Bee Sustainable: Eco-friendly Celebrations at Alfriston Gardens

We know that having a sustainable wedding or event is becoming more and more important to people, and it’s something we’re extremely keen to support. As custodians of this heritage venue in East Sussex, we’re mindful of our impact on the landscape and want to ensure we protect this stunning part of the world for future generations.

With this in mind, we’re working hard to be as eco-conscious and sustainable as possible. We’ve put a number of sustainability measures in place, and we’re continuously looking for ways to further reduce our environmental impact. We were thrilled when our hard work was recognised with the National LIS Award for Best Development in 2023.

Read on to find out how we’re putting our sustainability values into practice across this luxury South Downs venue, and how we can support you in hosting an eco-friendly Sussex wedding or event.

As you can tell from our name, the gardens are a hugely important part of the venue. They’ve been designed by award-winning garden designer Juliet Sargeant to be sympathetic to the immediate environment and the surrounding countryside, and include plants that support local wildlife. Wander the formal gardens and you’ll see a gorgeous variety of seasonal plants, including tulips, verbena, lavender and forget-me-nots, all of which are loved by bees, butterflies and other pollinators.

As well as the formal gardens that surround the buildings, we deliberately left several areas to grow wild, encouraging pollinators that are essential to the natural ecosystem. These spaces are full of wildflowers in the summer, attracting clouds of humming insects – as well as being an exquisite backdrop for your wedding photos! Our shepherd’s huts are also in this wildflower meadow, so guests can wake up to the sight of beautiful blooms right outside the window.

Look up at the roof on the Vine Lodge and you’ll see that it’s covered in plants. This living roof is another way that we’re trying to encourage wildlife to our venue and give Alfriston Gardens an even greater connection to the environment.

One of the specific wildlife projects we’ve been involved with is protecting the greater crested newt. When we started renovating Alfriston Gardens back in 2020, surveys showed these shy amphibians were living in the grounds. Working with Ecology Partnership Ltd, we built newt fencing to protect and nurture the wildlife and made sure we followed strict environmental protocols so the newts weren’t disturbed by the building work. We also had specialists onsite to monitor and ensure the welfare of this protected species.

It’s not just the newts we want to feel at home. Dotted around the grounds you’ll find owl and bat boxes, and a hibernaculum – a winter and summer refuge for insects, as well as a solitary spot for bees to soak up the sun and birds to relax.

We’ve also been working hard to reduce our impact in other ways, making small changes that add up to a greater impact. We aim to avoid plastic as much as possible, so you’ll find pens made of straw in our guest goodie bags – the bags are made of paper, of course! We also use eco-cleaning products across the whole venue.

When it comes to wedding celebrations, guests can only throw biodegradable confetti, so there aren’t bits of plastic littering the grounds. And our caterers Black Pepper Hospitality use local produce as much as possible in their delicious menus, keeping our food miles low at the same time as supporting local farmers and growers.

We also try to avoid waste wherever possible. Some of the green waste from our gardens goes to Drusillas Park, our local zoo. We pass on surplus bamboo from our hedge to give to the red pandas, and old wood goes to the anteaters!

If you’re looking for an eco-friendly wedding or event, we’d love to help you plan something that’s low on environmental impact while still high on the wow-factor. Please get in touch to arrange a private tour of the venue with our friendly events team.