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White Doves At Weddings - Bringing Back An Age Old Tradition
By Tamara Baker, Sat Dec 10th
For thousands of years, white doves have been a traditionalsymbol 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. Toearly Greeks and Romans, doves symbolised love, devotion, andcaring. The dove was the sacred animal of Aphrodite and Venus, thegoddesses of love.
In these ancient cultures, the groom would give a dove to thebride, symbolising his promise to help care for her and for thefamily. These days, Doves are regularly released at weddings as ablessing for the bride and groom. Doves pair up for life, sothey are a true representation of love and the eternalcommitment that a couple have made. This tradition has become hugely popular at weddings in theUnited States, Canada and the UK in recent years. It is alsoquickly gaining popularity in Australia. There are many birdfanciers that have put their expertise to providing doves forrelease at events in their local area. It is easy to have a spectacular white dove release at your ownwedding that is just as enchanting as it would have been forpeople that participated in the weddings of ancient times(probably much more!). WHite dove releasing is an art-form. There is much more to itthan meets the eye. In order to explain this, I am going toreveal a secret to you. (SHHH! Don't tell anyone!) The White Doves that go to weddings are actually white racingpigeons. Doves and Pigeons are a bit like cousins in the animalworld. They are not exactly the same, but they are very similar.Only a bird expert would be able to spot the difference at awedding. It is important that only pigeons are released at weddings. Thereason for this is that the pigeons have a homing instinct, theability to fly back to their home after they are released.Whereas real doves would just fly up into a tree. You can't getthem 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 themost beautiful white pigeons, with the pigeons that have thestongest homing instinct. This happens long before they attendyour wedding, taking everyone's breath away. There is a lot ofeffort involved to get the birds with just the right mix ofbeauty and brains! These birds then go through an intensetraining period for the first year of their life -just likeathletes preparing for the olympics. After this we are confidentthat they will be able to fly home from anywhere within a 80kmradius. In my case, birds from the Heavenly Doves loft must beable to fly home from anywhere in Sydney. (Racing pigeons canfly back to their home loft from hundreds or thousands of kmsaway). Using racing pigeons is the only humane way to release"doves" because the birds will always go home to be well caredfor with plenty of food, water and security after the ceremonyis over. We also choose the birds with a good nature and get them usedto being handled by people (especially nervous newlyweds)so thatyou can be confident that the doves will be relaxed at yourceremony - No pecking Birds! The other aspect of the "art-form" is the way that the doves arepresented and released at your wedding. It is essential to havean experienced dove release attendant at the wedding. Firstlybecause we have a whole assortment of ornamental cages andbaskets that you can choose to have your doves displayed
in,plus you have the choice of releasing the doves from your handsor directly from their cage or basket. Secondly, an importantpart of a good dove release is the placement of the doves andthe timing. By this I mean performing the dove release at thebest location and during the part of the ceremony that makes ita memorable experience for the bride, groom and guests. We makeit a high priority to ensure good photos and video footage too.Professional Dove releasers have to go to many weddings to learngood placement and timing. You may have seen an email going around recently. It is apicture of a pair of newlyweds releasing their doves by hand.The groom is in a pin-striped coat and the bride is wearing astrapless white satin dress. The couple are enthusiasticallytossing their doves into the air. But it's not only the dovesthat find their freedom. The brides breasts managed to escapefrom her dress when she threw her dove into the air. Theirphotographer managed to capture the event perfectly! I amtelling you this story because it is another reason to hireprofessional dove releasers. I know it feels great to hurl the doves into the air at the endof your wedding ceremony. But we have always recommended to ourclients that you only have to open your hands to let the dovesfree (even if the bride is wearing a cast-iron bra and a dresswith 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 flyand 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 handsup in the air doing the "hallelujah" pose. These are all theaspects that professional dove releasers consider when takingdoves to your wedding. Another thing, if you are consideringincorporating a white dove release into your ceremony, don't (Irepeat DON'T) let one of the groom's know-it-all mates organiseit for you! These are the kinds of blokes who would try to getthe best deal with everything by taking short-cuts ....do youknow anyone like that? The problem is that they know nothing atall about birds. I occasionally get calls from guys like thiswho want to "buy some birds on the cheep" (pun intended). Ialways tell them that we never let our birds go to an eventwithout a dove release attendant. If these guys ever do manageto get hold of some cheap white birds, I certainly wouldn't wantto go anywhere near them - you never know what sort of diseasesthey might have. Plus, you would be lucky if they don't go splaton the ground when they are released because they don't have thefitness to fly very far. Professional Dove Releasers always haveclean, healthy, fit birds. They are bathed regularly and becausewe know a sick bird when we see one, we are always checking ourpigeons for lice, worms and other bird diseases. By hiring aprofessional white dove releaser, it's the only guarantee thatthe doves at your ceremony will be perfect. White Dove releasing is a gorgeous and elegant expression ofpeace and love. So follow in the footsteps of brides and groomsfrom ancient times and experience it for yourself. Contact your local professional white dove provider or visit ourwebsite http://www.heavenlywhitedoves.net and go to the dovelinks 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 bringingyou zillions of ideas to plan a special event with a difference.
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