A “grand exit” at your wedding is exactly that; the bride and groom making a mad dash away from their reception to get into a car and head off to their honeymoon. This traditional type of departure dates back for centuries, and typically the guests all line up along the exit path to form a send-off line. As the bride and groom make their way to their limousine or other vehicle, the guests usually make a grandiose ruckus to let the bride and groom know that they love them and are happy for their new union. Traditionally, the guests would throw rice or confetti in the air to rain down onto the couple as they run by, but rice can hurt or kill birds and confetti can be really difficult to clean up. Fortunately, there are some fun alternatives to use for your grand exit and send-off line, and these are some of my favorite ideas.
Birdseed
Basically, using birdseed is a direct replacement for using rice. Because rice can hurt birds, using birdseed will give the same fun and appearance with none of the drawbacks. Also, because the birds will eventually eat all the seeds, there is no need to clean up the mess like you would have to if you used confetti. So, in a nutshell, using birdseed offers all the fun of confetti and the look of rice without any of the harmful consequences or cleanup tasks.
Sparklers
Sparklers are a relatively new way to dress up your grand exit, but the market has received the idea with open arms. Allowing your guests to give you a sparkler send-off line is a great way to get the guests into the fun and excitement while giving the bride and groom a memorable farewell. Basically, the guests will light their sparklers and hold them up in the air as the couple dashes by them. They huge sparks and illuminated faces show up fabulously in the wedding photos, and the light that comes off the burning sparklers creates a very cool effect to highlight the bride and groom. There is also ne cleanup with sparklers, so they are usually allowed at most reception venues. Best of all, there are plenty of places offering wedding sparklers for sale at very good prices so you won’t need to spend a fortune to make this a reality.
Ribbons
Another great alternative that creates a really cool visual effect is ribbons that are attached to wands. The guests can waive their ribbon wildly on the sidelines of the grand exit to create a really exciting and busy look for your wedding photos without needing to light anything and without making a mess. The ribbon wands are also a great choice for any bride looking for a “do it yourself” project because they are very easy to construct without any real skillset. If you don’t have time or patience to make the ribbons yourself, you can buy them online or at your favorite party supply store for a very reasonable price.