Make your own confetti

We love seeing confetti being used at Southdowns Manor, it looks amazing in so many of our stunning settings and creates those magic moments, capturing your unique moment in time.

Celebrating the union of a happy couple

As early as the 14th Century, the most popular things thrown at celebratory events were flowers, rice, coins, seeds, fruit, candy and even mud and eggs! These were thrown over the couple to bestow them with prosperity and fertility. Obviously, some of these items must have been painful and even dress-ruining for blushing brides, so it’s understandable that the Victorians popularised paper confetti in the 19th Century!

(image below Kelly Hearn Photography)

Confetti originated in Italy

The word ‘confetti’ originates from Italy. It’s related to the Italian confectionery of the same name. These small sweets were also known as ‘drageé; almonds with a hard sugar coating. Interestingly, you’ll often find small tulle bags filled with sugar covered almonds at weddings still today – but they’re given as favours to the guests, as a means of thanking them for sharing the happy couples’ big day.

Making your own natural wedding confetti

It’s a simple task to make your own wedding confetti that is biodegradable, eco-friendly and so easy to do, and for the most part it is free! We love how stunning this is on your wedding day and it really helps create the wedding magic. Depending on the time of the year you are looking at getting married you have lots of choices. Imagine a Spring/Summer wedding and having cherry blossom, it falls freely to the ground – so why not collect it? This applies for any tree blossom, the colours can be stunning with all the different pastel shades you can get. If you have a specific type of flower in mind that you would like to use then you might need to purchase the flowers then take the petals off to dry them.

How to dry your petals?

Now you have collected all your petals the next step is to dry these petals out. This must be done on the same day you collect your petals so to try to prevent the petals from changing colour, and it can be done in a couple of different ways. The way we like to do this is to use the mild heat from an airing cupboard, all you need is to pop some paper towels on the shelves in the airing cupboard and lay the petals onto the paper towels. Try to lay them in thin layers so they have room to dry out. Check on them every few hours, they should be dry in 4-5 hour

If you don’t have an airing cupboard then an alternative is to dry your petals in the oven. Use baking paper on a baking tray and lay a thin layer of petals on top. Set the oven to about 150 degrees (fan) – the drying of the petals should not take any longer than 10 minutes. It is very important to keep an eye on the petals so that they do not burn. Just keep a check as the size of the petals can also vary the drying times.

How much to dry?

This really depends on how many guests you have at your wedding, just remember the petals shrink a lot during the drying process. Try a batch and see the quantity you have. Another top tip is to collect bunches of flowers from friends and family that they are about to throw out and collect all the petals from these and dry them out.

How to store your confetti

If you are not going to use your confetti straight away we would recommend to store it in a dark, dry place. It should keep for around 6-12 months.

On your wedding day

We love the simple idea of small paper bags, decorated as you wish, filled with confetti.

(main image Molly Foster)