If you ask Ben's 3 year old nephew what he remembers from our wedding day he'll say 'the balloon flew away'. I loved our heart balloon release, I think it's one of my favourite memories from the day, getting all of our guests together for something a bit different.

I have to thank Ben's friend Vicky for the idea. I'm obsessed with red hearts and all of our stationery had red hearts on brown paper so it tied in well with our general theme. I also love the photos that it's produced especially having all of our favourite people grouped together and the venue in the background. 

I ordered these balloons from eBay, 12 inch latex hearts that were helium quality and then I found a local balloon lady who came and blew them up for us, the balloons and the lady with the helium cost us less than £50! You need to let your venue know in advance if you're planning something like a balloon release and you'll need to double check if you're near an airfield. The balloonist used biodegradable brown raffia string on the balloons so that it wouldn't cause any harm to the environment and the latex balloons degrade too. 

The balloons were blown up in the morning and then stored in a cool room until needed, helium can deflate if it gets too hot. My brother and the best men bought out the balloons just before we went to eat so we could gather everyone together in a big group. The boys handed out the balloons to our guests and we posed for some photos before the big countdown.

Binky, our photographer grouped us all together and stood up on a chair to get everyone in.

We were waiting for the countdown but suddenly Daniel {Ben's 3 year old nephew} let go of his by accident! 

I love his face when he realises that it's flown away! 

Luckily we had a few spares and we got him another one for the big release. Take two!

We all stood and watched them float higher and higher into the sky. In hindsight I wish we'd put labels on them with details for people letting us know where they ended up. 

Binky, our photographer told us to keep a balloon back for a photo prop later on. I'm really pleased we did, I love the red heart in the photos below. 

What do you think? Would you do something a bit different at your wedding day? I think it makes for great memories and photos.

You can also see the heart balloon release in our wedding video {from minute 16.12 of the feature}

R <3 xx