S5E10 'Weddings and Sustainability, the perfect match?' with Michelle Miles 💒

We can't believe we're already down to our final guest of Season Five! 

We've been truly blessed with so many amazing speakers, and our final guest is no exception. Welcome to the show, Michelle Miles!

Michelle is CEO at the 'Sustainable Wedding Alliance', and has made it her mission to integrate Sustainability into the heart of the Wedding industry. 

With all their usual expense and excess, you might not typically associate weddings with the Sustainability movement. Perhaps even the opposite. But with nearly 100 wedding consultants signed up to Michelle's alliance, that is all about to change!

So join on us as we learned about Michelle's journey, from entering the Events industry at age 16, to specialising in weddings, and ultimately to founding the Sustainable Wedding Alliance and addressing the environmental impact weddings have. 

Michelle chatted to James all about:

👰‍♀️ The potential positive impact of changing the wedding industry, with 300,000 weddings per year in the UK alone!
💭 Changing social trends and attitudes towards marriage.
🤝 The post-pandemic industry shift from competition to collaboration. 

Michelle also shared her top-tips for a climate-conscious wedding, including:
✅ A venue powered by renewable energy
✅ Choosing no-waste caterers
✅ Fair working hours for staff
✅ Offering guests travel options by rail or coach where possible
✅ Using locally sourced flowers and seasonal food 

It's amazing to see thought-leaders like Michelle driving huge change across an entire industry. We came away from the episode feeling super inspired and ready for action! We hope you enjoy the final guest of Season Five 💚

About Michelle Miles:
Founder & CEO of Sustainable Wedding Alliance, Michelle has been working in the events and wedding industry since leaving school at 16. Michelle founded her first company in 2009, an event agency that quickly became focused on working for sustainably led clients, running events and weddings with minimal footprint, aiming to have a positive impact on people and planet. Fast forward to pandemic… and SWA was formed during the ‘quiet’ time forced by pandemic. Michelle lives in rural Berkshire, and is obsessed with natural and growing flowers. 

Further Resources from the episode: 
SWA Website: https://sustainableweddingalliance.com/
SWA LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sustainable-wedding-alliance 
SWA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sustainableweddingallianceuk/
Michelle on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellemilesevents/

Music credit: bensound.com

https://ecosend.io

Creators & Guests

Host

James Gill

CEO of GoSquared

Guest

Michelle Miles

Founder & CEO of Sustainable Wedding Alliance

What is The EcoSend Podcast?

Our journey into the world of being a truly climate conscious business. Join us as we talk to fellow entrepreneurs, founders, marketing folks, and campaigners to help us build our new product, EcoSend: the climate conscious email marketing tool.

S5E10audiopre
===

[00:00:00] Chris W: Welcome to the EcoSend podcast. Be inspired, educated and entertained by the world's most ambitious leaders putting climate at the top of their agenda. Welcome

[00:00:27] James Gill: to another episode of the EcoSend podcast. I'm your host James and I'm thrilled to be joined by Michelle this week. Michelle is the founder and CEO of Sustainable Wedding Alliance and we're going to be talking about weddings today. So. Hi, Michelle. How are you doing?

[00:00:44] Michelle Miles: I am very good. Thank you for having me.

[00:00:46] I'm very excited to be on the podcast.

[00:00:48] James Gill: Great to have you. Great to have you. I am very much looking forward to this. I mentioned this before the call. I feel like I'm suddenly in the market for wedding stuff as a Newly engaged man, and I, I'm, I'm so excited to talk into the, the whole topic because weddings, sustainability, I guess, maybe not something on everyone's minds.

[00:01:09] There's a lot of things to think about when you're getting married. But your, your whole goal here is trying to make weddings a bit more sustainable. So I'd love to hear more about what you're doing with Sustainable Wedding Alliance. And maybe then also, how the heck you got into doing this, Michelle, would be really great to understand.

[00:01:25] Yeah.

[00:01:26] Michelle Miles: Yeah, I mean, what a question. So, I have, my background is, I started in events straight out of school. So 16 finished GCSEs wanted to get stuck into the working world went straight into events. And marketing have been in the industry ever since have dicked my toe in all sorts of events obviously weddings included.

