaper bags or handmade paper bags. They brought clothing, shoes, copies, pens for donating at the HELPBOX kept at the venue..
- Pandit ji was repeatedly reminded about the Wedding Puja related material in the newspaper wraps from the shops. He anyways used cloth bags..
- The next morning after the wedding , the returning guests were given packed breakfast and lunch in card board boxes and food items were selected and packed in a way that no plastic was required.
The Above is with the plastic partition which we din't use.
We Asked the sweet vendor to remove the plastic partition and put the sweets like the above box
Team is filling the Potlis with the seed balls
Team is filling the Potlis with the seed balls
Packing without any Plastic packing and any plastic material used
Packing without any Plastic packing and any plastic material used
Packing without any Plastic packing and any plastic material used
Packing without any Plastic packing and any plastic material used
We invited Mrs. Kavita & Mr. Sunil (Founder of Help box) for the marriage and Requested them to setup a Help box stall.
All of our hard work and efforts paid off at the end as all of our family including us enjoyed the event to the fullest while maintaining our resolve towards mother nature.
One more thing i wish to add here, no use of any kind of plastic is very tough as of now due to absence
of appropriate options.
But we can very well reduce the use of plastic and single use/disposable plastic can be avoided fully..
Carrying your own bag, water bottle while moving out of home is a great step in limiting plastic
wastes.. So this is our beginning together which we both are determined to carry forward in varied
ways, which we will keep on sharing with you all.
If you liked our story do let us know…..
You can connect with us for any help required in managing your Eco-friendly marriage.
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Author - Neha Singhal & Ashish Garg
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