Planning A Dazzling Wedding Grand Finale

Every year the modern wedding grows a little more elaborate. The size of the guest list increases, the splendor of the decorations grows larger, and the wedding feast goes ever more gourmet. If you're planning the grandest wedding imaginable, you might already find your budget strained or your well run dry when it comes to ideas for taking things even bigger.

Or, you may just be looking for a single grand element to top your wedding reception or ceremony off with an unforgettable flourish. The biggest day of your life, so the rationale goes, deserves a giant finish, a climax that will embed your celebration into the hearts and minds of all your guests.

Presented below are three "grand finale" wedding gestures that are just now becoming white-hot popular with wedding couples. Note that you should check their availability in your area, and prices may vary among vendors and particular services.

Wedding Doves Take Flight

As you may already know, doves are the international and ancient symbol for peace, love, and unity. Doves in flight, quite naturally, symbolize the rising of these qualities and the hope for a better future.

Modern wedding dove providers offer an assortment of package choices for any wedding ceremony or reception. The most basic of these packages includes doves on display on special wedding cages during the ceremony or reception. They are used purely for ornamentation. In more sophisticated (and more expensive) packages, doves are released as the guests look on.

The type of release varies by vendor. Some offer baskets and ornamental cages from which to release the birds; others allow the bride and groom to release the birds by hand (following a brief training seminar). Upper tier packages may include twelve or more doves that fly out at once, creating a fantastic effect for your guests.

One disadvantage to the dove release involves the weather: the visual of the doves in flight will feel diminished in rainy weather; the dove vendors will likely cancel the flight if inclement weather seems unavoidable.

By the way, the doves are trained to returned, and wear tags with the vendor's name and contact information around their legs.

Fireworks Light Up the Sky

It might lightly be said that nothing tops off a wedding celebration like a long series of explosions! Fireworks increase the sense of spectacle and celebration at your wedding reception, giving guests the true sense that something special has occurred.

Many fireworks vendors offer special wedding fireworks packs, including the most popular kinds at weddings. These include long, sparkling fireworks heavy on flash and image (as opposed to just noise.) These packs can be operated by guests themselves or by specially designated wedding personnel.

Some vendors also sell wedding "setpieces," which light up the bride and groom's initials around a heart in fiery letters. They should be placed on a field or at a designated spot outside the reception hall, well away from cars and structures.

A variety of professional fireworks technicians and engineers are also available for hire to weddings and other special events in some areas. These highly trained experts present large-scale fireworks displays especially for your event.

As with any handling of fireworks, the utmost safety precautions should be followed when handling and operating, especially in the presence of children. Contacting local governments regarding noise and fire ordinances should also be completed before retaining or purchasing fireworks specialists and/or fireworks themselves.

Horse Drawn Carriages

Offering a more intimate form of grand finale than the fireworks displays and flights of doves, the horse drawn carriage lends an air of magic and romance to the end of your wedding ceremony or wedding celebration.

Horse team and carriage rental is available in most areas. Some companies have a specially-constructed "fairy tale" carriage available expressly for weddings. These carriages are sometimes built to resemble Cinderella's "pumpkin" carriage; others are simply elaborately decorated and richly furnished vis-à-vis carriages done up in bridal-themed in Old World European glamour. The Cinderella carriage is often very popular, and should be reserved months in advance.

Carriage reservation often requires a deposit in addition to the advance reservation. The vendor may offers specials from time to time, however, and you can possibly negotiate the final asking price depending on your wedding venue's proximity to their stables or the time of year.

The carriage itself is pulled by a team of two or four horses, depending on its size. Trained carriage drivers, dressed in livery, will pilot the carriage to a prearranged disembarking point, where the couple can switch to more conventional transportation. This point is usually a mile or so from the reception venue.