[00:01:47] And I started my first company back in 2009, which was an event agency. And then quite quickly started working for businesses that wanted a more conscious event. So, you know, we're thinking about the environment and the social impact that they had. And then that's then sort of started to kick off into the wedding couples I was working with and then that kind of became my niche and something that I just got super passionate about.

[00:02:14] And, you know as many people in the sustainable world will know, once you start looking into this kind of stuff, it's not something that you can kind of walk away from and you get that, you get stuck into it, that journey sort of starts. So about five years ago I had the idea for the Alliance and it was pretty quickly realized because of that lovely thing, the pandemic essentially shut down the events and weddings industry.

[00:02:39] And it allowed me to kind of have that headspace to kind of go, actually, this is something I wanted to do. And this is potentially the time in which I've got, I've got actually the downtime to sit and do it. So. Complete and utter silver lining meant that actually I could focus on starting to bring together businesses in the wedding industry that had the same ethos as me and built a community first.

[00:03:03] And then from then sort of developed that to supporting them, developing an accreditation. And now we have nearly a hundred businesses that working with over the UK and a few that we work with also internationally. To try and drive sustainability in weddings globally.

[00:03:22] James Gill: Wow, so, so the alliance is basically businesses that want to supply to weddings.

[00:03:29] Basically the Sustainable Wedding Alliance is all about putting sustainability at the forefront of the agenda. So that, let's say, hypothetically, someone wanting to have a wedding that was the most sustainable it could possibly be, come to you, and you have all the people, Ready, ready to go. All the supplies ready and raring to go.

[00:03:49] Michelle Miles: Yeah, so working as you know, in my previous business, you know, working directly for couples, helping them to plan a sustainable wedding was, you know, an absolute privilege and I love doing it. But it was really obvious to me that I was only going to be able to have an impact on on those few weddings, whereas If I can actually work with businesses to make what they do more sustainable.

[00:04:11] So actually the core of the business becomes more sustainable. Yeah. Then they have the potential to impact not only the weddings that they're involved in, but also then all of the guests that are attending those weddings. So, right. For me, that was, you know, such a, such a realization of actually there is.

[00:04:28] There's such a big scale, there are, you know nearly 300, 000 weddings that take place every year in the UK alone. And so actually that number of, of people we can reach by having this community and by teaching the businesses first is so much greater than if we just attempt to, to talk directly to couples.

[00:04:48] James Gill: Sure, that's, that's incredible. Yeah, so I, so I guess maybe many couples end up talking to one of your suppliers, not even necessarily knowing that they Not thinking about sustainability and then because of one of those suppliers is already that's part of their whole ethos Then maybe it influences up that chain reaction, which is a huge force for good.

[00:05:11] That's awesome. That's awesome So I what I'm curious like what, was there anything specific that, that made you want to drive the sustainability agenda further forward? Like, was there anything on your side that, aside from like, this clearly being a good thing, like, what made you want to do this so badly?

[00:05:33] Michelle Miles: I think that as I said, you know, being involved in events industry for so long, you know, I've certainly seen the volumes of waste, you know, things generated. For one or two days and then, you know, not considered, you know, what's going to happen with those things at the end. Working directly in festivals really opened my eyes to that kind of thing.

[00:05:56] And there was one particular festival I worked in in 2011 that I had, I had to see the clear up of and it was just, it was just soul destroying to see. It just made me realize that actually, you know, I, I adore working in this industry and, you know, I get so much enjoyment from what I do, but seeing that made me really think about whether or not I could stay in the industry and continue to be part of that.

[00:06:26] And, you know, it was, it was, At that point, I kind of had to make the decision. I either try to make things better and you know, learn myself what that looks like and then try to educate others. And I did have some clients at the time that were already sorting in the science and tech world that were already doing some quite cool and innovative things.

[00:06:45] Were really interesting to me. Or I leave the industry and, you know, And go elsewhere. And, you know, that was a big thing to do. And, you know, I didn't want to leave the world that I'd lived in for so long and that I loved. So I probably took the harder option and attempted to change things from within but slow and steady.

[00:07:05] And, you know, we're definitely starting to see so much more change in both the, you know, in the events where I'm the corporate secretary, you know, gathering great momentum, but, you know, in weddings. You know, as this is saying wedding lights and that that's where we really focus. We are starting to see a drive from the couples wanting to Bring that, you know, that's that more environmentally conscious day to day life that they have into the bigger life events and wanting to make sure that they have a positive impact and a legacy beyond, you know, so it's, you know, having children through that into the mix as well.

