Wedding Sparklers Blog

Style Me Pretty Wedding featuring Sparklers

Libba Durrett — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 15:06:51 +0000

We love all weddings featured on Style Me Pretty, but one featuring wedding sparklers always makes us smile. The sweet bride went for a natural feel with handmade favors of dried herbs, loads of natural materials including wildflowers, handmade paper and slate. The wedding took place high atop the mountain in Stowe, Vermont and ended with a sparkler send-off and a trip down the mountain via gondola ride as husband and wife.

Studio Gratz Photography

Wedding Sparkler Photo Tutorial

Libba Durrett — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 19:07:55 +0000

I feel incredibly grateful to be passing along a truly amazing tutorial today from Corine Tran of Studio Tran, a talented photographer. I opened my emails a few weeks ago and found some of the most creative sparkler photos I have ever seen…you all will flip! I begged her to white a “how-to” and she happily agreed.

Studio Tran Photography

I am going to paste the information below, but please make sure to visit her blog here.

Sparkler pictures are fun and magical. I mean who doesn’t love sparklers? They have become more and more popular at weddings as an “exit” where the bride and groom run through. Ive received a lot of emails and facebook messages asking if I would share how I took the sparkler pictures I have been posting so I thought I would share some tips and tricks.

I’m sure there are many different ways you can do this, but this is what I have found works the best.

You will need at least 2 off camera flashes on stands, a tripod, camera, wireless remotes, sparklers and someone to take the picture (assistant, friend of couple).

I put my flashes on manual at 1/2 and point them directly at the couple. Since this is a long exposure picture you will need the off camera flash to basically “freeze” the couple and their movement. I like the bride to hold the sparkler and then I light another sparkler off of the brides already lite sparkler to write a word or make a shape. This makes it appear like the bride wrote the word, but in fact I am doing it. Since the bride is hold the sparkler and its rather close to her and this is a long exposure shot, you are getting a lot of light cast off of the sparkler on to the couple. The off camera flash and closed aperture will help with this. When I first tried this I did not take that into account and my flash strength was not high enough or close enough to the couple and my aperture was too wide. I got a lot of light and color cast off on to the couple and they were a little blurry. OK a lot blurry.

Next you will need to set your camera to manual so you can control both the aperture and shutter. I have found being around f/14 or f/16 works well. The higher your aperture the more your sparkler will be defined. If you are more wide open your sparkler will appear less defined and more like balls of light.

For the flash setting on the camera, you will want to set it to rear. If you leave it normal the flash will go off at the beginning of the exposure. We want the flash to instead fire at the end of the exposure, right before the shutter closes. So set this to “rear” This burst of light from the flash will help to freeze the couple and their movement. I usually have the couple look at each other, kiss or look at the camera. Whatever you are having them do it would be best if hey could hold as still as possible. The flash will help to stop their movement but it will not freeze them completely. So they still need to hold as still as possible.

Next you could do this two ways. You could set the camera on timer for the length of time you want your exposure. Since I don’t really know how much time I am going to need I have found setting the shutter to “bulb” works the best. You will need an assistant or someone to actually take the picture while you are doing the writing. What they will do is when you are ready they will depress the shutter button and hold it down to start the exposure. You will then write/paint with the light source (video light or sparkler) and once you are finished and have stepped out of the frame they release the shutter. The flashes will fire, the shutter will close ending the exposure and we will have our picture.

So now you are asking, where do we buy really cool sparklers? The sparklers used for the below pictures came from www.sparklersonline.com. Some were the 20 inch and some were the 36 inch. The 36 inch burn for almost four minutes and give you plenty of time to get more then one picture. If your client wants a sparkler picture I would recommend they at least buy the 20 inch sparklers. Anything smaller is well, too small.

So to recap…

- off camera flashes on a higher manual setting, 1/4 or 1/2. I used 1/2
- use a high aperture, I like being around f/14 or f/16
- get flashes as close to subject as possible without being in frame
- tripod
- set camera flash setting to REAR
- use Bulb to control how long your exposure is

If you have any tips or tricks, please add them!

Children in Weddings

Libba Durrett — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 16:44:45 +0000

You have planned the perfect wedding – all the details are in place…the wedding sparklers (of course), the dress, the menu. Now you have to prepare for the children. Some welcome children at weddings, others can think of nothing worse. If you are having flower girls and a ring bearer, you must prepare. They HAVE to have something to do before the wedding and most likely a great bribe for after when they have behaved like angels.

My 2 year old son and sweet Harper at my sister-in-laws wedding.

My 5 week old baby girl who had a custom dress made out of the material from the bridesmaids dresses.

A cute option instead of throwing flower petals

Super cute kids favors look adorable on display.

A kids table where any child would love to spend time.

