In the beautiful British landscape of Cumbria, Nick and Charlotte Baker were in the process of planning their dream wedding.

Looking around at the hugely ostentatious wedding trends of today and the huge expense that goes with it, it’s no wonder that they wanted their wedding to reflect their deeply held beliefs.

As Charlotte said in an article by The Guardian newspaper,

“The ethos of the day and our lives together, is that of an ethical foundation. We are aware that weddings can be an opportunity for obscene over-expense and excess and we decided to minimise our contribution to this trend.”

Like many budget conscious brides, Charlotte decided to go for a second hand wedding dress and bridesmaid dresses spotted in a charity shop near where she lived.

Her flowers were grown in her mother’s garden and decorations for the marquee were handmade origami out of unwanted junk mail.

Even her gift list asked friends and family to give second hand or handmade gifts, straight from the heart.

Many brides save money in these ways but Charlotte and Nick went a few steps further.

Nick and Charlotte Baker found a wonderful local café called the Real Junk Food Café in Wigan. Not unusual you might say, but this café is a little bit different from the usual high street food supplier.

The Real Junk Food Café takes food destined for landfill which is still fine for human consumption and makes it into tasty food for the locals of Wigan.

The Real Junk Food Café has a simple message,

 “Feed bellies, not bins”…“We are part of a growing ‘Real Junk Food’ cafe movement dedicated to reducing the amount of edible food sent to land fill. We aim to make really tasty nutritious food from surplus food donated by food producers and retailers.”

Charlotte and Nick were obviously quite a relaxed couple as they didn’t know what they were going to serve their guests until the day before.

“I didn’t even know until the day before what we were going to eat,” says Charlotte, “Then I was told that a load of frozen chicken had turned up, along with trayfuls of soft fruit rejected by supermarkets.”

The amazing wedding meal was a triumph. Using only her mother’s kitchen and a handful of helpers, Charlotte and Nick whipped up a feast for her 130 guests.

The chicken was cooked with mushrooms and white wine and they also managed to serve a vegetarian chili with rice.

The trayfuls of berries? Instead of going straight into the bin, they were turned into a beautiful fruit salad topped with clotted cream.

Photograph: ToastOfLeeds.co.uk

For Charlotte and Nick, the day was perfect.

“We wouldn’t have done anything differently and we would encourage others to think about using surplus food in this way” says Charlotte.

How about you? Have you been inspired to serve ‘waste’ food at your wedding?