[00:07:42] And, you know, that realization that actually, you know, There's a, there's a world beyond me and, you know, that legacy of wanting to leave something better. You know, and moving into a rural community as well, you know, we are, I am surrounded by nature here and I see the day to day effects of climate change on our local, you know, ecosystem here and, you know, all of those things sort of rolled up combined, sort of make me.

[00:08:08] Every day be like, No, we've this, you know, even the hard days like this is we're doing something for the good here. We're doing something for the better. So

[00:08:17] James Gill: that's such such an inspiring sort of journey to hear about Michelle, because, you know, I guess many people in your position might think, well, as you said, it could be a lot easier to just like, Nope, I'm not going to deal with this anymore.

[00:08:29] Gonna get out of it. But to really try and change things, yeah. It's often a thankless and very difficult task I can imagine.

[00:08:39] Michelle Miles: Yeah yeah, do I get marooned? There are definitely days where I'm like, nope, going back to bed, that's, you know you know, very often I remove myself from social media with all the doom and gloom and the, you know, It's difficult sometimes, but I do keep coming back to actually the positive impact that, you know, we're able to have, you know, on a day to day basis is, is so beyond what I, you know, set out to achieve at the beginning.

[00:09:06] And, you know, we're so lucky to work with amazing partners that spread that message. It keeps you going.

[00:09:13] James Gill: Yeah, absolutely. I, I'm, I'm actually, I'm really interested to dig into the, the whole topic of like, what, what ways can people make a wedding sustainable? Because I, on the podcast, we've actually had a few people, a few wonderful guests in the world of events that, that have definitely drawn my attention to, I mean, Honestly, like, the number of events I've been to and I never, in the early days, like, years and years and years ago, I never really thought about, like, just Things like lanyards and the, the, you know, the expo hall and all of these big, fancy stands and signs and never really thought about what happens to them after an event.

[00:09:53] Do they just get chucked in the skip or not? And it's been very re really reassuring to meet people that are, like, trying to tackle some of those things because it's very easy to overlook. I I know we also spoke to I think Rebecca from Tentshare, who is all about, like, the carnage after a music festival and things where tents get left behind, and instead, why not borrow tents, why not reuse tents, which has just been wonderful to see, so.

[00:10:21] I'm slightly aware of some of these these aspects but for weddings I guess you don't have lanyards and most of them don't have tents so so yeah tell me more about ways people are making their weddings more more sustainable.

[00:10:34] Michelle Miles: So we we sort of come up across this quite often is that you know a sustainable wedding has a sort of style to it.

[00:10:42] So, you know, it's a farm or it's rustic, you know, everything's served vegan, you know, that's your vibe. Great. That's fine. But it doesn't have to be like that. A sustainable wedding isn't. A look. It's, you know, it's a, it's a series of choices that you make. So, you know, making sure that you are going to a venue that is, you know, using renewable energy is, you know, looking after their staff, not making them work crazy hours that is going to work with a caterer that isn't going to waste food that is making sure that they're composting any food that is you know, not eating, you know, it's, it's about making sure that you are.

[00:11:24] You know, as a couple getting married, asking those extra questions, not just, you know, how much is it is, you know, we'll, you know, if we're giving you our final numbers for catering two weeks before, you know, do you over, do you overcook? which most overcooked by 10 percent to ensure that there's spare meals in case they're needed, you know, ask them not to do that.

[00:11:47] Because that's foods essentially going to end up wasted or ask them to ensure that that's given to the staff at the venue. So, It's about being aware and about asking the right questions all the way through the planning journey. You know, there are going to be heavy carbon footprint elements of a wedding.

[00:12:07] You know, your venue is going to be a big one. Your catering is going to be a big one. And how your guests are traveling is going to be big. Sure, sure. So, you know, trying to tackle those big questions. Bigger elements is, you know, a good starting point you know, in the world of sustainability, we always like to tackle the significant actions we, you know, make as big an impact as possible.

