Heavenly Lantern Festival - Taipei

How beautiful would this be instead of releasing doves or butterflies? I just wish I could think of an environmentally friendly way to do it...


{ Thanks Gangsta Bride! }

So, according to wikipedia: "Sky lanterns (sky candles) are airborne paper lanterns traditionally found in East Asian cultures. They are constructed from oiled rice paper on a bamboo frame, and contain a small candle or fuel cell composed of a waxy flammable material. When lit, the flame heats the air inside the lantern, thus lowering its density causing the lantern to rise into the air. The Sky Lantern is only airborne for as long as the flame stays alight, after which the lantern floats back to the ground. They can achieve quite a height and launching them in strong winds is not recommended."


















{ image from wikipedia }

And of course, for a mere 195 british pounds (yikes!), skylanterns.com has a wedding package for an assortment of lanterns. Their front page has a bride and groom holding dove-shaped lanterns...kinda made me gag a bit.

Either way, I think it's beautiful and if there could be some biodegradable version of these that didn't cost a fortune it would be such a memorable send-off! That's if you don't live in the state of California or anywhere else where there is a threat of wildfires...