1001 Cranes

1001 Cranes

February 12th, 2008 @ 4:29 pm by Mrs. Donut
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Since the first knot we tied was in Japan during the cherry blossom festival, we’re incorporating some elements of that day into our celebration. I have to admit, my first vision was way overboard. While Mr. Donut and I enjoyed our time in Japan and think we have a really cool story to tell the grandkids, the way the planning was going really wasn’t very reflective of who we are as individuals or as a couple. We are keeping a few elements, though, one of them being 1,001 origami cranes.

According to Japanese lore, folding 1,000 origami cranes is truly a labor of love. (Ain’t that the truth.) Tradition holds that the bride who finishes this task before her wedding day will be rewarded with a good and happy marriage. (The groom folds the 1001th. One!?! What the - ?) The crane also mates for life and is said to live for one thousand years, ensuring the couple’s good fortune. The crane will also grant one wish.

For us, the crane is doubly special. My sophomore year in high school, our theater department did a one act play called 1,000 CRANES, which is the story of Sadako Sasaki. My very first memory of Mr. Donut is of him on the stage crew. ’Cause I keep EVERYTHING, I’m pretty sure that somewhere I still have a crane from that show.

I’m up to about 700. At first I wanted just muted pastels, like the ones above from Staci Tamaki, but I’m pretty picky and finding the right color paper was pretty difficult. Eventually I decided to revise my crane color scheme and just go with pastels. Life’s too short and this project is too time consuming already. It’s all about endurance at this point. All the charm faded long ago and now it’s stubborness keeping me going. That and the vision I have in my head of how awesome they’ll look.

Here’s a picture of about 500 of them all piled up on the bed.

These babies will be everywhere, but mostly they will be hanging up around the border of our dance floor. I’m also going to use them in the centerpieces and the altar and pew arrangements and anywhere else I can think to put them. Here’s some hanging inspiration…

{from Destination Wedding Style}

{from In Any Event, NYC}

So, dear readers where ever you maybe, do you have any fabulous ideas for my cranes?

Tags: decor, natchez |

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38 Responses to “1001 Cranes”

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Guest

Nadine

I’m planning on folding cranes too. One of the perks of marrying a woman is that with two brides, that should be half the folding. But what I really want to figure out is what the heck to do with all those cranes post-wedding. Ideas?

2/12/08 @ 4:33 pm (reply)

Guest

Sara

If you have a family crest, you can mount all the cranes on a board in the shape of you family crest and frame it. My aunt has made several over the years for people in our family.

2/12/08 @ 4:35 pm (reply)

Guest

Sarah

A friend of mine gave me five cranes, made out of pages of his origami-a-day calendar, with an IOU for 996. Because he cares.

2/12/08 @ 4:37 pm (reply)

Bee

Miss Petunia (message) 287 posts, Helper bee

Miss Donut: I’m not super clever, so sadly, I don’t have any fabulous ideas to share, but I just had to say that this is so darn beautiful — all of it! The lore, which I didn’t know about, so thank you for sharing; the fact that you are working so hard on these; how they tie in to the play and your memory of Mr.Donut; nevermind the fact that the cranes are just lovely in and of themselves — period. Bravo!

2/12/08 @ 4:39 pm (reply)

Member

Angel (message) 1,263 posts, Bumble bee

Maybe as seating cards or gifts for guests with an explanation as to why (for non-familiar wedding guests). Maybe you can inlude one in every thank you card you write, so guests have a piece of your wedding.

2/12/08 @ 4:42 pm (reply)

Member

Angel (message) 1,263 posts, Bumble bee

Ooooh, maybe you can have a “crane bearer” who has a basket of these babies and hand-delivers them to each guests (or maybe that could be something the bride and groom does as they visit everyone).

Or they could be the place cards (as opposed to seating cards) and have each person’s name on them.

Or you could display them after the wedding like this one did:
http://www.tansustyle.com/nonprodimages/origami-crane-wedding-1.jpg

OR (isn’t this fun?) it could be your guest book.

I’m not sure the customs surrounding these babies, so let me know if these are out of line.

2/12/08 @ 4:46 pm (reply)

Member

Angel (message) 1,263 posts, Bumble bee

Don’t forget this ring shot…

http://www.anntorrence.com/blog/at-images/rings_AT08906.jpg

Okay, I’m done.

2/12/08 @ 4:46 pm (reply)

Member

lins55 (message) 13 posts, Newbee

Put them on top of the napkins or on top of the plates at the tables. You could use them as your place cards, put a line of glue down the back of the neck and glue a place card to it….I wonder if it would stand though. Hum…

2/12/08 @ 4:47 pm (reply)

Member

mc2009 (message) 4 posts, Wannabee

how about something like this:

http://kenziekate.blogspot.com/2007/09/pricey-butterflies.html

2/12/08 @ 4:48 pm (reply)

10.