[00:12:28] And it's the same in weddings, you know, let's not be giving things away. To people that they don't need let's not give people plastic flip flops to try and dance in the evenings or bubble wands on a table. Let's hire a bubble machine instead so that everyone can enjoy it much longer. You know, there's so many little things that you can do, but also starting by tackling the bigger things and making the right choices at the beginning makes it so much easier.

[00:12:56] James Gill: So don't get rid of the bubbles. Keep the bubbles flowing.

[00:13:00] Michelle Miles: Yeah, just put a machine that plugs into the pool using the renewable energy and you can have bubbles,

[00:13:06] James Gill: bigger

[00:13:06] Michelle Miles: bubbles for longer, much, much better than them silly little things on the

[00:13:12] James Gill: table. Yeah, everyone wins, everyone wins. That's really, really interesting to hear.

[00:13:17] So yeah, there's these key elements. I guess the travel piece is a fascinating one. I guess, you know, what would be your take on that? a couple that wants to get married in a different country. Is there a, is that a just, okay, that's just not going to be a sustainable wedding anymore? Or is it that, well, let's try and optimize the things we can change?

[00:13:38] Michelle Miles: So we quite often talk to you know, we still talk to couples, you know, yes, we primarily work with businesses, but we talk about the idea of sort of setting a bit of a carbon budget for your wedding. So just like you'd say, yeah. So, you know, if you are going to have a destination wedding and the majority of your guests are going to be flying there, then let's talk to the guests about maybe then extending giving them recommendations of where they could maybe stay and extend and have a, have their holiday, their summer holiday at the same time, their winter holiday.

[00:14:08] Making sure that we are, you know, if we set ourselves a carbon budget and saying, okay, well, flights are going to be a really large chunk of that budget. What's then left and we spend that really wisely. So, you know, let's make sure that all the food is locally sourced and really seasonal. There's no waste.

[00:14:27] Let's make sure that the flowers are grown locally, built by diversity, you know, or are potted so that they can then go back in the ground. Until. So you can kind of, you know, if something is really important to you, then protect that thing and then look at everything else around it.

[00:14:45] James Gill: Got it, got it. My destination wedding might be in Scotland, so we're not, we're not talking about too far, so.

[00:14:53] Michelle Miles: An amazing train journey as well. We were talking we work with a few destination planners and we're talking about an Orient Express trip for the guests and they have their welcome evening meal on the train going to the wedding and it just becomes part of the experience. And so it just, You know, you build it in to make it part of the wedding so that travel becomes part of it.

[00:15:17] And then, you know, you just get to extend the celebration essentially.

[00:15:21] James Gill: You're giving me many ideas. This is like a free, this isn't a podcast at all, Michelle. It's just a consultancy call.

[00:15:27] Michelle Miles: Oh,

[00:15:30] James Gill: that's, that's brilliant. So, I'm intrigued on the other side then. I know I've been talking slightly from from the, the couple side, but for, for businesses, what, what are those kinds of conversations like?

[00:15:39] Is it, is it very much them coming to you thinking, We want to be more sustainable, but we're not sure where to start, or is it how do we communicate our sustainability efforts we're already doing? What, what's that side like?

[00:15:52] Michelle Miles: Yeah, absolutely a bit of both. So we, you know, we work with businesses that have, you know, the real want to understand, be more sustainable, want to do the right thing, but just don't really know where to start, find it all really daunting.

[00:16:06] I think that, you know, the hospitality industry as a whole it isn't really. The jargon that is used around ESG and sustainability isn't really accessible. You know, the wedding industry is made up of, you know, majority of micro businesses that have really seasonal or have in the past had a really seasonal structure to their business, you know, and taking, to be able to take time to understand what sustainability means for them hasn't ever been high on their agenda.

[00:16:36] Now we're starting to see an increase in couples asking for that. And also people becoming more aware that, you know, it's important to be a responsible business and really think about who we're working with, who we're buying from, what we're doing. And so we kind of get a combination of people, some coming with that want to do better and others coming to us saying.

[00:16:57] we're actually doing all this really cool stuff and we've been doing it for a while but we don't talk about it because we're afraid somebody's going to say that we're greenwashing because we're not doing everything amazingly but we do all these really cool things and we just don't know how to talk about it and I think that's kind of where we You know, can really help showcase businesses.

