Every year, Earth Day arrives as a quiet reminder. Not just of what needs to change, but of what is already changing: in small decisions, in considered choices, in the way people design the moments that matter most. Weddings, for all their beauty, carry a footprint. Increasingly, the professionals shaping them are thinking carefully about that. For this feature, we asked CELEX Ensemble members one question: what are you doing differently? What follows is their answer.
STATIONERY
Sustainable Stationery on Recycled Cotton Paper
Vaishali Shah
Ananya Cards
Ettington Park, United Kingdom
For Kieran and Alice’s wedding at Ettington Park, Vaishali Shah of Ananya Cards chose khadi cotton paper for every piece of stationery: invitations, menus, and place cards. The paper is made from recycled cotton fibres, specifically off-cuts from T-shirt production sourced from Tirupati, Tamil Nadu, arriving in large jute sacks and given a second life.
No wood pulp. No chlorine, bleaches, or harmful chemicals. No forests touched. Each piece carried a soft, textured finish and a slight variation that only handmaking produces; no two were entirely alike. Guests felt the difference the moment the invitation arrived.
That same quality carried through to the wedding day itself, with menus and place cards in matching khadi cotton, creating a quiet continuity from first impression to final course. The design and print were handled with equal care, chosen to complement rather than compete with the paper’s natural character. Ananya Cards also plants trees for every stationery order placed.
Floristry & Vessels
Handmade Clay Vessels from Local Ugandan Artisans
Lawrence Renzioni
Renzioni
Speke Resort, Uganda
For Stephen and Phumzile’s vow ceremony on the shores of Lake Victoria at Speke Resort in Kampala, Lawrence Renzioni commissioned all floral vessels from local Ugandan artisans who craft clay pots by hand. The pieces varied in design, grounded in local craft tradition, and were entirely reusable.
The ceremony took place outdoors, lit by natural light with the lake as its backdrop. Working with local makers was both an environmental and an economic decision. The commission supported rural artisans and brought a material honesty to the space that no imported décor could have replicated.
Décor Design
Zero-Waste Décor and a Commitment to Giving Back
Cybelle Maalouf
Kiveli Weddings
Athens, Greece
For Lea and Paul’s wedding in Athens, Cybelle Maalouf built the entire aesthetic around lemons and nothing else. No cut flowers. The décor was composed entirely of lemons, chosen because the couple’s first plant together was a lemon tree. After the celebration, lemonade was made from the fruit and donated. The remaining lemons were frozen by the florist for use at future events. The result was a setting that felt considered, personal, and entirely waste-free.
The commitment to sustainability does not stop when the celebration ends. Cybelle plants a tree in every couple’s name after their wedding. Her business cards are plantable: handed out, grown on. At the close of each year, she calculates every flight taken for work and plants accordingly.
“A practice that treats carbon not as an abstract concern but as a personal one: accounted for and addressed.”
— Celex Ensemble
Full-Scale Sustainability
Plastic-Free, Vegan Menus and Carbon Offsetting
Arun Bablani
Vivaah Weddings
Bluewaters, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Shweta and Maanav’s three-day celebration at Bluewaters, Dubai, was designed from the outset to leave as little behind as possible. Vivaah Weddings coordinated a full-scale sustainable framework spanning government agencies, charitable organisations, and the Dubai Expo 2020 team.
Guest transfers ran on electric vehicles. The menu was entirely plant-based, locally sourced, with every surplus donated after the event. Décor was rented; stationery printed on seed paper. Silk and potted flowers replaced cut blooms, later converted to potpourri. Return gifts included pieces from a charitable organisation and Plated Project porcelain plates — each translating into donated meals.
What could not be eliminated was offset by planting thirty thousand Ghaf trees across the emirate. The first wedding of its kind at this scale in Dubai: a benchmark, not simply an occasion.
Floristry
Reusing Flowers Across a Multi-Day Celebration
Max Hurtaud
Château de Crazannes, France
Sustainability in floristry is often framed as a question of materials. Max approaches it as a question of time. For a recent three-day celebration, the same floral arrangements carried across all three days: used on the first, repurposed on the second, and transformed again on the third. Each iteration was distinct. Each one made full use of what had already been created.
“The Wedding Flower Marathon: a method that optimises the full lifecycle of every floral element rather than treating arrangements as single-use.”
— Celex Ensemble
The result is not simply less waste. It is an evolving aesthetic that shifts with the celebration itself, giving each day its own character while drawing from the same living palette. In an industry built on abundance, it is a quietly radical idea.
Floristry
Reusing Flowers, Silk Alternatives and Replacing Floral Foam
Emilia de Kruif
Flores Y Amores
Germany
For Emilia de Kruif of Flores y Amores, sustainability is not a one-time gesture. It is an operating standard applied across every event. Fresh flowers are reused wherever consecutive bookings allow. High-end silk flowers are combined with fresh blooms to reduce waste without reducing visual impact.
Floral foam, a persistent environmental concern in the wedding industry, is replaced with chicken wire wherever the design permits: a material that can be cleaned and reused across multiple installations.
Full sustainability in floristry is difficult, and Emilia is clear about that. What Flores y Amores has chosen instead is consistency: smaller, more considered choices across every event, every time. In an industry of gestures, that constancy matters.
Floristry
Designing Without Foam from Day One
Kim
Dreamboats & Carousels
United Kingdom
When Kim launched Dreamboats & Carousels five years ago, she made a decision that shaped everything that followed: no floral foam. Not as a compromise, and not as a constraint. As a starting point.
Floral foam, a material long treated as standard in large installations, is non-biodegradable and laden with harmful chemicals. Its convenience has come at a cost the industry is only beginning to reckon with properly. Kim chose not to inherit that cost. From the outset, she built her practice around reusable mechanics: chicken wire, water tubes, moss, and structural techniques that have since become a signature of her work rather than a workaround.
There is a practical benefit too. Foam-free mechanics tend to extend the freshness of the florals themselves, meaning arrangements remain pristine not just for the event but beyond it. Less waste in process. Better results in practice.
For Kim, sustainability is not about sacrifice. It is about designing beautifully and responsibly, and understanding that the two have never been in conflict.
“Avoiding foam has not limited the work. It has expanded it. The alternatives have allowed Kim to design in ways that are more experimental, more architectural, and more considered.”
— Celex Ensemble
Sustainable weddings are rarely built on one grand gesture. They are built on a series of small, deliberate ones: a material reconsidered, a local supplier chosen with intention, a single-use element quietly removed. What the members of the CELEX Ensemble have shown here is that luxury and sustainability are not in opposition. They sit comfortably together when the professionals behind the work care enough to make it so. On Earth Day, and every day after it, that is worth acknowledging.
Begin Here
Is Dubai Your City?
If your vision requires precision, scale, and the reassurance that nothing will collapse under its own ambition — a luxury wedding in Dubai offers that confidence.
Credits
- Planner: JC Bespoke Events
- Photography: Bianca Sardi
- Videography: Rice & Roses
- Styling & Design: JC Bespoke Events
- Florals: Aurea Floral Studio
- Production: Ibiza ProDJ
- Catering: Crisp Catering
- Wedding Cake: Katie’s Kitchen
- Music & Entertainment: DJ Tom Grimes / David Devanagari / The Dhol Show / Your Dream Band / Rayco Santos / Grabo Bakos
- Hair: Mickey Jadav
- Make Up: Jo Jamface
- Dresses: Seema Gujral / Aisha Rao / Into Gaia / AKNVAS / Annie’s Ibiza / Amitya
- Stationery: The Bombay Lettering Company
