Wedding Grand Exit Ideas And How To Stay Safe

Video Transcript

Hi, my name’s Dalton Young, destination wedding videographer and photographer, and I want to talk to you really quickly about sparkler exit types. So just made a really long video on why you should or should not have a fake exit for your wedding day. Well, let’s talk about the different types of exit types really quickly. I have seen everything. Now obviously, the most common in the modern wedding is sparkler exits. That’s the big one. A lot of traditional weddings may have had things like rice thrown, I’ve seen glitter thrown. You really just have to think about your guest, the vibe of your wedding, and what kind of wedding is it. And the style you’re going for.

Because the more motion it creates or the more light it creates, it can be good and bad. But I mean, for example, a beach ball exit. If you’ve never seen a beach ball exit, we’ve done them. A beach ball exit basically everybody just throws in beach balls and it’s kind of cool, it creates a really pretty image. But again, if you’re having a mountain wedding or a country wedding, the beach balls won’t make sense. And that’s more of a coastal thing. So you got to find what aligns with what you are doing, but sparkler exits are really common. Just to give you some ideas, I’ve seen boat exits. We see that a lot down here. But also, helicopters, sparklers, glow sticks, then, the glow wands, we’ve seen those. I’ve seen pompoms, I’ve seen rice, I’ve seen glitter. I’ve seen exits in Rolls-Royces, classic cars, Bentley convertibles, any type of vehicle, and golf carts. I’ve seen an exit in an ice cream boat, believe it or not. And that was, again, everything, it depends on the story you’re trying to… That was something.

Your exit can’t be standard. It can be sparklers, it can be something unique like beach balls, or even an ice cream boat. See, the ice cream boat thing, it was telling their story. They met on an ice cream boat, so they brought that, and they incorporated their love story into their film. That was Madison and Ron, and they were phenomenal. And they had such a great story about how they connected, and how they met. And things like that really tell the story of your wedding film. Your wedding film’s about you. It can be unique. Your wedding can be unique. It doesn’t have to be a cookie-cut wedding. But if you don’t really feel like you have… A lot of people may not feel like they have a love story that has a lot of details to it like that, and that’s totally cool. For those, you may want to opt for a standard exit or just something, you can also Google different types of exits. But there are so many ideas, and don’t feel like you have to stick to one thing.

I’ve seen people combine things, I’ve seen things happen at once. And just know that there are different options when it comes to the type of exit. So be creative with your wedding, this is your special day, and this is your film. So from a photography perspective, you’re going to make it happen. From a video perspective, that’s when you should think about the amount of motion being created, and whatever gets people excited and really engaged during that exit is really what makes it amazing. You want people cheering, you want them smiling and laughing. And no matter what they’re doing, you want to make sure that they’re having fun, and you want to make sure that it creates a lot of motion, and you want to also make sure your guests are educated. And that’s something that we tend to do, especially, especially, especially, especially with the sparkler exits.

Sparkler exits, okay, so here’s something else. I’m not talking about cold sparklers. If you’ve seen cold sparklers, they’re a box that sits on the ground and shoots up sparklers straight up. And those make a beautiful entrance or exit edition. It just shoots cold sparklers in the air, you can use them indoors or outdoors. They’re really cool. They’re really bright, but they’re really cool. But I’m talking about traditional sparklers. You want to educate your guests, especially with traditional sparklers, because it also depends on how much alcohol is being served at your wedding, because I have seen dresses get caught on fire, and I’ve seen the nature surrounding the exit get caught on fire. I’ve seen brides’ hair get caught on fire. You’re going to have a lot of hairspray in your hair, most likely, not always, but most likely.

And many of your guests don’t know that nor do they, I don’t want to say they don’t care, they just, don’t know that they get carried away with themselves. Let’s just put it into perspective, you got someone that’s probably drunk. It’s always to the one that’s drunk, I promise you. You have someone that’s drunk, they get a sparkler, and they’re just happy they got a sparkler. They’re waving it around. Or they light up 10 sparklers at once because they think it’s cool. Let’s speed it up, let’s light up 10. And these aren’t just little sparklers, these are big sparklers. When you do that, and you have someone who’s intoxicated, who isn’t really paying attention, and they see it being videoed, and you’re exiting, they may want to wave it over your head and be like, “Woo,” wave it over your head.

And next thing you know, you get set on fire. And trust me, that’s the quickest way to ruin an exit. Hopefully, you don’t end up in the hospital. I mean, I’ve seen brides with their dress and hair, it gets burned. I’ve seen guests get severe burns on their hands and have to go to the hospital. I’ve seen the fire departments roll up [inaudible 00:06:16]. I mean, again, it can get dumb, quick, because sparklers, although they’re pretty and they’re cool, people get carried away sometimes. And when alcohol is involved, usually that’s what really takes it to the worst.

