Newlyweds are to be offered a unique gift to help reduce the environmental impact of their nuptials – a tree.
Green might not normally be the colour associated with weddings, but photographer Lauren McGuiness will be planting a tree for every couple who use her services in a wood near Alston.
Wedding photographer Lauren, owner of Lauren May Photos based in Carlisle, has always been a fierce advocate for making environmentally friendly choices but she is now taking this a step further.
A lot of photographers will give their clients USB sticks with photos of their special day, but they often get put in a drawer and forgotten about.
Lauren said: “I just thought ‘that’s really wasteful,’ so I looked into the production of my USBs and they were travelling far and wide as they were being made in different countries.
“That’s not really what I should be doing for my business and for my couples.
“I wondered if there was somewhere local where I could dedicate trees for people.”
The typical wedding can produce up to 14.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide, so it’s important to offset that in other ways, it has been estimated.
Lauren is also taking other steps to ensure her photography business is making a positive impact.
She is also signed up to Ecologi which plants trees in forests across the world to offset personal or business carbon emissions. But she wanted to be able to plant trees in Cumbria too.
So, now the couples she photographs have a lasting memento from their big day that they can wander around and see.
She does this through local business Memotrees and has her own plot that will eventually grow into an avenue packed with trees – doing this through a Cumbrian business was particularly important to Lauren.
“It took a lot of searching, there are a lot of businesses online that you can do it with but for me local is important,” she said.
“Supporting people who are going through similar things that you are in that sort of industry.”
This is a big year for Lauren as her photography business is celebrating a milestone birthday.
It was ten years ago that she officially set-up Lauren May Photos, although it was called Lauren McGuiness Photography until very recently.
Photography is a passion that Lauren has had since a very young age and she has known for a long time that capturing people at their happiest during their wedding is what she wanted to do.
At 18-years-old, she saved up her money to buy a professional camera and away she went.
“The feeling I got before the first wedding that I photographed on my own, is the feeling that I still get now,” said Lauren.
In 2019, Lauren quit her full time job to fully dedicate her time to her photography business but unfortunately that was de-railed by Covid.
She had 28 weddings booked in for 2020 but only three were able to go ahead.
As lockdown has started to ease, Lauren is eagerly anticipating being able to get back to photographing weddings – and seeing the reactions of the couples when she gifts them their tree.
“There was anticipation because nine years in, I was finally putting my business before any other job and then everything hit – it was like being stuck in a black hole.
“It’s just so amazing to know that in a few weeks, I’m going to be getting back to what I’m meant to be doing.”
If you’re looking for a wedding photographer, you can find out more about Lauren’s work here: https://laurenmayphotos.co.uk/