[00:17:17] We launched an awards ceremony a couple of years ago because of this very reason, because there are so many amazing businesses that, you know, have been doing fantastic things for a long time, but just never shouting about it. And they, yeah, They just don't promote themselves enough. And so, you know, the, the Sustainable Wedding Awards is exactly the vehicle for them to do that, to promote what they're doing, whether it be an individual project or whether it be the business as a whole.

[00:17:46] Because we need more of that, the, you know, the more businesses talk about and are honest about, you know, the, the good, the bad, and the ugly, the more businesses are likely to go, Oh, Okay, I, I get that. I relate to that. You know, I've been in that position and, you know, if they can do it, we can do it too.

[00:18:02] And, you know, building that community and getting to that very crucial tipping point of, oh, well, the majority are doing it. Let's do it too. That's kind of what we're working towards.

[00:18:13] James Gill: That's amazing. Yeah, I, I know on, on the, on this podcast, we've had the topic of greenwashing and green hushing come up quite a lot.

[00:18:22] And, and that until doing this. Show like I hadn't really come across that term before but really open my eyes because I think we were we were falling feeling that way ourselves of like people are so afraid to say the wrong thing that they don't say anything and when you when you look at the benefits of People starting to talk about it, as you said, like you can only really start changing when you start being open and transparent and talking about what you're doing, and that's how you make mistakes, but if you make mistakes, you, you learn, and you fix them, and you evolve, and you improve, whereas if, yeah, keeping everything quiet, Doesn't really help push the agenda forward, does it?

[00:19:05] Michelle Miles: No, and for us, it's so important that, you know, people share and they learn from one each other. The businesses that, you know, we've built this community because, you know, actually there is so many learnings to be shared. And although businesses may not be sharing them publicly, they are sharing them internally within our community.

[00:19:26] We have businesses that have gone through the B Corp process. Like, we have that. Sharing that journey and and sharing those experiences so that other businesses don't have to fall down those same pitfalls that that they did and that kind of, you know, we just started a mentor system within our community because, you know, we recognize that actually, you know, having that person to talk to that's in the same part of the industry as you is so, is so important.

[00:19:53] You know, and really inspires you to, you know, to keep going, to do more and, you know, to better yourself and the business and, you know, and talk about it and tell their story. And then eventually those people would then be able to be doing the same for other businesses. So that knock on effect I think is, is really, really visible within our community, but outside that as well, sort of in the wider industry, we're starting to see it more.

[00:20:18] James Gill: Yeah, that's, that's awesome to hear. Cause I guess, I guess business, running a business can be a very lonely thing too. Can't it? Like, you know, people, People often don't realize when you, when you are responsible for a small business, like, how, you know, you kind of got to get up every single day and figure stuff out all the time and sometimes you hit these problems and they feel like The worst thing in the world, and everything's, Oh, why do I even bother doing this?

[00:20:45] And, you realize, when you start to meet other people in your industry, That like, you're not the only one who's having a bad day. You're not the only one who's had a bad week. You need other people to kind of, Share those highs and lows with, don't you? It's the power of community and, and, Especially in small business.

[00:21:01] I think it's just phenomenal.

[00:21:03] Michelle Miles: Definitely. And I think that, you know, in the wedding industry, you know, as I said, there's the vast majority of micro businesses, you know, sole traders that, you know, don't necessarily in the seasons that we're not really hosting many weddings, you know, in autumn, winter, they may not be seeing other suppliers and, you know, they may not be going to networking events.

[00:21:24] And so actually to have a community You know, in a sort of online community that where they can share information, they can meet up, they can talk about, you know, sustainable, you know, challenges is that having solutions that they've got, you know, it's just, it's so important. And I love that we are, you know, fostering.

[00:21:44] In the wedding industry, this, this collaboration over competition stuff, you know, it's it in the wedding industry. Historically, it was extremely competitive. And I think actually, you know, post post pandemic, we've started to see a lot of that disappear. And, you know, we're businesses really understanding that collaboration is really important.

[00:22:04] And, you know, being part of a team that runs a wedding is really important and connecting and working with those. Right people that share your ethos is, you know, it makes it so much easier for everybody that's involved, you know, and it's only going to benefit the couple on their wedding day as

[00:22:20] James Gill: well.

