Top tips for great wedding sparklers photos on your wedding day…
Whether used to add some fun to the evening reception or as a fabulous send-off at the end of the night, you can literally light up your day with wedding sparklers. They can be as fun as they are pretty and your guests will enjoy being part of the experience as they wave sparklers around in celebration. There are, however, some important things to remember if you want to incorporate sparklers into your wedding day and get great wedding sparklers photos.
Make Sure You Run Through Your Checks & Plans with the Venue and Suppliers
• Check if your venue has any rules about the use of wedding sparklers. You need to know if you are actually allowed them before you start making plans to light up the night!
• Have a backup plan. Even if you are allowed to use sparklers, bad weather or strong winds may prevent you from being able to have the sparkler send-off you hoped for. Glow sticks can be a fun weatherproof backup option.
• Get the right kind of wedding sparklers. You might think a sparkler is a sparkler, but when it comes to getting great sparkler photos you must get the long ones that burn for a couple of minutes. Feel free to get in touch if you aren’t sure and I can advise you on what to look for.
• Tell your photographer you want wedding sparklers photos. Sparkler photos are brilliant fun, but they are trickier to photograph so do check with your photographer that this is something they are happy to do.
Getting Organised for great wedding sparklers photos
There’s no right or wrong time to do wedding sparklers but it’s worth thinking of when you will fit them into the day. It will need to be dark enough for them to be seen, but there’s no need to think it needs to be pitch black outside. Twilight works very well for great sparkler photos. Over the years I have done sparkler photos before the first dance, after speeches, before the cake cutting and at the end of the wedding day.
Organisation is key to great sparkler photos. Depending on how many guests are involved the logistics of using sparklers takes a little more planning.
- Leave enough time. Getting everyone outside, lined up and ready to go can take 10-15 minutes, so make sure there is enough time to do this either during the evening or at the end of the night.
- Put a couple of people in charge of handing out sparklers and showing people where to line up. Your venue will probably advise on this and should help with showing everyone where to go.
- Don’t light too soon! Even with the longer-lasting sparklers, they will burn out quickly if someone is a bit trigger-happy and lights their sparkler before everyone is ready to go. Once all your guests are lined up and the two of you are in place it’s time to get lighting.
- Have plenty of lighters. Ideally, you want everyone to have their sparklers lit around the same time. The easiest way to do this is to have 2 or 3 people with lighters walking up and down the line. Once a handful of sparklers are lit other guests can light wedding sparklers with other sparklers.
- It’s time for you to do your sparkler walk. Take your time, walk slowly and enjoy the moment. Look at each other, look at your guests, stop for a kiss, and have fun! Make the most of sparklers and the celebration.
Keep sparkler safe with your wedding sparklers
It’s important to remember that wedding sparklers can cause injury so keeping safety in mind is key when planning great sparkler photos. This is why it’s important to check with your venue about sparklers first. They will have rules in place to make sure they can be done safely so everyone has fun and no one ends up in A&E!
• Make sure there are buckets of sand or water for putting used sparklers in.
• Leave enough space between the two lines of guests for you to safely walk through. You really don’t want hair/veil/dress catching on fire.
• Don’t let anyone hold a handful of lit sparklers, this turns them into a firework and it won’t end well.
• Don’t give a sparkler to anyone who can’t safely hold it. Children should only be allowed if their parents oversee. Any guest who has had one too many drinks shouldn’t be put in charge of a lit sparkler.
• Designate someone to check all sparklers have been safely put into the buckets and no flames are still burning.
Now you have everything in place all you need to do is have fun and look forward to those great wedding sparklers photos.
If you have found this helpful, why not check out more of my wedding photography top tips? Take a look at my wedding planning guide, which has loads of advice and top tips for planning your wedding and getting the best out of your wedding photography.
Thanks for popping by
Fiona x
