The bride will wear cast-offs when environmental activists Russell Geake and Alexia Muskett marry today.

The couple will exchange wooden rings carved from a walnut tree that was cut down to make way for the controversial Newbury bypass, before they are showered with homegrown petal confetti by guests who have all agreed to travel by public transport.

Miss Muskett, 38, and her groom, from Par in Cornwall, will be wearing clothes from charity shops and giving their guests low energy light bulbs to ensure that the wedding in Porthpean, on the Cornish coast, is carbon neutral.

They e-mailed the invitations to save paper, will walk to the reception and have sourced the food for the reception from within a radius of two miles. Instead of champagne they will drink sparkling wine from a local vineyard. Miss Muskett’s mother Jeanette has made fake carnations for button holes and flowers for the church from old supermarket carrier bags.

After the wedding, the newlyweds will spend ten days camping in the Lake District.

Mr Geake works for Cornwall County Council’s greener schoools initiative. His bride is a massage therapist. He said: “The whole idea of the wedding is that we are trying to minimise our impact on the environment and still have a jolly good time.”

The couple’s eco-friendly wedding is not just helping the environment, it is also saving them money because it is expected to cost £5,000, about a third of the national average.

Miss Muskett said: “We are not missing out on any part of the traditional wedding, we’ve just tailored it to the way we choose to live our lives.”

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