Member

tanya2s (message) 412 posts, Helper bee

Place cards, I think are the easiest option. Or favors. I folded 1000 cranes myself in silver and gold a few years back, but never ended up doing anything with most of them (mounted 200 or so in a shadowbox). I’m giving the remaining 350 or so silver ones to a friend of mine who’s getting married in September, for her wedding, so I’ll be interested to see what she does with them!

2/12/08 @ 4:48 pm (reply)

11.

Member

Angel (message) 1,263 posts, Bumble bee

One more.

If you still have a ton left over, you could try donating them to a hospital or care center…I bet they would be happy for the color and a chance to explain the tradition.

2/12/08 @ 4:53 pm (reply)

12.

Guest

ChicagoSarah

How beautiful! I’m really impressed with your dedication, er, stubbornness. I don’t have another suggestion for where to put them, except that it might be fun to have some in the bathrooms too, but I wanted to suggest that if you’re interested in carrying the crane theme into music, check out “The Crane Wife” by the Decemberists.

2/12/08 @ 4:58 pm (reply)

13.

Member

julieulie (message) 266 posts, Helper bee

Ugh, I feel your pain. I got stuck with the horridly dreadful task of crocheting all the yarmulkes for our wedding guests — so I have to make about 110 of them, and each takes about 4 hours to crochet. At the beginning I thought it would be a really nice touch; now, I loathe them. It really is stubbornness that is keeping me going as well. Good luck!

2/12/08 @ 4:59 pm (reply)

14.

Member

harugirlie (message) 58 posts, Worker bee

My Mom and I are folding 1001 cranes and she is then going to have a lady arrange all the cranes into either the love character or double happiness. I haven’t decided what I want yet. She then frames it. The frame is huge. My parents have the double happiness which they got on their 25th wedding anniversary. If you want I can email you a pix.

2/12/08 @ 5:07 pm (reply)

15.

Member

FutureMrsCodogg (message) 69 posts, Worker bee

In elementary school a friend of mine and I read Sadako and the thousand paper cranes we tried to make 1000 but only got to 500+

I agree with donating them- especially bc of the story- it might be fun to decorate a hospital wirth

2/12/08 @ 5:26 pm (reply)

16.

Guest

MrsPeterson

I folded 1000 cranes for my wedding. My husband is japanese and we tried to bring his culture into the reception. We used the cranes as placecards, tucked in the centerpieces, hanging from the ceiling (kinda like the picture in your post), and then just set around where ever with the extras. We had a lot of people take the ones that were just sitting around. The guests thought it was very cool to have. I took maybe like 100 of them for myself to use in various ways and the rest left over (maybe 500 or so) I gave to my mother-in-law to give to someone else she knows who is getting married and would like to use them.

I think it is such a good idea given your history with cranes!!!

2/12/08 @ 5:33 pm (reply)

17.

Member

reilabird (message) 207 posts, Helper bee

origami yay! i was originally going to use string cranes as garland for my wish tree, but now i might be using origami bluebells or origami roses. this would be cute (larger version of course) as napkin rings to tie in your crane theme. they are origami crane rings.

[img]http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1336/570376114_dccbb61357_m.jpg[/img]

2/12/08 @ 5:34 pm (reply)

18.

Member

Luxe (message) 102 posts, Blushing bee

Miss Donut, thanks for reminding me about the cranes. I thought we would do this at the begining of wedding planning but totally forgot as time flew by.

Harugirlie, please share with us the pic of the double happiness. Would love to see them.

2/12/08 @ 5:36 pm (reply)

19.

Guest

beanchar

If you’re doing a wish bowl, you could ask your guests to write their wishes on a crane.

I love Angel’s idea of including one with each thank you note.

And donating some to a childrens hospital is also a lovely thought.

Can’t wait to see pics of how you end up using them!

2/12/08 @ 5:45 pm (reply)

20.

Guest

Courtney

I’m also doing this for my October wedding, and I’m about 40% done. I’m not sure what I’ll do with them after our wedding day, but I plan to use them for reception decor, as a way to connect to Japanese culture, for which the fiance and I both have a strong affinity & affection.

It truly is a labor of love, but I’m enjoying it. One benefit? It keeps my non-crafty self from taking on DIY projects that I just know I won’t finish. “Sorry! No can do! I’ve got cranes to fold!!”

2/12/08 @ 5:47 pm (reply)

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