Wedding Day Blunders: 7 Deadly Wedding Sparkler Mistakes to Avoid
It’s the most important day of your life – your wedding.
You need absolutely everything to run smoothly, from beginning to end. You’ve got the dress, the make-up, the shoes, the man. You’ve even gone all out and got the latest trend for that extra special wedding exit – sparklers.
While these bundles of light add a touch of magic to your special day, they can also add a touch of havoc. To help you avoid any problems, we’ve rounded up the seven worst wedding sparkler mistakes you absolutely have to avoid.
Lighting a Wedding Sparkler Wrong
A lot of weddings like to add the romantic touch of using matches instead of lighters. Well, to put it bluntly, this is a bad idea.
When it comes to the question of how to light a sparkler, matches may not burn long enough for your guests to get their sparklers properly lit. Or they might emit so much heat that the sparkler actually ignites.
On top of this, matches can be hard to handle, especially if there is a breeze in the air. You don’t want your guests to have to struggle with lighting their sparklers with matches, you want them to be focusing on you and your big exit.
Opt for butane or barbecue lighters, which are much more efficient. You don’t need to provide too many – once a few sparklers are lit, everyone will help each other out lighting their sparklers.
Smoke!
The smokey look is for your eye makeup only, and nowhere else.
A lot of wedding sparklers can create a smoke of cloud on your special day, and that’s definitely not something you want. How will everyone see how gorgeous you look in your dress if their vision is blurred by a big cloud of smoke?
To avoid this problem, opt for smokeless wedding sparklers. They give the magic of the wedding sparkler without the problem of your guests having a coughing fit.
Venue Says No
Picture this: you’ve bought hundreds of magical wedding sparklers, making a significant dent in your financial budget. Only to find out on the day that your money has gone to total waste. Why?
The venue doesn’t allow wedding sparklers. Great.
To avoid this crucial point in the wedding planning, make sure you get permission from the wedding venue before the big day. For your safety, and for your guests, keep the sparklers to an outside area. You don’t want to be responsible for having a church go up in flames.
Always make sure that there is a large enough outdoor space for your guests to stand and hold the sparklers. Having too many sparklers in a tight space can lead to serious injuries. You want your guests to remember your wedding with fond memories, not the place where they got a first-degree burn.
No One Knows They’re There
One of the biggest problems with sparklers for wedding exit is that no-one even knows that they exist. And that, of course, defeats the whole purpose.
Make sure that your guests are well aware before your grand exit that they must help themselves to sparkles and have them lit and ready before a certain time. A great way to do this is to have cute signs specifying where and when your sparkler send-off will be. Make sure you put the sign and the sparklers in an obvious place that your guests can clearly see.
Alternatively, put someone in charge of handing out the sparklers at a certain time. They can make sure that everyone there has a sparkler in hand. It can also be a nice surprise for the guests!
The Moment Isn’t Captured Correctly
Capturing the magic moments at your wedding is a crucial part. It’ll be over before you know it, so you have to make sure you have a treasure chest of amazing photos to pour over after the big day is over.
Unfortunately, capturing the magic of wedding sparklers is a tricky task. Make sure your photographer is well-aware that you will be using sparklers for your big exit. They need to use a camera that can capture low-light scenes.
Longer sparklers are great because they have a longer burn rate. They cast a softer, more ambient light on you and your guests, creating the perfect lighting for a romantic shot.
On the other hand, short sparklers cast a much harsher light. They burn faster, giving the photographer less time to capture the moment. Not to mention they pose a greater risk of a fire hazard because they’re that much closer to the crowd.
Having Too Many Sparklers
Of course, the charm of wedding sparklers comes into play when there is a whole collection of them casting a beautiful light, not a few randoms poking out here and there. That being said, you don’t want so many that it looks like your wedding is on fire.
A rule of thumb is to buy about 75% of the total number of expected guests at the wedding. This is because some guests will be children or too young to hold sparklers, some will be in the bathroom, and some may have had to leave early.
Nowhere to Throw Them Away
Your amazing wedding exit is complete, the whole event went off without a hitch. But now what do guests do with the burnt out sparklers?
It’s unsafe to have them throw them away in a normal trash can before they are properly cooled. The best solution is to have a few sand pails located around the area. Guests can simply place their used sparklers in the sand, allowing them to cool and making it easy to be cleaned up later.
It’s Time To Sparkle
We understand how much planning is required and goes into pulling off a totally beautiful wedding. Hopefully, we’ve made it easier for you to completely avoid a wedding sparkler catastrophe so you can completely enjoy your special day.
It’s now time to get planning that other special part of getting married – your honeymoon!
Visit our blog for the five best places to snorkel this summer. After such a gorgeous wedding, you deserve it.