New Ideas For Old Tradition...The Rice Toss

I think alot of people are straying away from this tradition due to clean-up and venue rules, If you still really would like to do this, you could ask the winery what they suggest, they may go for the eco-confetti, or even flower petals..I'm skipping this part personally b/c its at my parents yard and my mom would not be impressed..I'm still trying to convince her to let me use rose petals to line the aisle tho..

My friend got married last summer. After the church ceremony all the guests threw flower peddles as they left the churh. It looked great in pictures!!!

I would say the bubbles are the most popular and obviously the easiest cleanup (though you need to be careful if you are walking out on granite/stone steps because they get really slippery with bubbles on them). I'm biased in saying this b/c its what I'm probably doing in my wedding, but if you'll be ending at night sparklers are an interesting and unusual way to end the night!

Heres a picture from my venue:

http://hollyhillsgolf.com/kemper/courses/showPhoto.asp?id=1136

I LOVE the way flower petals being tossed looks. And you can easily make those cones out of paper and ribbon, like this http://thewisebride.com.au/images/petal%20cones%202.JPG

the way our venue is set up, due to landscaping the seats are too far away from the actual aisle for people to comfortably throw petals at us so we had to skip it. I'm not a fan of bubbles, it's just been too overdone for me I guess. But they are certainly cheap and easy if you like them!

Yes I think the rice is a thing of the past. People slip on iot and I think it may be bad for birds haha. What time of day are you getting married. My friends just got married in the evening and they gave everyone sparklers, it looked so cool to see them walk next to especially in pictures. I dont know it could be a fire hazard especially with kids but it was very cute!

I have been to a few weddings in which the ushers handed out small bells as the guests were leaving the church. The bells have a piece of ribbon (generally in one of the wedding colors) attached. As the bride and groom leave the church, the guests all rang the bells as opposed to throwing rice or flowers. It is a cute, environmentally safe idea (other than the possible noise pollution) LOL! The one thing you may want to consider is that a lot of the guests took these bells to the reception and rang them incessantly instead of tinging their glasses to get a kiss. So, if the ringing bells annoy you, be careful with this one. This is probably what we will do for our wedding, as our venue doesn't allow anything to be thrown. I don't care for the bubbles because if there is any wind on the wedding day, some guests (like me) would have a hard time blowing bubbles. Best of luck, and I'm sure whichever you decide will be wonderful!!!

Thank you for your suggestions...I have a lot to think about. I like the petal idea, but it could be really windy so I am worried that they might blow away. The bell idea is also great and different. Well, I have about a month to go...I better kink quick. Thanks again.

I saw an episode of "Whose Bride is it Anyway?" where the bride made ribbon wands (thin dowel rods with a ribbon or two attached to one end. The ribbons were in the wedding colors and she had taken a stamp (I think it said "I Do" and stamped a design on the ribbon. It looked really cool in the pictures, but might be a little expensive. Hope this helps!

Use bubbles!!!

You don't want to use rice anymore because birds will feed on it, get sick and die. Bubble on the other hand look beautiful and have no negative effects. WE're buying our guests dozens of bubble blowing containers.

Whatever you decide to do be careful. Bubbles, confetti, and flowers petals may stain your dress. I am skipping this tradition because of that and the venue rules dont allow it because it stains the wood of the balcony plus the ceremony and reception is in the same place and I will be going straight indoors. If we were to do anything I would buy those little tiny fake roses and toss them I think. Just make sure that if you do use confetti or flower petals to brush them off of your dress immediatly. Hope this helps. Good luck

Throw doves...they clear out themselves...you're wearing white, don't worry, just tell the groom to duck.

We too have debated this subject. Sense our wedding is around the Christmas season (dec. 12th) we decided to string jingle bells together with wire or ribbon and tie to make a circle. When we leave for our honeymoon, the guest can shake the jingle bells. NO cleanup and they can take the bells with them. I looked up the idea and in Chinese traditions, they do this as a way of wishing good luck and good fortune to the bride and groom. Still I love the no cleanup idea...

I have been thinking about this alot too. I think we will use pop-out streamers. They are nice and clean up with no mess

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_6G7ZEapOm2g/SHKnrz0ry8I/AAAAAAAAAew/eU2PZajFkd8/s200/streamers.jpg

http://www.weddingchannelstore.com/weddingchannel/ProductPage.aspx?scId=UniqueWeddingDecor(KnotShop)&pId=P2116(KnotShop)&cId=&cTypF=

I would say if you still want to do the hold tradition thing make it new and up to date bubbles are so easy and there's no clean up after wards you can go to the party store and find cute wedding bubbles hope this helps

We're actually using birdseed. I know it's a little different but since the wedding is very western themed, it just kind of worked. It was actually the chapel's idea and they love it because of the wildflowers it produces!

My cousin did bubbles and had our youngest cousin pass out little bottles of bubbles to everyone after the ceremony and we had to blow them outside of the church as they were not allowed inside, and they also included them on the tables at their reception. It was quite fun. My sister however didn't do anything. We're thinking of having ribbon wands in our colors and having the bridal party (minus the little ones; our son and twin nephews who will get ribbon wands) have baseball bats (tied with ribbon at the ends) and make an arch and have everyone else just wave the ribbon wands. They do make some bio-degradable rice but it just depends on what your venue allows. Good luck.

We were going to throw bird seed especially since we are getting married in a rural catholic church. We were told this was not possible because a person got a piece of bird seed in their eye and sued the church.....

I am also open to any ideas. I thought about doing balloons with postcards which had a return address and directions asking people for input on a happy marriage. I would love to see where they would come from.

I was at a wedding where they released a crate full of doves. They fly up circle around and then fly away.

We run into the same problem you do which is why we're doing the ribbon wands (which instead of wooden dowels I'm going to buy bulk packs of pencils in the 2 baseball teams that I'm incorporating in my theme) and add the ribbons near the erasers, and guests can take the robbons off the pencils and use them after. We're trying to have our ceremony at Fenway Park and if there is a game, I would feel so bad having the grounds crew cleaning up bird seed, rice, flower petals, etc off of the ball field. We're trying to make clean up as easy as possible for them and using something with a multi use.

We're using fake rice. If you google "designer wedding rice" it should come up. They are bird-friendly and are supposed to crush if you step on them. I think it will look nice in pictures and I like the tradition (and they're heart shaped!). We are putting them in little organza bags.

http://www.exclusivelyweddings.com/viewItemPers.asp?idProduct=253&refid=zgoogle&keywords=designer_wedding_rice

http://www.buyorganzabags.com/?gclid=CIzC4NS9zJoCFRJ4xgodwUr0mA