Fireworks and Flowergirls

When we first started planning our New Year wedding I was absolutely sure I wanted fireworks, in fact i remember saying it was one of the things I REALLY wanted and even if TR didn’t – it was going to happen! I even wanted fireworks to music, we talked about having them to ‘our song’ (too cheesy) to classical music (too OTT) or to some funny 80s rock tune like ‘The power of love’ by Huey Lewis and the news (a little too ‘back to the future’). After much googling and pinging off emails to firework people in the local area giving me different quotes I realised that actually whilst fireworks at midnight is a brilliant spectacle, but for us wasn’t going to work. In order to get 140 people outside at the same time you need a warm evening, not too many drunk guests and for it to either be at the end of the night (so people can happily put on their coats and get their taxi’s afterwards) or the sort of party that still works with dribs and drabs on the dancefloor! It is also pretty spenny.

Ours was a marquee in our parents garden in the freezing cold, it was going to go on until at least 2am. Fireworks would have meant the inebriated Ushers would have had to get all the guests off the dancefloor and onto the garden in the possible snow / sleet / rain / fog and then get them back in again after 10 minutes of ooohing and aaahhhing which would have costs (at best) about 200 pounds a minute. Having them at the end when we were going to leave would have been wasted on most so it just wasn’t worth it. I then decided i wanted chinese lanterns and to set hundreds off into the sky, I would have loved to do this as it can create beautiful pictures, it’s a very meaningful act and it is much much cheaper but again, i think it only works when it is summer for the same reasons.

You can get some good deals on fireworks and lanterns, some great friends of ours had fire eaters which was amazing and i recommend sparklers, we had them and they created some fab pictures, are great fun and can be used inside! Try having your guests create a corridor of sparklers for you to leave through. If you are having a summer wedding it is beautiful end to the evening … check out your local suppliers for prices as these changed pretty dramatically but you can get good deals.

You may also need to double check on details if you want fireworks etc, certainly with your venue. During my chats about these, Mum said that if you are having fireworks you have to warn everyone within a mile radius – for their pets and also that lanterns are banned in some areas as they float down into fields and kill the cows than eat them … neither of these can be taken as fact!

Flowergirls are always just gorgeous and so pretty in pictures and it is such a lovely day for them, if you have someone in your life, in my case my Mums god daughter who i have known since she was a baby then how can you not ask them to be your littlelist bridesmaid / flowergirl! There are some great places to get dresses from: John Lewis, BHS, Debenhams are brilliant for a stylist selection at great prcies, we found ours in John Lewis for half prcie!

To make it unique marvelous Mum added a layer of organza with petals and confetti floating at the bottom, she wore a little fur cape and muff also from John Lewis for that winter victorian look! Perfect.