After spending over a decade working within the drone trade (together with reviewing skilled drone exhibits and even judging the SPH Engineering drone mild present contest) I assumed I understood what made an important aerial show. Then I needed to design one for my very own marriage ceremony.
This 12 months, I discovered that designing marriage ceremony drone present animations is essentially totally different from designing for theme parks, live shows or company occasions. Weddings aren’t about spectacle for spectacle’s sake. They’re about storytelling.
For many who haven’t heard, I obtained married on September 20, 2025 to Hamilton Nguyen. Sure, we had a marriage drone present sendoff, coordinated by the wonderful crew over at Los Angeles-based Electrical Sky Drone Exhibits with assist from UVify.
Right here’s the whole lot I discovered about creating animations that truly imply one thing.
Begin with story, not visuals
When Ali Amini, the co-creator of Electrical Sky Drone Exhibits, 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 appropriate query is: “What story can 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 can 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 dangerous concepts. For instance, I urged a espresso cup and a bagel to represent how we met on the app Espresso Meets Bagel, and AI urged projecting each concurrently, then letting them morph right into a coronary heart (that animation truly made the ultimate lower in our drone present).
Your love story is already unique
The refreshing factor about designing a marriage drone present? You don’t must 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 unique as a result of it’s yours.
Nobody else met on Espresso Meets Bagel and obtained engaged at Neuschwanstein Fortress whereas each being aggressive weightlifters. (That’s our particular, bizarre, fantastic story.)
Your story is totally different. That’s the entire level.
For marriage ceremony drone exhibits, you would possibly enable your narrative arc to comply with a pure construction like this:
- The way you met (that was our espresso cup + bagel)
- What you like doing collectively (our weightlifter animation, a curler coaster, a movie digicam, a seaside)
- The proposal second (our Neuschwanstein Fortress)
- Your dedication (rings, initials or full names, marriage ceremony date)
Now fill in these 4 strains with your individual story (and be happy so as to add extra, like a number of examples of belongings you love doing collectively). Most marriage ceremony drone exhibits may have 8-12 animations, so you’ll be able to include a number of.
In actual fact, I had just a few extra concepts of animations (principally to represent different enjoyable journeys we’ve taken collectively, like an Eiffel Tower for Paris or a camel for the time we rode via the Moroccan desert). Sadly these didn’t make the ultimate lower, 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 company vote on our honeymoon vacation spot by way of 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 as we speak (sure, it’s our favourite metropolis on the earth).
Use traditional 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 traditional for a motive — they work.
But when your whole present is hearts, rings, flowers, doves and “Simply Married” textual content, you’re losing the medium. These traditional marriage ceremony symbols must be accent items, not the principle course.
It was the weightlifter animation that obtained the loudest response of our whole present. Why? As a result of half our company 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, folks appreciated them, however they didn’t howl at them. The lesson? Don’t purpose for common enchantment. Intention for private resonance.
Listed here are some concepts that come to thoughts of hyper-specific animations that might be just right for you:
- Your pet
- A meal you cooked in your first date
- Hobbies you do collectively
- A logo of the vacation spot you’re headed to in your honeymoon
Voiceover adjustments the whole lot
Tannaz Amini (the sister half of Electrical Sky’s management) pushed arduous for voiceover narration. I hesitated. Our DJ was arrange inside. Including outside audio felt difficult. Did we actually want it?
Having finished it, I concur: Sure. Completely sure.
Voiceover remodeled our present from “cool visuals” to “emotional storytelling.”
With out voiceover, company see a citadel and suppose, “Good, a citadel.”
With voiceover, company be taught 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 dwelling in his closet (they are saying audio high quality is best in closets!). It didn’t must be professionally produced — authenticity mattered greater than polish.
The design course of: what to anticipate along 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, by way of Google Maps and our pictures) to grasp launch website constraints, viewing angles and max drone capability. Sadly, our venue couldn’t accommodate limitless drones. We have been capped at 200 attributable to house limitations.
Conferences 3-4: Animation improvement
Ali went again to his animation crew with our concepts. They got here again with tough ideas. We refined, added particulars, lower 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 learn how to construction the script to match the visuals.
Assembly 6: Closing overview
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.
Essential be aware: Ali and Tannaz from Electrical Sky Drone Exhibits have been tremendous versatile. We may have finished extra or fewer conferences relying on how detail-oriented we have been. Some {couples} would possibly nail it in three calls. Others would possibly want ten. The bottom line is discovering an organization (and some extent particular person) who’s keen to collaborate iteratively somewhat than simply handing you a template.
Wish to see the completed product? You possibly can, right here:
Technical issues that have an effect on marriage ceremony drone present animations
A number of sensible constraints to bear in mind about your marriage ceremony drone present animations:
Drone depend limits your complexity Extra intricate animations require extra drones. We had 200, which gave us respectable flexibility however wasn’t limitless. In actual fact, we had a coronary heart time spelling out “Sally & Hamilton” in a coronary heart. His title turned simply Ham (which to be truthful, is an actual nickname for him).
If in case you have 50 drones, you’ll want even easier shapes and will not be capable to spell your names. If in case you have 1,000 drones, you are able to do extremely detailed work (and I envy you).
Venue house determines your canvas The bodily space obtainable for the drone grid impacts how massive your animations could be and the way a lot buffer house 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 When 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
One of the best marriage ceremony drone present animations aren’t essentially the most technically spectacular or visually gorgeous (although these issues are good, however go away these to drone exhibits gunning for awards).
One of the best marriage ceremony drone present animations are those that make your company 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 high quality. However a weightlifter doing a snatch? That’s unforgettable.
Planning your individual marriage ceremony drone present and wish animation recommendation? Join with me on Intro! I’m blissful to speak via your story and assist you determine which moments need to 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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