butterfly release and lightening bugs?

Idk about keeping live things as decorations. Are the sold on the internet? Just seems like a lot of "what if." Whys if they die in the jars after being there all night? Why if they aren't available for sale, who will catch them? What if most die in transit? What if they are a different type than the lightning bugs in your area? I feel like living things shouldn't be at our mercy like that. I've also read about not many people appreciating butterfly releases either, where many guests were freaked out. He's its a beautiful and romantic thought, but the realities are a lot less beautiful.

Lightening bugs is such a cool idea! Where the heck do you find them to buy? Love the butterfly idea also.

On a military facility and the rules eliminate rice, flower pedals, bird seed. I just thought a butterfly release with the poem read would be romantic and of coursed allowed. The lightning bugs could be released also. We caught the as kids and they lasted for days I'm our jars. The children at the reception would love it and our families with childhood memories. I am utiling nature as best as I can without being harmful. By having an outside wedding in a garden saves on killing flowers ex. I don't want you to think as it being a bad thing.

Rachey...you can get the butterflies online. The lightening bugs, friends would catch for us the night before. Small mason jars with a few each in them . Its a smaller wedding so about 10 jars I was thinking.

Butterfly releases are usually epic fails. Most are dead and if's frankly creepy. please leave live animals out of the ceremony unless you're going to have your dog in the wedding.

I've been to a couple weddings with a butterfly release. Both times it was successful with no dead butterflies and nobody seemed to be freaked out about it. I have researched this option intensely and it takes a lot of work to take care of the butterflies property. If bought they should be from a reputable seller (this usually costs more money) and they needed to be released in the right circumstances: the right location, like a garden, at the right time of day (not at night), and the proper temperature. I think most people don't realize how much it involves and that might be why so many releases fail. But, these are live animals and should be respected.

I am with Celia on this. Lighting bugs probably won't make it until the next night and they will get on people and clothes. These are not just live animals like a dog they are wild.

I would just do ribbon wands if i couldn't throw something

I'm loving the ribbon wands; a lot of our sites, especially the historic sites, won't allow anything to be 'thrown', so I'm seeing a lot more of these.

Another sendoff you might consider is a 'shivaree' (I"m sure I've spelled this wrong). Everyone gets a noisemaker when they enter, kind of like NY Eve; crickets, tambourines, maracas, horns. As the couple starts the recessional, everyone makes as much noise as possible to start them off right! I totally love it, and whenever I've done this, the crowd just loves it.

Everything that Fabiloa said is true; you can't just open the box and out fly 100 perfect butterflies. It's a lot more work than anyone thinks. Philosophically, I"m not a fan of live animals as decor; there are so many more humane, easy to execute things you can include.

Please don't. There are valid reasons listed above. Live, wild animals should not be props for your wedding.

I would want to open all the jars to let the lightning bugs free if I were there, I wouldn't think it was cool or pretty. It was cool to catch a bug or two as a kid, as many as you would have to catch for your idea, is ridiculous.

Fire flies are already dying out because too much light pollution, please don''t deplete them more for something like this.

I agree with others that you should look into other options that don't involve live animals. Wrap vases in twinkling lights for your centerpieces. Use ribbon wands for your exit.

A friend of mine did a butterfly release. 3 actually flew away, the rest were dead inside the box and just kind of fell to the floor when she shook the box. It was awkward.

I vote no for either also.

Another option...

I agree with Celia. There are a lot of things that could go wrong and SO many other cute ideas! (I love the ribbon wands!). And maybe I'm over-sensitive but I just think the overall idea of capturing a living creature and treating it like an inanimate object is just kind of mean to the bugs =/