After spending over a decade working within the drone trade (together with reviewing skilled drone reveals and even judging the SPH Engineering drone mild present contest) I assumed I understood what made an ideal 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 basically completely 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 received 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 help from UVify.
Right here’s the whole lot I realized about creating animations that truly imply one thing.
Begin with story, not visuals
When Ali Amini, the co-creator of Electrical Sky Drone Reveals, first requested what animations I needed, I needed to ask myself extra than simply “What would look cool within the sky?” With marriage ceremony drone present animations, the best query is: “What story can we wish 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 come back again to him with some animations I needed.
I really 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 recommended a espresso cup and a bagel to represent how we met on the app Espresso Meets Bagel, and AI recommended projecting each concurrently, then letting them morph right into a coronary heart (that animation really made the ultimate reduce in our drone present).
Your love story is already unique
The refreshing factor about designing a marriage drone present? You don’t should be wildly artistic.
Merely telling the story of your relationship — the way you met, what you take pleasure in doing collectively, how the proposal occurred — is inherently unique as a result of it’s yours.
Nobody else met on Espresso Meets Bagel and received engaged at Neuschwanstein Fortress 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 enable 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 Fortress)
- Your dedication (rings, initials or full names, marriage ceremony date)
Now fill in these 4 traces with your individual story (and be at liberty 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’ll be able to include a number of.
In truth, I had a number of 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 by means of the Moroccan desert). Sadly these didn’t make the ultimate reduce, 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 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 dwell as we speak (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 cause — they work.
But when your total 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 received the loudest response of our total present. Why? As a result of half our visitors have been aggressive weightlifters.
They howled when that animation appeared. They have been filming, cheering, dropping 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 goal for common attraction. Goal for private resonance.
Listed below 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 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 out of doors audio felt sophisticated. Did we actually want it?
Having executed it, I concur: Sure. Completely sure.
Voiceover reworked our present from “cool visuals” to “emotional storytelling.”
With out voiceover, visitors see a fortress and assume, “Good, a fortress.”
With voiceover, visitors study our proposal story. It provides context, emotion, and that 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 should 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 quite a lot of months should 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 know launch website constraints, viewing angles and max drone capability. Sadly, our venue couldn’t accommodate limitless drones. We have been capped at 200 as a result 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, reduce 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 the right way to construction the script to match the visuals.
Assembly 6: Ultimate evaluation
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 word: 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 hot button is discovering an organization (and a degree individual) who’s keen to collaborate iteratively relatively than simply handing you a template.
Wish to see the completed product? You possibly can, right here:
Technical concerns 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 truth, we had a coronary heart time spelling out “Sally & Hamilton” in a coronary heart. His identify turned simply Ham (which to be truthful, is an actual nickname for him).
If in case you have 50 drones, you’ll want even less complicated shapes and will not be capable of spell your names. If 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 accessible for the drone grid impacts how massive your animations might be and the way a lot buffer area you want. Our venue constraints meant we couldn’t go greater than 200 drones even when we’d needed to.
Textual content must be legible If you happen to’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 perfect marriage ceremony drone present animations aren’t probably the most technically spectacular or visually beautiful (although these issues are good, however go away these to drone reveals gunning for awards).
The perfect 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 nice. 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 glad to speak by means of your story and assist you determine which moments need to be displayed within the sky.
By the best way, The New York Instances featured my marriage ceremony drone present of their Vows part! Learn their piece right here.
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