Kent Wedding Photographer - The Confetti shot

Throwing confetti at weddings has some interesting ancient history...

D

o you plan to have confetti at your wedding?

I do recommend it….

This tradition that we often see at weddings to this day is fun and a great way of getting natural, emotional photos and gets everyone involved from kids to granny's.

Like lots of modern wedding traditions, the tradition of throwing confetti over the bride & groom dates back thousands of years:

• In Ancient Rome, guests threw wheat or barley over the bride to symbolize fertility and abundance.

• During the Middle Ages, rice became popular in Europe and later in North America.

• The act represented hopes for many children, prosperity, and a plentiful life.

Rice remained common at weddings well into the 20th century.

The word confetti comes from the Italian “confetti”, referring to sugar-coated almonds (often called Jordan almonds).

In Italy:

• These almonds symbolised the bittersweet nature of marriage.

• They were given as wedding favors rather than thrown.

• Traditionally, they were given in groups of five to represent health, wealth, happiness, fertility, and longevity.

In the 19th century, during festivals like those in Venice, paper confetti replaced sugar-coated sweets (which were expensive and messy). Eventually paper confetti spread across Europe and the 20th century, colourful paper pieces became popular at weddings and modern weddings often use confetti cannons or eco friendly alternatives.

Back in the 80’s, 90’s and into the 2000’s plastic confetti shapes were often used and afterwards these would have to be removed by someone as it would not decompose like the confetti used now, which looking back seems incredible that this was allowed but I don’t think we thought about it too much back them - I remember that it was the churches that often made the confetti being thrown to be outside of the church grounds and this must have been due to it’s lack of decomposition.

Here are some special memories with confetti i’ve captured over the years.

Today, we are all more environmentally aware so other options include dried flowers. biodegradable paper and Lavender. Often bubbles are used instead of confetti and for the darker evenings sparklers are used.

Even after thousands of years the symbolism remains very popular and from my experience over 90% of the weddings that I photograph still want confetti. It’s fun after all, so why not!

Pro tip:

1, Bring lots of confetti with you and don’t rely on others to supply it.

2, Good vibrant colours show up really well in the photos and make for a good lot of fun and chaos.

Thank you for reading! If you would like chat about your wedding plans please get in touch and I can help with any questions you may have.