The other thing to consider, if you’re doing regular sparklers, make sure you have the right kind of sparklers, make sure you have, and if I’m correct a sparkle or guru, but I would say it’s the silver, they’re usually really long real silver. And they’re just, it’s like a solid gray color. If you get one that has the rainbow wrappers on it, and it’s the red, yellow, and blue, what you would see on the 4th of July, with the red sticks, those are going to create so much smoke that it’s going to ruin your video and photos, because it makes it harder for us to lock in our focus on you during that. And it also disperses the light.

So whenever we do an exit, we add extra lighting, especially if it’s nighttime and outside, we add lighting to that, to compliment the sparklers because the sparklers will put off plenty of light by themselves. But what happens is, all that smoke grabs that light and it creates this big cloud of light almost, and it makes everything smokey. I mean, it’ll be smoke going everywhere, I’ve seen it. And it just doesn’t make a pretty exit. Not that clean, sharp, sparkler exit that you’re looking for. So again, make sure you have the right sparklers, and make sure your guests are educated on what to do. You don’t want anybody getting burned. The biggest thing as well is, depending on whether you go, if you go with us, that’s something that we look at.

But the biggest thing is making sure your tunnel, you’re going to go down a tunnel, you want that tunnel to be wide enough. If that tunnel’s not wide enough, it’s going to put… Because here’s what, people don’t hold sparklers straight up, they don’t. Because why? It’s over their own head. And they’re not going to hold it out and straight up because then it’s still over their hand. They’re going to hold it out at an angle. So if the tunnel that you’re exiting isn’t wide enough, when they hang them out, it’s going to be over your head. And then that’s when things go wrong. So don’t want that.

So what I would recommend, make sure you find a spot that has a wide tunnel, where you can get guests to spread out, both in width and lengthways. Because the longer the tunnel, the easier it is to capture a great exit for us. And the other thing is, make sure that whoever’s in charge of this, whether it’s a family member or a planner, or an event coordinator or day-of coordinator, make sure they’re prepared. You need lighters, okay? You don’t want to be searching for lighters during your exit. Once it’s over and people are holding hot sparklers, you want to make sure you have that bucket somewhere for them to put them in, okay? To make sure that they get extinguished. So again, so you don’t have a fire or someone gets burned, or some little kid steps on one.

And the last but not least, you want to make sure that you’re not holding a sparkler. And I know this may sound obvious, but I’ve seen it. I’ve seen people get excited and people are having fun, and everybody’s got a sparkler. And then someone’s like, “Here, bride and groom, here’s sparkler for y’all.” And then they’re like, “Yay, woo,” whatever. They go down the exit, they got the sparklers, well, there’s something that happens in the middle of that exit, and it’s called a dip. And if you get dipped and you’re holding a sparkler, your sparkler will probably be fine because it’s going to be behind your groom. But guess what? His sparkler is going to be behind you because he’s got to hold you. And then if you have any hair, you may not have it after that dip, because it’s going to catch on fire because your hair’s going to fall right on top of that sparkler.

So you do not need to be holding a sparkle during your exit, that is the worst idea, from a safety perspective. You just don’t do that. So again, that’s your sparkler exit 101, as well as the different types of exits that I’ve seen. That’s obviously not all of them. There’s a ton of them that I’ve seen and done, and I just, I’d have to make a list. A really long, really long list to have all the exits in there. So just know there are a ton of options. Make it unique to you. If you have a story that you can share through that, then do it. If you want to be vintage, do it. If you want to be modern, do it. If you want to be traditional, throw the rice, do whatever, or the rose pedals even. Do whatever looks awesome to you, whatever you love, or whatever tells your story.

Or if you don’t have anything like that, just stick with what you know, stick with what works. You don’t have to be original, it’s just a thought. It’s your day, your options. Make it happen, make it a moment that you love, and that’s going to have plenty of emotion, and look good on camera. And if you use sparklers, please stay safe. You want to plan these things out and talk to your planner about it or your day-of coordinator, to make sure everybody’s on the same page. Because most of us will be fine, it’s your safety that is the number one concern at that point because you’re going to be in the middle of it all. So just things to think about. If you have any questions about your exit, any ideas, and you want any feedback, I’m more than happy to share my feedback. If you have any questions during the planning process, please feel free to reach out to me, whether you need video or photo, or whether you choose to work with us or not, that’s totally irrelevant.

I’m always happy to help any bride that’s in the planning process because I understand what it’s like to be planning something that it may be A, your first time doing it, or B, it’s your first time planning something from far away, and you may not be getting a chance to meet your vendor. So I’m happy to help make any recommendations or help with just planning, no matter where your wedding’s at in the world. And again, any questions, just reach out. My name’s Dalton Young and I look forward to talking to you soon.

Photography/VideographyDalton Young Weddings