With wedding season kicking into gear in April and basically running through September, we’d like to share some thoughts and tips for those moments that you want on film, but aren’t the “Bride and Groom with Family in a row” shot. We’ll start with the big send off and sparklers have all but replaced rice and bird seed.

Sparkler wedding send-offs are quite popular, but they are not always picture perfect. Here are some tips we’ve gathered over the years to make your sparkler send-off more successful:

• Buy 36″ sparklers. They will burn longer. The average bun time is 3 minutes as opposed to the 45 seconds you get with 10″ sparklers.
• Buy less-smoke sparklers. The last thing you want is to run through a cloud of smoke and have your photos look dull and hazy. Running through smoke is best at indoor rock concerts and color powder fun runs and 10Ks.
• Smokeless wedding sparklers burn in the color gold without any added color pigments. Sparklers that have no color pigments naturally burn in the color gold and they yield a clean smokeless burn for the entire duration. The powder that manufacturers add to make a sparkler burn in various colors like red, green, or blue produce a lot of smoke as they burn. Stick with smokeless!
• Have someone coordinate all guests and have everyone in place before lighting sparklers. Designate multiple people to spread throughout and light sparklers so that all sparklers are burning at the same time when you run through.
• Light sparklers at a reasonably safe distance away from building entrance, smoke detectors and sprinkler systems. (Yes, we’ve had these go off during an exit!)
  
• If you’re having an open bar, it’s not a good idea to use sparklers. Inebriated people and fire does not go together. Enough said.
• Have multiple buckets of water or sand readily available to dispose of burnt sparklers.
• Many venues have banned the use of sparklers on premises. Be sure they’re allowed before setting your heart on a sparkler exit.

There are plenty of alternatives to sparklers as a way of ending the evening.
Set up group photos of all the guests and attendees gathered around the couple,
Distribute glow sticks,
Hand out streamers on sticks in coordinated colors,
Release paper lanterns into the sky,
Blow bubbles at the couple as they depart,
Throw flower petals,
Have the bride and grooms last dance of the night,
Set off fireworks!

All of these are beautiful and memorable options!

We love family portraits whether they are set in the studio, the great outdoors, a specific location like the mountains or high country, or on our property in our outdoor portrait garden. Pixels on Paper photographs, engagements and weddings, brides, and special events and portraits  of all kinds in our Wilkesboro, NC studio. We would be honored to meet with you, learn about you and your family and be a part of taking special portraits that will become, we hope, family heirlooms.

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