[00:22:21] Yeah. Yeah. The lucky couple. I, I, I could go on a lot more and dig in a lot more on the business. Michelle, but I know another topic you're really keen to talk about was the importance of education in this in the space, especially around sustainability. So yeah, curious to hear more of your views on that.

[00:22:46] Michelle Miles: Yeah, I think that as I was saying that, you know, the small businesses in the wedding industry, you know, all small businesses, all owners of small businesses have to wear several hats, you know, and very rarely that hat is going back to school and learning and training, you know, they might be sending their team off to do training, you know, very often there's health and safety training to be done.

[00:23:10] But actually, thinking about, you know, what, what we need to know as a business and what we need to, to relearn isn't necessarily something that's been at the top of everyone's list. And I, I've been one of those people in my life that have always learned from doing. And so, you know, as I left school when I was 16, you know, I'm very much a on the ground, do it, learn it person, you know, and I think that, you know, our industry is, is full of them, you know, and entrepreneurs and small business owners, that sort of thing.

[00:23:41] You know, very often the mentality. So education is really key for me and making sure that it's really accessible. So that's they're not long winded courses that take months for people to complete, that they can be self paced learning options that, you know, the. is accessible for everybody regardless, you know, if you're neurodivergent or neurotypical, you know, if you're visually led, you know, whatever you need, you can get from, you know, one, one location.

[00:24:12] And so that's kind of what we work really hard on in the Alliance to make sure that, you know, our trainings are really accessible for everybody and fit around a really busy wedding business. We developed the carbon literacy training specifically for wedding professionals. Oh

[00:24:29] James Gill: wow. Yeah.

[00:24:31] Michelle Miles: And it's been amazing.

[00:24:33] Like the response we've had has been absolutely amazing. And I think that it really opens people's eyes to the very basics of climate change. But also all the opportunities. to take action on it. That's

[00:24:48] James Gill: right. Yeah.

[00:24:49] Michelle Miles: Really don't have this, that just wouldn't enter their brain, you know, on a day to day basis until you actually sit down and start thinking about what you do in your business and start to unpick.

[00:25:02] Actually, we can do that differently. And you know, why do we do it that way? And it's more efficient and cost effective to do it this way. You know, it's more environmentally friendly too. And, you know, actually volunteering is great for our staff, but it's also, you know, great for morale, but it's also great for the community.

[00:25:18] And I think that kind of training, we have seen so many light bulb moments. We've seen so many businesses go on to do so many amazing things. And it is just, you know, sometimes it is difficult, isn't it, to push yourself out of that comfort zone and, you know, go and attend a training with people that you've never really met before and on a subject that is quite daunting for most.

[00:25:41] But I think people being open to learning and, you know, Being willing to see that there are real opportunities within the sustainable weddings and industry is, is really important.

[00:25:57] James Gill: Totally, that I, that's so, that's so great to hear. I, I mean, it's, it's never easy is it for someone to, go and do any training when they've got 20 tasks that need to be done yesterday and Oh god training.

[00:26:13] I have no one's got time for that and but I it seems almost universal when people If they can make the time it is worth it. And as you said like sort of maybe Getting, getting out of the normal headspace, it can unlock so many changes in a business and I think it's another thing that we've talked about on this podcast quite a lot around, yes, you are learning about climate, you're learning about carbon footprint, you're learning about sustainability, but if you think it's just going to impact that, and it's going to be an expense or an added benefit, Cost to the company and the organization.

[00:26:55] It's like that's almost never the case. It's it's Unlocking opportunities. It's unlocking things. You probably didn't even think about before

[00:27:03] Michelle Miles: Yeah, absolutely. And, and we see the proof of that, you know, we have trained over 150 people through, through carbon literacy course now. And, you know, it is it is just amazing to see what people go on and do.

[00:27:17] And pretty much everybody, you know, we, we keep in touch with people and, you know, they all pledged to take an action. They all pledged. An individual action that will reduce their carbon footprint, but also an action to reduce us a collective, so a group action. And, you know, we follow up on them and it's amazing to see, you know, the actions that they pledge they take, but they go on beyond that and beyond that.

[00:27:43] you know, and that group influence piece is, you know, then educating other people on what they've learned. And, you know, so it's, it's not just, you know, they, they learn what they learn, but then they also become the trainer themselves because they spread that message much further than, than we can. So you know, it's, it's, it's beyond, you know, I think with sustainability, it's, it's, it's, it's.

