Incorporating Birds Into Weddings

Birds have a lot of symbolism that can be very appropriate for a wedding. If you have ever been called a pair of "lovebirds", you see why birds can be fun to use as part of a wedding celebration. Of course, not all ideas are as good in reality as on paper - working with live animals is always unpredictable - but for those who love their feathered friends, these are some ways to incorporate birds into a wedding.

Perhaps the best known use of live birds in a wedding is the release of doves at the conclusion of an outdoor marriage ceremony. A pair of pure white doves has many beautiful meanings, including love, peace, faith, and hope for the future. For the newlyweds, that is. For the doves themselves, being released into unfamiliar territory can result in an untimely death, so think long and hard about a dove release. At one wedding, the guests watched the pair of birds ascend into flight, only to have the first one be snatched from the sky by a hawk and the second one smashed into a cliff by a sudden gust of wind. By the way, the "doves" are not always real doves. Some companies offer specially trained pure white homing pigeons, who at least have the advantage of being able to find their way back to a safe haven (barring a hawk, of course).

If you are a fan of the show "Cake Boss", you may be familiar with this next way that birds can be used in a wedding. Baker Buddy was commissioned to create a wedding cake with a dove on it in honor of the cake the groom's parents had had for their wedding. It turns out that from the 1960s - 1980s, wedding cakes with a pair of live doves in them were very popular for traditional Italian-American weddings (dove releases have long been an Italian wedding custom). So Buddy built a special clear box to serve as the pedestal for a traditional tiered wedding cake adorned with flowers, grapes, and ivy. At the last minute, a pair of doves was placed into the box, and the bride and groom released them as part of the cake cutting ceremony (although in this case, the birds had to be coaxed out of the box). If you are the sort of bride who loves everything traditional, from mother's bridal jewelry to her wedding cake, find out if she had a dove cake. Of course, if live birds are not welcome at your reception venue, you could always opt for a porcelain pair of white doves as your cake topper.

In some cultures, peacocks are considered to be symbols of protection and good luck. Without a doubt, their showy multi-colored feathers are absolutely stunning. If you like the idea of an over-the-top Bollywood-inspired wedding, what about a couple of live peacocks strolling around on the lawn at your wedding reception? They would surely make a grand and regal statement! It is best to find a hotel or other venue which already has its own peacocks in residence, as if the birds are rented and taken to an unfamiliar location, they will have to be kept in an enclosure. If the live birds are not available in your area, you can always have fun creating dramatic centerpieces and bouquets featuring the colorful feathers. Complete the effect with an opulent wedding gown worn with regal bridal jewelry fit for a princess.

These are but a few of the ways to use birds in your wedding. You might also consider a pretty pair of parrots in a large fancy cage to dress up a tropical theme reception or a charming pair of lovebirds in a gold cage in front of the newlyweds' sweetheart table. Of course, you can always have a bird themed wedding without using any live critters; think bird motifs on your stationery, a tiny nest for the ring pillow, and other cute ways to show that you and your fiance are truly "birds of a feather".

Making Your Own Jewelry - Materials I Use and Starting Your First Necklace

In this article I want to talk about the materials that I use, and getting started on our first necklace. What I like to do is use natural materials most of all--gem stones, seashells, maybe seeds, and stick with the metal such as sterling silver, gold filled, 14 carat gold metals in the beads. What I do is I buy mostly ones that are pre-drilled, because I'm not doing drilling here, although you can buy a piece that is not drilled and wire wrap it. We'll talk about that later. There are so many kinds of things that you can buy.

You can actually get spatial beads that are long tubed, swirly beads, straight beads and there's all kinds of things you can do-- donut shaped round beads, gold filled, sterling silver. I like to use the natural products because I also am aware that the gemstones in particular have, some people feel, their healing properties. That, to me, is what calls me to this work.

Getting started on our first necklace I thought we'd work with some very small light beads, so we are going to choose a fine wire, so that the beads can actually be thread on there without a problem. I measure it by, a lot of times, just holding it up to my neck and seeing where it falls, and then I just start stringing. Sometimes I string different arrangements on the same string of wire, just to see what section of it is looking better and it look like it works.

The ones that don't work I take those off and I kind of expand from there. You can take a larger piece and hang it from another piece of necklace. When you're hanging a bigger piece onto a necklace, you want to be able to figure out where it's going to go first before you actually make your bend, and you are going to want to use these round nose pliers to make a bend once I know that.

That's because the size of your circle that you use will depend on which size of the bead that you're going to put it next to. Once you have the necklace the way you want it to be and you're sure that you've counted your beads and that they're all even on both sides, you can go ahead and put on your clasp you start with putting a crimp bead on your wire, and then I'm going to use a trigger clasp and you'll want to thread that back around into the crimp bead, bring it up so that it's tight but not too tight. Then you use the crimping pliers. You'll squeeze this crimp bead, and it makes a crimp right in half, right in the middle, and you turn, and so one part of it is used to do that, and then at the end, it squeezes both halves together.

Give it a tug and make sure that it's holding, and trim the excess. So now you have your trigger clasp on the end of the wire. So on the other side, I like to add a length of chain, and what that will do is make it adjustable. So usually you cut off two or three inches, depending on the length of the rest of the necklace, and what we'll do again is put on the crimp bead, crimping the bead in half and then using the other end in the front to fold it. Now you can change the length of this necklace.

Piercing Jewelry Throughout History

Many consumers don't realize it, but body jewelry is nothing new, it has been around for generations. Many people associate piercing and piercing jewelry with current fashion trends because it has become widely accepted among people of all ages and walks of life. It's true that body jewelry is very common right now, but it is something that has been seen throughout time in many different cultures around the world.

In fact, it is believed that piercing jewelry dates back more than 2,000 years! Body piercing jewelry was even mentioned in the Bible because there were tribes who made jewelry out of wood and bone and even stone. The history of this jewelry dates back quite a ways in Egypt where royal family members were known to pierce their bodies.

It's true for a great many that piercing jewelry is simply a fashion statement today, but in the past it was done for cultural reasons that are often overlooked today. For instance, Roman warriors had piercings and wore jewelry as a sign of strength and in other cultures this jewelry is a sign of beauty and even fertility. Each culture has its own reason for the piercing and wearing of piercing jewelry, even if it is often overlooked today.

Piercing jewelry was embraced by some societies in the past while it was condemned in others. There were even some areas where belly rings and nose rings and the like were illegal to wear or possess. This jewelry was banned but it didn't stay that way for all that long before people began wearing it again to make a fashion statement, to do something different with their body, or even just achieve a certain social status. Luckily, times have changed and body piercing has become much more widely accepted.

It's true that people all over the world are piercing their bodies and wearing beautiful jewelry, luckily there is tolerance in most areas. In most cultures today this is done as a fashion statement, to express oneself, or even for the intensified sexual experience. Body piercing and the wearing of piercing jewelry is more common than ever and comes in materials ranging from gold, to sterling silver jewelry, to bone, wood, acrylic, stone, and more allowing for their to truly be something for everyone.