On The Wings of a Butterfly Wedding Theme
by Rose Smith

Description: Ideas for having a butterfly-themed wedding.

Butterfly weddings have become very popular over the last few years. The beauty and grace we see in these fluttering fantasy insects seems to easily capture our imaginations with their joyful freedom. Here are some ideas to get you started on creating a beautiful butterfly wedding.

** Wedding Attire **

Brides can sew applique butterflies onto their dresses. If you have a headpiece that is covered in fabric, sew smaller, matching butterflies to the headpiece. Many online bridal shops also carry butterfly tiara's (with and without a veil) which you can purchase.

For your bridesmaids, also sew butterfly appliques on their dresses, such as at the edge of a sleeve, near the neckline, or along the hem. If possible, use appliques that are the same color as the dresses or you could try dying the appliques to match.

Create your own butterfly throwing garter as well. Simply sew a pretty butterfly applique to an existing garter or create your own by sewing elastic through the middle length of wide lace.

** Wedding Invitations and Wedding Programs**

You'd be hard pressed not to find some site online that doesn't sell butterfly wedding invitations, programs, thank you cards, etc. However, if you'd like to save some money, try designing your own using butterfly graphics. There are many good greeting card computer programs available, plus it's pretty easy to find good quality card stock to use for your invitations, etc.

** Location **

Any venue can be decorated to a butterfly theme, but if you really would like some pizzazz, check with a local zoo or botanical garden. Many have butterfly enclosures where you could have a small private ceremony with perhaps immediate family.

** Flowers **

Use a wildflower bouquet with a few butterfly picks inserted. Stick with flowers that butterflies would be attracted to such as: Phlox, Lilacs, Honeysuckle, and Asters. There are many species of butterflies, so you may actually want to base your wedding theme colors around a particular butterfly. If so, find out which flowers that particular butterfly is attracted to and use it in your bouquets, centerpieces, etc. A good site to visit is The Butterfly Guide at http://www.butterflies.com/guide.html.

For the groom and usher's, you could have boutonnieres with a single flower and attach a butterfly pin to the flower stem.

** Wedding Decorations **

Table decorations could consist of butterfly confetti, floating butterfly candles, small plant pots with wild flowers with inserted butterfly picks. A cute addition is butterfly name card holders. Many places sell these, but you could easily make your own by decorating a small 2" clay pot, fill with flowers and insert wire butterflies. (Take 2 wire butterflies and wrap wire around the bottom of the wings to attach them together to make a holder - wrap a long wire stem around the bottom of the butterflies and insert it into the pot).

Decorate the room with flower garlands and attach various size colored butterflies which you can print out on photo paper from a color printer. Hang butterfly or bird cages throughout the room and layer the bottom with flowers and insert plastic or beaded butterflies.

Use pillar candles as centerpieces. Wrap wide ribbon around the bottom and attach butterfly appliques to the the ribbon.

Use wide ribbon bows and a single butterfly applique in the center and attach these to many objects, such as the cake knife serving pieces, candles, poles, corner of doorways, along green garland, as pew markers, etc.

Consider devoting each of your guest tables to a specific butterfly. Decorate the table with that butterflies colors, flowers, etc. (Check out the Butterfly Guide link above to help you match butterflies, colors and flowers).

** Guest Book **

A simple and elegant way to create a butterfly guest book is to stencil butterflies onto a plain white guest book. Or you can glue on the ribbon bow/butterfly trim mentioned above.

** Wedding Favors **

Butterfly shaped cookies wrapped in netting or placed in a small box decorated on the outside with glued on or stenciled butterflies. You can also do this with butterfly shaped chocolates.

Make or buy candy bar wrappers with butterflies on them.

Take plain white small envelopes (or make them). Decorate with butterfly stencils or run them through a color printer. Fill with wildflower seeds or any type of seeds specifically for flowers that attract butterflies.

Make your own butterfly bubbles. Buy small jars of bubble mixture and decorate the outside with ribbon and either glue on a color printed butterfly or create your own labels and glue to the bottle.

** Conclusion **

You may have noticed I did not mention having butterflies released at your wedding. This is because there is much controversy over this subject. Butterflies are migratory and many companies import these butterflies from various locations. What this means is that when they are released, the butterflies become confused as to where they are and where they are suppose to migrate too...so they end up dying when winter comes.

Another potential problem is how they are released and how many will be released. If there are too many butterflies and they are released too close together, you don't end up with a gentle fluttering of butterflies into the sky, but a mass confusion of these insects flying around and into all the wedding guests.

These are only two of the problems concerning the release of butterflies, there are several more that bride's and groom's should be aware of before choosing this option. Before making such a decision, I would suggest you read an article by Jeffrey Glassberg regarding this practice.

Many ideas abound when creating a theme wedding around butterflies. You can choose to go with a simple all white butterfly theme or perhaps choose to have a color scheme related to a specific species of butterfly. Play around with ideas until you come up with something that is uniquely suited to your personalities and desires. Any way you look at it, a butterfly wedding theme can provide an enchanting elegance to any wedding.

Rose Smith is the author of the ebook How To Create a Beautiful Medieval Wedding, and several other wedding related ebooks. She owns and operates the Wedding Themes and More website, which features wedding theme ideas and planning resources. http://www.wedthemes.com.

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