[00:28:05] You know, it's, it's always beyond the person that you're talking to. It's the potential impact that has to then, you know, that ripple effect of, you know, them talking to somebody else and somebody else and somebody else. And, and then, you know, a sustainable wedding happening and a hundred people attending that wedding and, you know, realizing it's a sustainable wedding and wanting that for themselves or their friend or, you know, it's that ripple that is, you know, so important.

[00:28:29] James Gill: Yeah yeah, it's also making me think if you get invited to a lot of weddings, then maybe you can now, like, find it easier to decide which ones to go to based on their their

[00:28:38] Michelle Miles: Ranking, should we go for this one?

[00:28:44] James Gill: That's amazing. I, yeah, I, it's, it's wonderful to hear and to hear you've, you know, 150 people going through and Yeah, that's, that's the tip of the iceberg, isn't it, of who you've influenced through that.

[00:28:55] That's incredible. I, I, I know we always like to talk about this on the show, which is the future, and I'm not asking you to predict the future here, Michelle, but do you have any thoughts whether, well, I know we often ask about the future of marketing, but future marketing, the future of weddings, the future of sustainability, Any, any thoughts about how, how things are going to look in in over the coming years?

[00:29:20] Michelle Miles: Yeah, I think I mean, the future of marketing, I think, you know, is, you know, We are certainly seeing people alien embracing ai. Mm. You know, again, on the training piece, I suppose that, you know, it is people do need to sit down and understand it and learn more about it. Sure. And I, I think that it is going to become standard place, particularly for small businesses where they do wear a lot of hats.

[00:29:43] You know, being able to lean on, you know, a, a content writing you know, AI system is, is. It's going to be part of the mix, you know, I'm not suggesting that anybody use it as solely as their copywriter, but I think having it as a, as a tool is really helpful. You know, I, I do have concerns over the carbon footprint of things like cat GPT and Gemini, you know, they are immense.

[00:30:09] You know, and I do hope and, you know, I would love to see a future where those types of tools, you know, every time you give it a prompt, every time you ask it to do something to give you some content, you know, it gives you the carbon footprint of that. So you can include it in your business calculation and, or, you know I'd love to be able to see that kind of thing.

[00:30:30] I think that's probably, you know, far off in the future, but I think that it's, It's important that we, you know, make sure that we are considering our digital footprint, you know, things like that. But I do see it as a tool that, you know, more frequently small businesses leaning on things like that to be able to help them, you know,

[00:30:48] James Gill: Yeah, it's it's a really really great point because I think yeah, certainly we see a lot of a lot of people Finding good use cases There's a lot of businesses pushing AI on people that don't necessarily have the best use cases for it or the best Reason why you should use it, but AI is here.

[00:31:06] So use it But yeah your point around especially for small businesses and individuals trying to, trying to get off the ground, like any help you can get and the, the assistance you can get from trying ideas out, trying, testing things out is, is huge. And yeah, the the, the, the energy usage of, of things like chat GPT is certainly one that hopefully over time we can understand better and and, and hopefully reduce that impact.

[00:31:38] It's definitely a big, big concern we have at the moment, but yeah, it's a complex topic. Hopefully with more AI, we can figure out better answers to these problems too, you know. Yeah.

[00:31:50] Michelle Miles: Yeah.

[00:31:52] James Gill: Do you, do you see any major changes to the way weddings are run in the future? Like, are there any? Are we going to be having weddings and flying cars anytime soon or I don't know, any, any Flying

[00:32:03] Michelle Miles: cars in general?

[00:32:04] Well, that's like, I

[00:32:06] James Gill: think,

[00:32:06] Michelle Miles: yeah, I think the trajectory for weddings has really shifted and changed. I, I think that, you know, there are a lot of changes that we are hoping for. in the future. So, you know, we are hoping for a law reform that will enable people to officiate weddings in more locations rather than it, new weddings needing to take place in fixed locations.

[00:32:32] I think that is something that, you know, as an industry we have been fighting for, for a while, and I think is, you know, is coming and we're nearly close with that. And I think what that will do is it will allow us to open weddings up a lot more to, you know, for people to get married in their local area, in larger spaces, in community halls, in gardens, in parks.

