Instead Of Rice.....

Our church does not allow rice to be thrown, because of the cleanup involved and because someone might slip on the rice. We`re going to release a pair of doves and give each of our guest a little box containing a live monarch buttlerfly to release!

Confetti.

You could give each person wedding bubbles to blow my sister had them at her wedding & it was really pretty but if you do use them but a few of those $5 bubble toys for a few people to get everyone started. The toy blows a bunch of bubbles at once, then everyone will join in. For my wedding I`m thinking about sparklers but I`m still undecided. I thought about the doves and butterflies like Adriana but since I`m getting married in the evening it probably wouldn`t be noticeable but I attended a wedding a few years ago that did it and it was beautiful.

I have been thinking about sparklers also, since I am having an evening wedding. I am afraid of people getting hurt, though, since everyong will probably be close together, and I know there will be a lot of children there. There is also the problem with who all will light them. I was afraid that by the time the last ones are lit, the first will be done.

We`re doing sparklers, and arranging for several of my fiance`s pyro buddies (just kidding about the pyro thing... Well, kind of) to go around lighting the sparklers for everyone. Hopefully it`ll get done relatively quickly and without a lot of chaos.

Another cool thing I`ve seen done was to pass out those little bells (usually used at the reception to make the bride and groom kiss) at the end of the ceremony for everyone to ring as the newlyweds left the church. It was really cute, and since there was nothing actually thrown, there was no mess to clean up.

This was something I struggled with too. I didn`t want stuff thrown at us, so that ruled out confetti, birdseed and rice. I didn`t want bubbles because they will stain a satin or silk dress, and I didn`t want sparklers because they can cause miniature burns in my dress. We eventually settled for ribbon wands which I made (fairly simple to make yourself) in our wedding colours. People can wave them in the air.

The ribbons are a neat idea....how exactly did you make them?

Sparklers!!!! I did it for my wedding and they were the coolest thing ever!!! I aciddently got the color ones... So I would get the white ones... But it really was the hit of the night! :)

OK....I want you to know that we had a beautiful tradtional ceremony, but I to struggled with this very topic. We got married at the end of November so was unsure of weather...so no bird/ butterfly release for us. I too was afraid if it rained that confetti, streamers etc, could get wet and stain my dress. I saw on Wild Weddings on TLC they used sparklers and someone threw one at the Limo and the vinyl roof started on fire....so what did we do? I ordered 100 Kazoos. When we walked out our Pastor came first out blowing it and doing here comes the bride and everyone joined in. It was fun all the nieces and nephews handed them out and had practiced with them .And to add to the fun when those doors opened my husband and I were wearing Graucho Marx glasses. No one could believe that I went through with it, but it really was fun. And of all of our pictures those were the ones that everyone ordered! A very non-tradtional end to a very tradtional ceremony!

For the ribbon wands:
Cut satin ribbon into 1 foot long pieces.
Glue to 1/4 inch dowel rods (sold at any hardware store - they will also cut them into foot long sections) on the end using hot glue.

Very simple and easy to make! You can make them in your wedding colours and use almost any size ribbon you want!