Best confetti for your wedding photos

It’s 2022 and I’m sure we all have a load of pressing concerns, however if you’re getting married soon this might be at the forefront of your mind. This post contains more thoughts on confetti than is strictly sensible, but then as a professional wedding photographer, I definitely tend to consider all things wedding more than most. I’ll cover the best confetti for photos, environmental concerns, and what to do if your venue won’t allow confetti full stop.

This confetti looks best in photos.

Click here to view a little confetti test on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CdNycLYPlzG/

I’ve found that the best confetti to give you those epic shots with confetti fluttering everywhere and loads of colour is biodegradable tissue paper confetti. In a sort of test/content creation moment to make the Instagram Reel above, I found it was pretty clear that tissue paper confetti had much more ‘float’ and was really visible on camera vs dried petals. I also found that with no clearing up in my garden, it had fully bio degraded within 3 weeks.

I recommend buying it from either Proper Confetti on Etsy or Your Confetti

Top tips for your confetti throw

• Ensure your photographer reminds guests to throw upwards instead of at you! This allows it to float down and avoids it going straight in the mouth!
• Try to look like you’re enjoying it! It’s a bit weird having tiny bits of things thrown at you, and the urge to retreat or screw up your face is pretty big. But instead try and look like you’re having an awesome time – whoop and cheer, smile, hold your new spouse’s hand tight!

Considering the impact

Shortly after The Instagram Reel I shared seemed to gain some traction, I had a florist I’d worked with before, who is all about sustainability message me:

“I have so many great shots of petals, I kind of think it’s not great to promote this stuff, biodegradable tissue isn’t a byproduct, it has to be manufactured and still contains bleaches and dyes 🙁 wish we would promote good for the environment wedding paraphernalia :(“

And she’s right, this type of confetti still involves manufacture, shipping, dyes, packaging. The most sustainable confetti is petals – either fresh or dried, ideally locally sourced; dried by you or provided by your wedding florist. From a photography point of view I still believe that tissue confetti creates stronger, more impactful images; and that petal confetti isn’t entirely unproblematic – giant bags on Amazon dried with preservatives and shipped from the Far East, or worse, this confetti cone. (Failing to understand taking petals, and putting them into single use plastic)

Whilst I’m not a sustainability expert; if you really want one of these images, I believe there are ways you can try and balance out the impact of choosing confetti a little. Instead of putting it in little individual glassine bags for your guests, just pop it into a basket or box and let them take big handfuls. Order the largest size single bag you can to minimise on packaging, and look at where you can cut other single use items out of your wedding entirely – can you do away with those striped straws? And banish polyester accessories that will only get worn once (looking at you robes with ‘bridesmaid’ on the back….) – polyester doesn’t biodegrade, and it leaches microplastics with each wash.

If you must use petal confetti

Say your venue has a firm rule about it, or you want to be as low impact as possible, there are a few things that will still make a difference.

Volume – get loads, make sure there’s a decent handful for each guest. Again, put it in a basket or in some buckets for guests to take handfuls.

Shape and size – choose larger, brighter flowers. Lavendar might smell incredible, but it hardly shows on camera, whereas something more substantial, that mimics the shape and qualities of tissue confetti, is going to be more impactful.

If your venue won’t allow confetti

Some venues just won’t allow confetti – often it’s for good reason – i.e. at Kew Gardens they can have foreign botanicals brought onsite, or maybe they remain open to the public and their public liability doesn’t permit it, or maybe there’s cattle or crops. If your venue says no, do listen to them, you want them to be your friends throughout your planning process.

A cool alternative is bubbles, ideally arm a few guests with bubble guns or even get one of those battery powered bubble machines – you could then leave this for kids to play with later at the wedding, or give them to parents to take home if it’s an adult’s only kind of do.

Finally, you could try streamers – I’ve had a few couples pop ribbons on sticks ready for guests to wave post ceremony, and it can be quite effective too.

And that is more than I ever thought I’d write on the subject of confetti, I hope it helps you decide which type of confetti to use for your wedding and I wish you awesome confetti photos. Should you like what you see, and want to know more, head to my contact page and I’ll send you lots of lovely information about us working together