After spending over a decade working within the drone business (together with reviewing skilled drone reveals and even judging the SPH Engineering drone mild present contest) I assumed I understood what made an awesome aerial show. Then I needed to design one for my very own marriage ceremony.
This 12 months, I realized that designing marriage ceremony drone present animations is essentially completely different from designing for theme parks, concert events or company occasions. Weddings aren’t about spectacle for spectacle’s sake. They’re about storytelling.
For individuals who haven’t heard, I bought married on September 20, 2025 to Hamilton Nguyen. Sure, we had a marriage drone present sendoff, coordinated by the superb group over at Los Angeles-based Electrical Sky Drone Reveals with assist from UVify.
Right here’s every part I realized about creating animations that really imply one thing.
Begin with story, not visuals
When Ali Amini, the co-creator of Electrical Sky Drone Reveals, first requested what animations I wished, I needed to ask myself extra than simply “What would look cool within the sky?” With marriage ceremony drone present animations, the correct query is: “What story will we need to inform?”
Ali was deliberately open-ended at first. He didn’t include a template or guidelines. He simply requested about our relationship: How did we meet? What will we love doing collectively? What are our shared passions? What was the proposal like? From there, he requested me to return again to him with some animations I wished.
I truly used ChatGPT to assist brainstorm preliminary ideas as a result of I used to be overwhelmed by the clean canvas. It didn’t even give unhealthy concepts. For instance, I instructed a espresso cup and a bagel to represent how we met on the app Espresso Meets Bagel, and AI instructed projecting each concurrently, then letting them morph right into a coronary heart (that animation truly made the ultimate minimize in our drone present).
Your love story is already authentic
The refreshing factor about designing a marriage drone present? You don’t have to be wildly artistic.
Merely telling the story of your relationship — the way you met, what you get pleasure from doing collectively, how the proposal occurred — is inherently authentic as a result of it’s yours.
Nobody else met on Espresso Meets Bagel and bought engaged at Neuschwanstein Fort whereas each being aggressive weightlifters. (That’s our particular, bizarre, fantastic story.)
Your story is completely different. That’s the entire level.
For marriage ceremony drone reveals, you may permit your narrative arc to comply with a pure construction like this:
- The way you met (that was our espresso cup + bagel)
- What you’re keen on doing collectively (our weightlifter animation, a curler coaster, a movie digital camera, a seaside)
- The proposal second (our Neuschwanstein Fort)
- Your dedication (rings, initials or full names, marriage ceremony date)
Now fill in these 4 strains with your personal story (and be happy so as to add extra, like a number of examples of belongings you love doing collectively). Most marriage ceremony drone reveals may have 8-12 animations, so you may include a number of.
The truth is, I had a number of extra concepts of animations (largely to represent different enjoyable journeys we’ve taken collectively, like an Eiffel Tower for Paris or a camel for the time we rode by the Moroccan desert). Sadly these didn’t make the ultimate minimize, as we did have a time and animation restrict.
We did get artistic with our marriage ceremony drone present intro. We had a travel-themed marriage ceremony (as we each like to journey). The invites have been boarding passes, and the seat assignments have been designed as a gate arrivals board. We had a sugar airplane mounted to our cake, and we even let our visitors vote on our honeymoon vacation spot through a map with pushpins.
So when it got here to our drone present, we did open with a literal drone projected within the sky (sure, I’m The Drone Lady!) however our second animation was a globe. From there, an illuminated pushpin “dropped” on the globe in San Francisco, the place we stay at this time (sure, it’s our favourite metropolis on the planet).
Use basic marriage ceremony imagery sparingly, however lean on particular animations
We included marriage ceremony rings, clinking champagne glasses and our names in a coronary heart. These are basic for a motive — they work.
But when your complete present is hearts, rings, flowers, doves and “Simply Married” textual content, you’re losing the medium. These basic marriage ceremony symbols must be accent items, not the principle course.
It was the weightlifter animation that bought the loudest response of our complete present. Why? As a result of half our visitors have been aggressive weightlifters.
They howled when that animation appeared. They have been filming, cheering, shedding their minds. It was an inside reference that half the viewers deeply understood and the opposite half discovered delightfully bizarre.
With the rings, individuals appreciated them, however they didn’t howl at them. The lesson? Don’t intention for common attraction. Goal for private resonance.