[00:32:53] I think it will, you know, shift how people view weddings. There is certainly a trend we are seeing less weddings year on year now. Okay, interesting. People choosing to get married which is interesting. But we are starting to see certain groups, certain demographics increase the number of weddings.

[00:33:12] So, it, it is really an interesting time, I've got to say, in weddings. Yeah. It's interesting. You know, a lot of shifts are taking place and, you know, I think that we're seeing smaller weddings. Then we have because people are either more environmentally conscious and, you know, the larger the wedding, potentially the bigger footprint, but also from a cost perspective, you know, inviting your best friends, you know, brother, necessarily the dumb thing anymore, when they're going to put 100 a head to get them there, to feed them, to give them a drink, give them a bit of confetti, so being more conscious.

[00:33:47] That side of things as well. So yeah, I can't see flying cars just yet. You know, I hope that things will open up. And we will be, weddings will be more of a celebratory event, less of a financial burden. I'd love to see, you know, Weddings be more affordable. Wouldn't it be

[00:34:11] James Gill: great? As would I.

[00:34:12] Michelle Miles: Yeah, wouldn't it be great?

[00:34:13] I'd quite happily pay, you know, 50. Instead of buying somebody a wedding gift, I'll pay 50 for a ticket for your wedding. Yeah. Let's think about different ways in which we can, you know, have these big parties but not, you know, we don't want people getting into debt for one day for a wedding, you know.

[00:34:32] Technically, you should be thinking about your marriage. It's long term, you know, this is, this is the first day of your, your married life. Who wants to start that in debt? So, you know, I'd

[00:34:42] James Gill: love to

[00:34:43] Michelle Miles: see some new, new ways of thinking

[00:34:45] James Gill: around that. Yes. As a, as a business owner myself, the idea of monetizing my wedding sounds very tempting, Michelle.

[00:34:52] Yeah.

[00:34:54] Michelle Miles: Let's work something up. I'm sure we'll find something.

[00:34:57] James Gill: I'm gonna get some payment links up on the invite. Yeah. That's amazing. I haven't even touched on wedding cake, but another day, another day. Any, any advice for others you wanted to share before we wrap up? Michelle?

[00:35:15] Michelle Miles: Yeah, I think that you know, understanding what sustainability means for either your business, you know, as a, as a small business, understanding, you know, Where environment, where people, where profit and purpose, where, where they sit, you know, what does that balance look like for you?

[00:35:34] You know, that's, that doesn't need to be daunting. That's just thinking about what's important. What are your values? What, what, you know, what do you want people to think about you and your business, you know, and for couples thinking about what is important to them, you know, where. you know, when they're getting married, you know, you want your wedding day to be a reflection of of you as a couple.

[00:35:55] And so making sure that you're working with people that are able to deliver that is important. And just being conscious of that all the way through your planning journey and leaning on experts, you know, they do this day in and day out, lean on them, you

[00:36:12] James Gill: know, that's what they're there for.

[00:36:14] Absolutely. That's some, some wise, wise advice indeed. Michelle. Thank you. I, it's been an absolute pleasure speaking with you today. I really want to make sure anyone listening who's either planning a wedding of their own or is looking at supplying weddings go, go learn more about, about you and, and what you're up to.

[00:36:34] So I guess Sustainable Wedding Alliance is the site. So we'll make sure that's linked in the show notes. You're in Instagram, you're on LinkedIn. We'll put those links in there. I think that is, that is a wonderful show. Thank you for inspiring me. And I'm sure I'll be talking to you a lot more, Michelle, over the coming weeks and months.

[00:36:52] As I figure all of this out. Thank you for everything you're doing. Honestly, people like you are literally changing, changing the world. So it's, it's really so inspiring. It's such an honor to be speaking with, with you on, on this. And Thank you for sharing everything today and I hope everyone's enjoyed listening too.

[00:37:08] Michelle Miles: Thank you very much for having me. It's been super fun. Looking forward to talking

[00:37:12] James Gill: more. Awesome, Michelle. Thank you very much. And thank you everyone for listening or watching. If you've enjoyed today's show, please do share it around with your friends. Give us a thumbs up or a five stars or wherever you're listening to it from as it helps spread Michelle's story further and further.

[00:37:29] Thank you and we'll catch you next time.