How many guests are coming to your wedding and where from? We think so far about 16 wedding guests to the ceremony and meal afterwards with a stay in a nice hotel mid week (it's cheaper!). Then we're having a party for the full extent of our family and friends in a very home made way the weekend following.. the party is a bit loose on details to be honest but probably about 100 to125 people..

In terms of where from I loose eco points here a bit, one of my best friends lives in the States so she and her partner will come, but they will make it their holiday for next year which will help carbon footprint wise. Apart from that my family is in Kent and Drew's in Somerset and most of our friends are in London. But with great public transport in the South East, and aswe think is going to be right next to a train station, we hope this will reduce the amount of guests driving..which gives us green points, we hope!

Do you have a budget and do you think you'll be able to stick to it? Yes we do though I'm not sure I can say how much as my dad might change his mind :) It's a very generous gift so I was shocked to find out, from what I've read recently, that it's about half the average cost of a UK wedding!

We are already saving like mad to top it up and yes we will be sticking to it!! We, as a couple, may top it up on areas we feel strongly about, but I'm very keen on getting everyone to pitch in and help by trading skills instead of wedding gifts, for instance.

Why is it important to you to throw an eco-wedding? What inspired you? Well I'd love to say were having a totally eco wedding but I'm not sure we will manage it, so I'm not going to set ourselves up to fail. But we are hoping to keep the important bits small and intimate and the party as fun and hand made as possible. I generally believe weddings have become just another opportunity to lavishly consume and that's not what it's about, I think you can do a lot with love and care and help from friends and family.

Please can you tell us a little about the greener elements of your wedding. I would like our day to have as little impact on the environment as possible. Doing things like shop locally, hand make, grow flowers and veg. and skill share with friends can significantly reduce our impact on the world and why should these things be thrown out of the window because I wear a white dress?

So I will be swapping one of my cake stands (which you can buy on GreenUnion) with a great friend and fab cake maker Georgina from High Tea of Highgate for a wedding cake. A good friend Clare Copland will be making my dress and we hope to source lots of the material for this from second hand markets and vintage fairs. I would like to make homemade jam and chutney as wedding favors, we will be buying locally sourced food and drink and family members have already been instructed to get in the garden and start growing flowers. Generally friends and family will all pitch in to help make the party happen... which I think is pretty green and, lets face it, good for the soul!

Do you think it's easy to be both stylish and green on your wedding day? I think simply the answer is a resounding yes. If everyone planning a wedding in 2009/2010 made one small change to their big day (even just having RSVP postcards instead of cards with envelopes think of all the paper we would save) it would make a difference, and such a small action (wearewhatwedo.org for more small actions). You wouldn't even notice the difference and would have made a huge impact collectively, if that doesn't make it easy to be green and stylish I don't know what does...

Have you got any tips, so far, for other brides looking to throw an eco-wedding? Your new 3 best friends are:
1) wedding websites
2) wedding podcast's free through itunes
3) wedding blogs
Get on the internet, at these early research stages I'd be lost without them, it's like wedding planning by osmosis!

Blog away Esther, we're dying to hear all about how you get on...