When I was a kid, I remember watching my new step-mother and father tie the knot and make their exit under a cloud of white rice. After we got to the reception hall, I spent 20-minutes picking rice pellets out of the big intricate bow on the back of her dress. I was only eight at the time, but I vowed that there had to be a better option for wedding exits– and I was going to find it. Now that I am ready to make that decision, I am happy to have an entirely different experience than my parents. Throwing rice is a thing of the past and creating the best picture-perfect wedding exit is on every bride’s mind. With a little help from Pinterest and whole lot of help from Bravo’s reality wedding shows, I narrowed it down to my top five picks for creative wedding exits – and even chose one for myself.
Confetti Poppers
At first I thought – what could look prettier than a sea of color along the subtle tones of my pastel bridesmaid dresses and my white gown? Confetti poppers are fun and cost efficient. Plus, each explosive tube is filled with so much confetti that you only need to give out a few to your bridal party, therefore not having to worry about waste from your guests. After checking out a few other brides who had used these, I realized that it takes a highly skill photographer to capture the EXACT moment when the confetti doesn’t end up covering up me and my hubby-to-be.
Brightly Colored PomPoms
Being truly crafty at heart, my second thought was to use mini pompoms. After all, you can buy them in bulk for practically nothing. I thought if every guest had a handful and tossed them, it would be picture-worthy and wouldn’t hurt like rice or birdseed. Then my wonderful maid of honor noted that the clean-up would be the worst. Side note – an often overlooked part of wedding planning is that when you exit your ceremony venue, you have to clean up the mess that your guests make. No thank you.
Ecofetti
After seeing a friend with beautiful exit pictures in the winter snow, I thought – why can’t I have that.Ecofetti is light, snow-like confetti that is water soluble, animal safe, and biodegradable. Therefore no clean up necessary and it’s good for the ecosystem. In photographs, it looks like falling snow and really adds in the “wow” factor. Unfortunately, as great as this idea is, it is also costly. A mere 6.5 cups of the product is $23. If you average ¼ cup per guest, you’re lucky if you have enough for 25 of them. For intimate weddings, I can see how this would work. But I’m going for the whole enchilada here.
Silly String Streamers
I spent a solid hour looking at the different ideas for silly string streamers. I even went to the party store and picked up a couple just to test them out. Kudos to brides who choose this, but I’m opting out. Silly string sticks to everything, is a pain in butt to clean up, and leaves a weird slime on everything it touches. Not exactly how I want to spend the reception portion of my special day.
Sparklers
But then I fell in love – again – when I discovered the sparkler exit. Classic, whimsical, and stunning in photographs – it’s absolutely everything you could imagine. After browsing hundreds of photographs on Society Bride and Wedding Bee, I knew that a sparkler exit is the right choice for me. To start, sparkler sticks are very affordable and last long enough for numerous photographs. Second, I saw several photo ideas where sparklers were swirled around the couple creating a Disney-magic effect when the photographer uses the slow shutter mode. I don’t know about you, but looking like a true princess on my wedding day is my dream.
Finally, since our we are having an evening wedding, the idea of using sparklers is more practical than other options plus adds additional light for our exit into happily ever after. Now that we’ve decided on that, I’ll surely be talking to our photographer about how to make more of these sparkler wedding exit photos come to life.