Libba Durrett — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 15:36:01 +0000

My newest obsession. I can search for hours on every subject from sparklers to chicken enchiladas. I am pretty sure I even have my dream house planned, down to the bathroom fixtures. A funny name that many do not know how to pronounce. I googled it and was given an audio soundbite: pin-trest. Alright, I am no longer a rookie.

While I would never advise against the print magazine for weddings, as we proudly feature our wedding sparklers there, I do think Pinterest is a nice compliment to the magazines.

Here are a few of my favorite finds…please share yours!

My dream house.

I always am a sucker for a puppy!

A blue and white anything is a fit for me.

And of course, the wedding sparkler. Seriously…does it get any better?

Real Wedding of the Day

Libba Durrett — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:08:05 +0000

I found this adorable couple on The Bride Cafe and am so excited to share their images. Ally and Jon had a beautiful sparkler wedding farewell. The bride is STUNNING and the tags on the sparklers look like they are from www.foryourparty.com. Such a cute couple! They 20 inch sparklers are such a fun end to what looks like a lovely evening.

Sources

Libba Durrett — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 22:33:31 +0000

Ever feel like you have the product, now you just need to make it look like the picture? Wedding sparklers are fun because they look best when lit, but they also can set the stage for the fun “cherry on top” of the perfect wedding by being displayed with a simple card or tag. There are some adorable people out there who create the perfect wedding sparkler tags. Allow me to share a few of my favorites from etsy:

Pinnt Your Party on Etsy

Twig and Thistle on Etsy

Flair Designery on Etsy

Ella Gent Ink on Etsy

A Stylish Design on Etsy

coming soon…other ideas too

Tag…love…

Libba Durrett — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 22:07:28 +0000

Tags…who could have guessed this would be something I search for, blog about and describe to customers. They are simple, inexpensive (sometimes) and often can turn your wedding sparklers into something spectacular. Now let me say first what I ALWAYS say. Spend the money on wedding sparklers and if you have any left-over, get the tags. Everyone will remember if you have scrawny wedding sparklers that do not sparkle very bright or ones that are smokey…yuck! Rest assured, ours burn brightly, are low-smoke and last the longest.

Here are a few of my favorite tags for wedding sparklers as of late.

Etsy - With the Flo

As for my favorite taglines:

The perfect match or Find your perfect match
Light the way for Kate and Tom
Sparkler send-off at 10:00pm
Let love shine
The big send-off
…And they lived happily ever after
Sparklers…please take one, after dancing is done

Cutest Brides…

Libba Durrett — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 21:51:10 +0000

It amazes me each week to see the number of brides who send me photographs of their wedding sparklers. Such fun to run my little business and be a small part of someone’s wedding – often helping to create “the perfect photo” with my wedding sparklers.

Here are a few of my recent favorites:

First are Ally and Brian using 20 inch sparklers. An intimate beach affair

Next is Cami and I promise you, this is a direct quote from her email…”The wedding sparklers made for the most wonderful grand exit and let me tell you – our guests LOVED them! A lot of people said it was their favorite part and left them wanting more. One person even described it as a “Hollywood wedding” because of the sparklers. The 36 inch were perfect and lasted a long time, so we didn’t have to worry about timing everything precisely.” visit her blog at http://www.cami-jane.com for some more amazing photos!

Finally is Whitney who said “I just wanted to send you this picture of my husband and I leaving our wedding reception to your 36 inch wedding sparklers. They were perfect for the venue and everyone loved them. Thank you for making out day so special!”

Black and White

Libba Durrett — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 11:38:51 +0000

Shannon Shaper Photography

I love of black and white photography. My mom does not. Growing up, we would never in a million years load our camera with black and white film – that was for photography class at Harpeth Hall (my high school in Nashville). Maybe because my mom simply cannot bear the thought of a photo without color, it seems so appealing to me. So fresh and simple. Sorry Mom.

I see photos pf brides with wedding sparklers and swoon with delight but often think…what if that were in color? I recently did a photo shoot with a local Nashville photographer named Scott Hughes. He adores black and white. Now with some of the photos I agree with him…the black and white is perfect and others I tend to like a little color. What do you think.

You can almost feel as if you were there with this bride:

Donna Van Bruening Photography

Paper Dolls Photography

These are my babies and I simply cannot decide if I like the photo better in black or white!

Scott Hughes Photography

Sparkler Spread

Libba Durrett — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 16:19:37 +0000

Now often I have people ask me why our wedding sparklers are the best. Simple – sparkler spread. Now I understand that is a strange term and is one I think I created myself. But basically it is how wide and big the spread of “sparkles” are when the wedding sparkler is lit. There are less expensive sparklers on the market, but the sparkle spread is not nearly as beautiful. This picture is of a wedding sparkler from my company and shows beautifully how pretty our sparklers are.