By Claire McCormack

A “green” couple are set to be married in an eco-friendly wedding outside Dundee this weekend—after sending out invitations made from elephant dung.

Chris Marr (25) and Catherine-Anne Lee (23), better known as Cat, of Carnoustie, will tie the knot at Monikie Country Park tomorrow and have strived to plan their big day around their ecological principles.

“Our wedding is a good bit different from a typical wedding though it does carry many of the old traditions,” said Cat, who was born and raised in Northern Ireland.

“We chose Monikie Country Park because it was easy to arrange the ceremony and reception to be within walking distance of one another and we were aiming to reduce on transport emissions with the reception being at Monikie Memorial Hall.

“I designed our wedding invitations and thank-you cards, which have been made by myself and other family members and friends, from a mixture of recycled papers —one of which is organically processed elephant dung.”

The couple met when Cat was at Dundee University studying art and Chris played with local band The A Forest, with whom Cat went on to sing.

Both Chris and Cat have been members of the World Development Movement for around three years.

Cat was adamant that she would not buy a wedding dress made half way across the world and then shipped to the UK for one day so she bought her wedding dress from Oxfam.

“Ordinarily I endeavour to get all of my clothes from the charity shop, so I thought why not do the same for my wedding dress,” she said.

“During a visit home I visited the Oxfam wedding store in Bangor and found the perfect dress for just £75—it needed a slight alteration but it’s perfect!”

Chris already owned his outfit—traditional Scottish kilt dress minus the sporran of course because the couple are vegan.

All of the wedding food is vegan too.

The flowers for the big day are all home grown and are to be composted afterwards.

“Our rings are made from recycled gold, and all the other silver jewellery is from a fairly traded source,” added Cat.

The couple have also provided a bus for all the guests to take them there and back home to reduce the number that are coming by car.

“There are no wedding cars either—I will be walking to the wedding with bridesmaids and all,” said Cat.

The night before the wedding she will be staying at Craigtoun House with her bridesmaids.

The newly-weds will also be staying there on the wedding night.

Keen musicians Chris and Cat will also be providing the entertainment at the wedding reception along with some of their friends.

Chris will be playing the drums and Cat will be singing, whilst other musicians will include cellist Eilidh Glynn, Dundee Rep’s Loadsa Weemin Singin’, and local bands Esperi and The A Forest.

Inspired by a visit to the Sustainable Communities Earthship in Kinghorn, the couple decided that they would like to build one of these self-sufficient ecologically friendly buildings for themselves in the next five years or so, especially with Chris being a builder and Cat being an artist.

“We thought rather than get lots of unnecessary gifts, as we have been joint home owners now for three years, we’d ask for a contribution to our Earthship fund.”

Guests will be able to visit the Kinghorn Earthship on Sunday after the wedding so that they can have a tour of what the couple hope to build in the future.

It is also hoped that they will all, along with the newly-weds, have a picnic there.