Before we talk about a GRAND Exit, let’s talk about the timeline and how you and your photographer planned the night with time allowing for a grand exit.
If you haven’t purchased enough coverage time for your photography to last until the exit, that’s ok! I have several options! I recommend planning your timeline so that you can have at least one hour of dancing photographed. The guests who dance during the first hour will still be dancing in the third hour! One hour of dancing will be enough time to really capture the joy of your reception!
Okay now lets move on the the main event of this blog post…
Exits!
If your coverage ends before your exit, you have the option of planning a faux exit with your bridal party! This is more common than you may think. Instead of saving your exit until the very end, you can plan a faux exit with just the members of your bridal party and a few family members! This allows us to have more control over these shots and the party NEVER has to stop! In most cases, no one even notices that the bride and groom are missing for a few minutes! Also, it’s almost impossible to tell that the whole wedding party isn’t there waving sparklers and sending off the happy couple! This idea allows our couples to save money and still have all of the shots that they dreamed of ! If you are choosing a sparkler exit, I recommend getting long sparklers!
18″ or 20″ work great for an average sized wedding. They will burn for a minute and a half and give plenty of time for wedding sparkler photos.
The 36″ sparklers burn for about 3 minutes and are great for larger weddings. They’re also great for sparkler writing if your photographer is up for doing something creative at the end of the night!
Here are some things to look for:
- The low smoke gold wedding sparklers are best.
- They burn with a pretty sparkle to them and don’t give off a crazy amount of smoke.
- You only need to light them once
- Guests only need to hold one sparkler
- There’s a long handle to hold.
- There are some colored options that burn rapidly and smoke like crazy. Keep that in mind if you want color.
Confirm with your venue they allow sparklers, and where they allow them (some don’t allow on grass, or too close to the building).
As the couple, don’t worry about executing anything until you’re told we’re ready to have you come out – it’s your job to look good, and ours to set things on fire! If you have a wedding coordinator, we’ll work together to hand out sparklers and light them for guests. We will take a few minutes to line everyone up, then hand out sparklers, and then light them right before we’re ready to have the couple in place, just to make sure the sparklers don’t burn out too early.
Decide on the “look” you want – do you want to walk through a sparkler tunnel? Want your guests to make a half-circle behind you, putting you in front of the sparklers so you don’t have to walk under them? Want guests to create an aisle, keeping the sparklers farther away from you, but still giving you a walkway?
Sparkler exists are typically re-done. The photographer will probably send you back to the start of wherever you started or stood and do everything twice, just to make sure it’s perfect. Between smoke, equipment, and darkness, we just want to be sure we got the shots you’re dreaming about.
Go slow! As you walk through the sparkler tunnel or aisle, or dance in front of the crowd, remember to take it slow as you walk, kiss, dip, and dance.
Take turns looking at the camera, at each other, and at your guests.
ALTERNATIVES TO A SPARKLER EXIT:
FIREWORKS
LEARN MORE AND PURCHASE YOUR SPARKLERS HERE
