How To Nail Your Wedding Confetti Photos

The ceremony has just finished, and you’re finally married. So now, obviously it’s time to go and walk through a flurry of confetti or petals (and try not to swallow them in the process). Confetti is one of the key photo opportunities of a wedding, so here are my tips for making the most impact with them.

History of Confetti

Back in the day, it’s said that throwing confetti at a wedding originated in the Italian middle ages, to bestow prosperity and fertility upon the happy couple. It’s also been a wedding staple over here in the UK since before Pagan times. These days, rather than the superstition of bringing on babies through the power of confetti, it’s much more for the visual impact. And if you get it right, what an impact it can be.

Confetti Tips

Petals or Paper?

There’s loads of different kinds of confetti out there – fresh petals, silk petals, dried petals, but my personal favourite from a photo perspective, is paper confetti! It’s so much lighter than petals, which means it flutters and floats in the air for much longer, making for better photos. If you do choose to do petals, there’s also a couple of things to think about. Fresh petals are heavier, which means they’ll fall quicker, but they’ll stand out more in photos than the dried option. Whereas dried is lighter and won’t fall quite as fast, but is harder to see in photos! But whichever you choose – make sure you…

Go Biodegradable

My first tip and easily my most important one, is to make SURE they’re biodegradable. You don’t want them just hanging around outside the venue and then on the planet forever. You can get plenty of biodegradable paper confetti, or even petals, like Sarah & Cam – you can’t get much more biodegradable than those.

Buy loads of the stuff

There’s nothing sadder than just not quite enough confetti. Okay there definitely is, but my point stands. If you’re gonna do it, go big or go home. Have a think about how much room you’re gonna have and how many of your guests will throw it. I’d advise having enough for all of those guests, and then some. If you’re having a microwedding, it’s also a great way to get everyone involved! That way you can go all out, and if you don’t use it all you can use it at various other points in the day, like reception decoration or even your couple session.

 

Keep your heads up

Now I know having a load of stuff thrown at you on purpose is weird and your instinct is to retreat into your own neck – but don’t. Keep that chin up and EMBRACE the confetti (and probably get one in your eye but we can sort that after). That way I can capture your beautiful faces and you can see everyone around you cheering you on.

 

Throw it upwards

Okay so this one isn’t really about you guys, but someone needs to yell at your guests (probably me, honestly), to throw UPWARDS instead of directly at your faces. As satisfying as it is for your groomsmen to slam a handful of petals straight into your mouth. By going up, it’ll take longer to come down and float down nicely, making for a better photo overall.

What colours to go for

My advice with this is just a lil bit contradictory – all or nothing. Go for either all the colour, or for pure white, depending on the sort of vibe you’re going for. In my opinion this’ll have the best impact. All the colour, for obvious reasons, and white because often it’ll stand out against your background and really pop (unless you’re outside a white building). You could also personalise them for a special added touch. Specific flower petals from a flower that means a lot to you, confetti in the colours of your flag, anything! Toby & Jemma had petals that matched their rustic colour scheme which made it all flow beautifully.

And if all else fails – confetti cannons

If you want to take all complications out of it, get some confetti cannons. All you need is to get two people to stand back either side of you and ready, aim (and DEFINITELY aim upwards) FIRE. This way you’ve got a crowd’s worth of confetti in just two cannons. Plus if you get a load more, you’ll have more than one go at getting the shot, which’ll also take a nice amount of pressure off.

And if your venue doesn’t allow it?

If your venue doesn’t allow confetti, there are a few really effective alternatives that still pack a punch.

1. Sparklers – it might not be night time, but that doesn’t mean they won’t still look gorgeous.
2. Bubbles – come on, who doesn’t love bubbles?!
3. Hand tunnel –  a cute way of getting your guests really involved

And there you have it – my top tips for nailing those confetti shots. If you’re planning your wedding and are thinking about how you can make your confetti POP, then drop me a message or follow me on Instagram! You can also see a bit more about my packages and my portfolio here.