A step-by-step wedding fireworks guide: Key things to consider

A firework display for wedding celebrations is a fantastic addition to your reception. Create a spectacle for your guests. Celebrate with a bang. Pyrotechnics create a unifying moment for your family and friends to experience together as a crowd. Here’s our step-by-step guide: how to plan wedding fireworks.

How to plan Fireworks for a Wedding Reception

Here is where we lay out what you need to do to have a spectacular fireworks display at your wedding, and what we will do to help. You can also view our fireworks for weddings to find out more.

1. Location: Consult your chosen wedding venue

A wedding firework display requires a large amount of open space. If you book a hotel in the city centre for your wedding reception, you might find you can’t have fireworks at all, let alone the dazzling spectacle of your dreams.

Choose a venue with a decent amount of outdoor space, such as:

• Former Stately homes
• Countryside estates
• A Racecourse
• Local Sports facilities, e.g. a golf club, cricket ground or rugby club

Ask the venue about fireworks. All wedding venues have policies on fireworks because wedding fireworks are extremely popular. For example, most venues will only allow a professional company to launch fireworks.

2. Decide: DIY Fireworks vs Professional?

It depends on how spectacular you want your wedding to be. Of course, we’re biased. We believe every couple deserves a professional fireworks display worthy of London on New Year’s Eve. But here are the pros and cons, from people who know the ins and outs of this industry.

Pros and Cons of a Professional Fireworks Display

• Pro: Safety guarantees. Our firers are experienced and highly trained in pyrotechnic safety. We create a safe zone for guests to watch from, away from the firing and drop zones.
• Con: Your guests can’t light the fireworks. But a guest of honour can kickstart the display with our show starter for an extra £30.
• Pro: High-calibre, professional-grade fireworks, including Low Noise fireworks, glitter fountains, golden willow bombettes, and a finale rising to 400ft in the air. We have access to professional-grade fireworks, unavailable to the general public, so your display will be guaranteed to please.
• Con: Expenses, including our insurance, site survey & clean up and a full team.
• Pro: Expert display design and firing. 8 minutes or more of continual explosions and an option for a musical fireworks display.
• Pro: A wide range of displays to choose from. We have four standard packages with four musical upgrades and the option to add lights and/or flames, PLUS the option to have a bespoke display for customers spending over £950.
• Pro: We will design the display to suit the space, so there is no need to worry about trees or the surrounding areas.
• Pro: We liaise with all stakeholders, including the venue, local authority, etc.
• Con: No excuse for you not to get back to planning the rest of your wedding!

Pros & Cons of DIY Wedding Fireworks

• Pro: It’s cheaper. You can spend a few hundred pounds on fireworks, set them off in a field and still have a great time
• Con: Poor Quality. There’s a limit to the grade of fireworks the general public is allowed to buy. Without access to a professional license, your display could fall flat.
• Con: Most venues won’t allow DIY displays because they are uninsured. When you pay for a professional service, part of the cost is our skill, and part of it is our insurance, which covers us for up to £10,000,000 in damage or injury payments.
• Pro: Creative control. You can choose how many rockets, cannons and Roman candles you’d like and set them off in any order. That said, you can have a bespoke display from our team if you want to choose colours, music, and more, with far better fireworks to choose from, and the benefit of our experience to make your vision come true.
• Con: Gaps between firing. DIY firework displays can be uncoordinated and slow, lacking the flair a wedding deserves.
• Pro: Less admin, maybe. You don’t have to deal with a professional company to design and fire your display.
• Con: More admin! For DIY fireworks, you’ll need to inform the police, the local authority, neighbouring landowners, local aerodromes, institutions such as hospitals and the fire service, and do all this yourself.

A professional display takes a lot of the legwork out of organising and conducting the display, so you and your guests can focus on enjoying yourselves.

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3. Picking the right timing for fireworks

Fireworks are most effective after dark, so if you’re getting married in mid-summer, your display will have to wait until after 10pm. Winter, spring and autumn weddings give you more time to play with.

There are no rules about when your fireworks display fits into the celebrations. If your ceremony ends in the evening, start the display as the ceremony ends. This will invite your guests outside.

Other popular moments include:

• After cutting the cake
• When the food or buffet is served
• Before the first dance

You can choose when to have your display, as long as all fireworks are finished before 11 pm, which is the legal cut-off point. Let your guests know when to expect fireworks so they are ready to watch.

 

4. Designing Your Fireworks Display

When you choose a professional wedding fireworks package, you get the benefit of our experience. We select high-quality fireworks to create an entertaining display, programming the firing order and triggering the fireworks using our FireOne technology.

You can personalise our displays with extras:

• Choose your finale colours to match your wedding theme
• Add heart-shaped fireworks
• Make it a pyro-musical by sharing your favourite music. We set the display to the rhythm and add lighting for additional drama.

All our extras can be found on our Wedding Fireworks page.

5. Final Touches

You can decorate the viewing area to add some extra magic to the experience.

• Add light with fairy lights, paper lanterns or floating candles on a pond.
• Give out sparklers or glow sticks.
• Offer blankets and hand-warmers in case guests are getting cold.
• Put glowsticks inside your balloons to illuminate the space.

Whatever you choose to add, you can be confident that the fireworks are in safe hands with Electrify Pyrotechnics.

We’ll Handle the Rest

Finding a venue, calling in the professionals, choosing the timing and any extras are up to you. The rest of your fireworks display will be our pleasure to look after.

We want to take the stress out of organising fireworks for a wedding. We are fully insured for public liability; we liaise with the venue to arrange site surveys and clean-ups, and we have strong safety protocols for storing, transporting and firing all pyrotechnics.

Choose Your Wedding Fireworks Package