Altar your plans

Can the Big Indian Wedding also be mindful of the planet? Bridal couples now send e-invites, put the baraat on e-bikes and get guests to do beach clean-ups. See how they celebrate love without leaving a landfill behind

- Tanisha Saxena [e-mail]

On a bright May afternoon in 2018, as waves lapped against Mumbai's littered shores, Ashwin Malwade and Nupur Agarwal had a meet-cute — not at a café or a party, but at a beach clean-up drive. "We fell in love amidst trash," Ashwin says with a laugh. “And when we decided to get married, we knew we couldn't create the same waste we were cleaning up.”

Their wedding ceremony, in 2019, had no plastic bottles, no disposable décor, no food waste. When photos began circulating on social media, other couples started reaching out. “People saw that it was possible to have an Indian wedding without compromising on beauty, emotion or grandeur,” Malwade says. It prompted them to set up Greenmyna, a sustainability consultancy for weddings and large-scale events.

Meanwhile in Bengaluru, Sahar Mansoor, who studied environmental law and economics at the University of Cambridge and runs Bare Necessities, a zero-waste brand, takes her impact on the planet more seriously than most. At her own wedding in 2023, she had a tree-planting ceremony (in honour of her late father, whose coconut tree has nourished the family for years). The couple exchanged garlands made of leaves. Instead of confetti, guests tossed leaves. The ceremony concluded with a beach clean-up. “Our grandparents, parents, nieces, nephews all participated.”

The 2025 wedding season is a beast - 46 lakh weddings, set to generate ₹6.5 lakh crore and create 1 crore jobs. Many want a sustainable celebration that isn’t short on glitz and splendour. Being less wasteful, less polluting is on every client and planner’s mind. Are organic buffets, no-plastic flatware, reusable décor and separate waste bins enough to give the Earth a happily ever after? Take a look.

A forever promise