WHite Doves at Weddings - Bringing Back an Age Old Tradition
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For thousands of years, white doves have been a traditionalYour wedding day is without a doubt one of the happiest and stressful days of you life. The happy part comes naturally but how can you cut down .....
symbol in wedding ceremonies.
To the ancient Egyptians, the dove represented quiet innocence.
The Chinese saw the dove as a symbol of peace and long life. To
early Greeks and Romans, doves symbolised love, devotion, and
caring.
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The dove was the sacred animal of Aphrodite and Venus, the
goddesses of love.
In these ancient cultures, the groom would give a dove to the
bride, symbolising his promise to help care for her and for the
family.
These days, Doves are regularly released at weddings as a
blessing for the bride and groom. Doves pair up for life, so
they are a true representation of love and the eternal
commitment that a couple have made.
This tradition has become hugely popular at weddings in the
United States, Canada and the UK in recent years. It is also
quickly gaining popularity in Australia. There are many bird
fanciers that have put their expertise to providing doves for
release at events in their local area.
It is easy to have a spectacular white dove release at your own
wedding that is just as enchanting as it would have been for
people that participated in the weddings of ancient times
(probably much more!).
WHite dove releasing is an art-form. There is much more to it
than meets the eye. In order to explain this, I am going to
reveal a secret to you. (SHHH! Don't tell anyone!)
The White Doves that go to weddings are actually white racing
pigeons. Doves and Pigeons are a bit like cousins in the animal
world. They are not exactly the same, but they are very similar.
Only a bird expert would be able to spot the difference at a
wedding.
It is important that only pigeons are released at weddings. The
reason for this is that the pigeons have a homing instinct, the
ability to fly back to their home after they are released.
Whereas real doves would just fly up into a tree. You can't get
them back so they'd have to fend for themselves. How very cruel!
That is where the "art-form" I was talking about comes into it.
Professional Dove Releasers start by selectively breeding the
most beautiful white pigeons, with the pigeons that have the
stongest homing instinct. This happens long before they attend
your wedding, taking everyone's breath away. There is a lot of
effort involved to get the birds with just the right mix of
beauty and brains! These birds then go through an intense
training period for the first year of their life -just like
athletes preparing for the olympics. After this we are confident
that they will be able to fly home from anywhere within a 80km
radius. In my case, birds from the Heavenly Doves loft must be
able to fly home from anywhere in Sydney. (Racing pigeons can
fly back to their home loft from hundreds or thousands of kms
away). Using racing pigeons is the only humane way to release
"doves" because the birds will always go home to be well cared
for with plenty of food, water and security after the ceremony
is over.
We also choose the birds with a good nature and get them used
to being handled by people (especially nervous newlyweds)so that
you can be confident that the doves will be relaxed at your
ceremony - No pecking Birds!
The other aspect of the "art-form" is the way that the doves are
presented and released at your wedding. It is essential to have
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an experienced dove release attendant at the wedding. FirstlyCongratulations! You have found the man of your dreams and are getting married. What a wonderful time in .....
because we have a whole assortment of ornamental cages and
baskets that you can choose to have your doves displayed in,
plus you have the choice of releasing the doves from your hands
or directly from their cage or basket. Secondly, an important
part of a good dove release is the placement of the doves and
the timing. By this I mean performing the dove release at the
best location and during the part of the ceremony that makes it
a memorable experience for the bride, groom and guests. We make
it a high priority to ensure good photos and video footage too.
Professional Dove releasers have to go to many weddings to learn
good placement and timing.
You may have seen an email going around recently. It is a
picture of a pair of newlyweds releasing their doves by hand.
The groom is in a pin-striped coat and the bride is wearing a
strapless white satin dress. The couple are enthusiastically
tossing their doves into the air. But it's not only the doves
that find their freedom. The brides breasts managed to escape
from her dress when she threw her dove into the air. Their
photographer managed to capture the event perfectly! I am
telling you this story because it is another reason to hire
professional dove releasers.
I know it feels great to hurl the doves into the air at the end
of your wedding ceremony. But we have always recommended to our
clients that you only have to open your hands to let the doves
free (even if the bride is wearing a cast-iron bra and a dress
with straps of steel so there is no danger of exposing herself).
The reasons we tell people NOT to throw the doves are, firstly,
the doves need no encouragement to fly away. They love to fly
and can't wait to get out of your hands. But more importantly,
when you see the photos of the dove release in months to come,
you will probably think that you look ridiculous with your hands
up in the air doing the "hallelujah" pose. These are all the
aspects that professional dove releasers consider when taking
doves to your wedding. Another thing, if you are considering
incorporating a white dove release into your ceremony, don't (I
repeat DON'T) let one of the groom's know-it-all mates organise
it for you! These are the kinds of blokes who would try to get
the best deal with everything by taking short-cuts ....do you
know anyone like that? The problem is that they know nothing at
all about birds. I occasionally get calls from guys like this
who want to "buy some birds on the cheep" (pun intended). I
always tell them that we never let our birds go to an event
without a dove release attendant. If these guys ever do manage
to get hold of some cheap white birds, I certainly wouldn't want
to go anywhere near them - you never know what sort of diseases
they might have. Plus, you would be lucky if they don't go splat
on the ground when they are released because they don't have the
fitness to fly very far. Professional Dove Releasers always have
clean, healthy, fit birds. They are bathed regularly and because
we know a sick bird when we see one, we are always checking our
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professional white dove releaser, it's the only guarantee that
the doves at your ceremony will be perfect.
White Dove releasing is a gorgeous and elegant expression of
peace and love. So follow in the footsteps of brides and grooms
from ancient times and experience it for yourself.
Contact your local professional white dove provider or visit our
website http://www.heavenlywhitedoves.net and go to the dove
links page to find someone in your area.
About the author:
Owner of Heavenly Doves, Sydney, Australia. Publisher of
"Putting the Art in Your Party" a free monthly ezine bringing
you zillions of ideas to plan a special event with a difference.