When my husband and I were planning our wedding, we eventually had to decide what our guests would use as a send-off when we exited the church after the ceremony. Everyone knows that the traditional tossing of rice is no longer environmentally friendly, so we had to consider alternatives. At first, everything we thought of had some problem. Birdseed brings too many birds around, rose petals could stain the walkway, and I’d seen enough bubble showers to last me a lifetime. I wanted something fun and different. Something I’d never seen before. Finally I came up with the perfect idea for us — ribbons and bells on little sticks that the guests could wave overhead.

I started with some 1/4″ square dowels that I purchased at the hardware store. I cut them into 6″ lengths and drilled a tiny hole through the end of each one. I chose square dowels rather than round because it’s a lot easier to drill into a flat surface than a round one! I then spray-painted all the sticks with silver metallic paint (our wedding colors were silver and lavender).

The next step was to cut a bunch of 3-foot lengths of ribbon. I chose a very thin ribbon, and used two pieces of ribbon for each stick. Depending on your budget, you could also use personalized ribbon printed with the bride and groom’s names. I also bought a bunch of tiny 1/2″ jingle bells. With everything gathered together (Fig 1), it was time to begin assembly.

For each stick, I took two pieces of ribbon and fed them through the hole I had drilled. Because I had drilled the holes pretty small and was using a soft satin ribbon, I had to thread the ribbon onto a large needle to get it through the hole. I pulled the ribbons through halfway and then threaded a bell onto one end. I slid the bell down to the stick and then tied all four ends of ribbon together tightly in a double knot (Fig 2).

The end result was a pile of cute little ribbon sticks that were ready for our guests (Fig 3). When they waved the sticks in their hands (Fig 4) the bells created a lovely sound and the ribbons created a beautiful flourish overhead as my husband and I exited the church (Fig 5).

These sticks could serve double duty at the reception, as well. Many couples like to have little “kissing bells” at their tables for guests to ring, signaling that it’s time for the bride and groom to kiss. These little bells will do just the trick!