Listed here are some concepts that come to thoughts of hyper-specific animations that would give you the results you want:
- Your pet
- A meal you cooked in your first date
- Hobbies you do collectively
- An emblem of the vacation spot you’re headed to on your honeymoon
Voiceover modifications every part
Tannaz Amini (the sister half of Electrical Sky’s management) pushed onerous for voiceover narration. I hesitated. Our DJ was arrange inside. Including out of doors audio felt sophisticated. Did we actually want it?
Having executed it, I concur: Sure. Completely sure.
Voiceover remodeled our present from “cool visuals” to “emotional storytelling.”
With out voiceover, visitors see a citadel and suppose, “Good, a citadel.”
With voiceover, visitors study our proposal story. It provides context, emotion, and which means to each animation. It turned summary shapes into chapters of our story.
Hamilton and I recorded it at residence in his closet (they are saying audio high quality is best in closets!). It didn’t have to be professionally produced — authenticity mattered greater than polish.
The design course of: what to anticipate together with your marriage ceremony drone present
We had about six planning calls with Ali over the course of a month. Our timeline was tight as a result of we threw collectively our marriage ceremony drone present pretty last-minute (although I like to recommend giving your self various months in case you can).
Right here’s a tough define of how the planning calls round our marriage ceremony drone present animations broke down:
Assembly 1: Preliminary brainstorming
Ali requested about our story. I rambled about Espresso Meets Bagel, weightlifting, the proposal, our travels. He took notes.
Assembly 2: Venue evaluation
Ali wanted to scout our venue (remotely, through Google Maps and our pictures) to grasp launch web site constraints, viewing angles and max drone capability. Sadly, our venue couldn’t accommodate limitless drones. We have been capped at 200 because of area limitations.
Conferences 3-4: Animation growth
Ali went again to his animation group with our concepts. They got here again with tough ideas. We refined, added particulars, minimize issues that weren’t working. This was iterative.
Assembly 5: Voiceover planning
Tannaz joined this one and satisfied us so as to add narration. We mentioned the order of animations and find out how to construction the script to match the visuals.
Assembly 6: Closing assessment
We watched the animated preview with our audio synced, and made tiny tweaks, which concerned re-syncying the audio to match the brand new timing.
Necessary be aware: Ali and Tannaz from Electrical Sky Drone Reveals have been tremendous versatile. We may have executed extra or fewer conferences relying on how detail-oriented we have been. Some {couples} may nail it in three calls. Others may want ten. The secret’s discovering an organization (and a degree particular person) who’s prepared to collaborate iteratively reasonably than simply handing you a template.
Wish to see the completed product? You may, right here:
Technical issues that have an effect on marriage ceremony drone present animations
Just a few sensible constraints to remember about your marriage ceremony drone present animations:
Drone rely limits your complexity Extra intricate animations require extra drones. We had 200, which gave us first rate flexibility however wasn’t limitless. The truth is, we had a coronary heart time spelling out “Sally & Hamilton” in a coronary heart. His identify grew to become simply Ham (which to be honest, is an actual nickname for him).
In case you have 50 drones, you’ll want even less complicated shapes and will not be capable of spell your names. In case you have 1,000 drones, you are able to do extremely detailed work (and I envy you).
Venue area determines your canvas The bodily space obtainable for the drone grid impacts how giant your animations might be and the way a lot buffer area you want. Our venue constraints meant we couldn’t go larger than 200 drones even when we’d wished to.
Textual content must be legible In case you’re together with phrases (names, dates, quotes), maintain them brief and use clear fonts. Cursive is dangerous. All caps is often safer.
Let your marriage ceremony drone present animations inform your story
The most effective marriage ceremony drone present animations aren’t probably the most technically spectacular or visually gorgeous (although these issues are good, however depart these to drone reveals gunning for awards).
The most effective marriage ceremony drone present animations are those that make your visitors say, “That’s SO them.”
Your drone present ought to really feel like a love letter written in mild. Generic hearts within the sky are superb. However a weightlifter doing a snatch? That’s unforgettable.
Planning your personal marriage ceremony drone present and wish animation recommendation? Join with me on Intro! I’m joyful to speak by your story and assist you determine which moments should be displayed within the sky.
By the best way, The New York Occasions featured my marriage ceremony drone present of their Vows part! Learn their piece right here.
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