A Guide to Using Sky Lanterns

Sky lanterns are emerging as one of the newest traditions in the wedding industry. In the last five years alone, their use at weddings in the United States has more than doubled on the heels of movies such as “Tangled” skyrocketing them in the mainstream. While sky lanterns have been used for various celebrations in Asia for more than two centuries, they have just recently hit the wedding scene in the United States. With their popularity quickly hitting the top of the charts, I decided to write this guide to sky lanterns to help you understand their many uses and benefits as part of your wedding celebration.

Frequently referred to as “wish lanterns”, many Asian cultures believe that sky lanterns bring good fortune when they are released by 2 people. The concept is to make a wish, and then let go of your sky lantern and watch it float away into the night sky. As long your sky lanterns stay airborne until they’re no longer visible, your wish is supposed to come into reality. This can be a very romantic element to add to a wedding ceremony with the bride and groom lighting and releasing a sky lantern together, as it is also said to bring joy, peace, and longevity to the relationship.

One of the more popular uses for sky lanterns at a wedding is to encourage all of your guests to get into the fun by letting them to each release their own sky lantern. When all of your guests use their sky lanterns at the same time, you can create amazing aerial displays that are fun and serene. Your wedding guests are sure to cherish the memory of the visual display for a very long time, and it will also make your wedding celebration one for the record books. Many couples who have chosen to use a sky lantern launch as part of their celebration have said that there guests commented about how much fun it was and that their reactions were very positive.

Another increasingly common idea that many couples have is to use their sky lanterns as wedding favors.  Using sky lanterns for two different purposes can give you some extra wiggle room in your wedding budget for other parts of your special day. You be even more of a thrifty planner by only buying 1 sky lantern for every 2 guests, which is actually pretty typical since they require 2 people to light and release properly. By purchasing sky lanterns to be used as both a wedding favor and a part of your ceremony, you can put that budget room to better use in other elements of your wedding day celebration.