1001 Cranes
February 12th, 2008 @ 4:29 pm by Mrs. Donut
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?
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34 Responses to “1001 Cranes”
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
Don’t forget this ring shot…
http://www.anntorrence.com/blog/at-images/rings_AT08906.jpg
Okay, I’m done.
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…
how about something like this:
http://kenziekate.blogspot.com/2007/09/pricey-butterflies.html
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!
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.
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.
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!
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.
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
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!!!
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]
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.
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!
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!!”
i think it would be cool to have large tall glass vases and fill them with the cranes….and decorate the guestbook table or wherever you would want them…..
In Hawaii, there are lots of traditions and it’s mostly at a staple for people to fold cranes…here are some ideas, they are pretty elaborate
I read 1,000 paper cranes when I was little, such a touching story ! That is awesome you are doing this !
Before I got married, I asked my mother about folding 1,001 cranes for my wedding. She told me it’s more of a Hawaiian thing, and it’s not really practiced in Japan. So I decided not to do it, but now I wish I did. I think the end result will be quite stunning. Good luck!
its pretty much like this one:
http://www.sumocaarts.com/designgallery1.html
Those are absolutely beautiful… I considered doing the same for my wedding, but felt I wouldn’t have the time or patience (or stubborness as you said!) I like the idea of placecards, or if you’d ever considered doing a favor of a charity donation it could be to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, with a paper crane and note attached. Whatever you decide to do, I’m sure it will be gorgeous!
Crane cupcakes?
I just took a break from folding mine to read wedding bee! Glad to read about others who are doing the same thing. I’m still coming up with ideas but want to hang them with fishing line above the dance floor and from branches on centerpieces… maybe! Can’t wait to see what you do.
Wow! It is going t look beautiful! I love the image above where they are hung over the table
some other ideas - stringing them from the ceiling like so:
http://www.hammer.ucla.edu/exhibitions/50/work_135.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/collective/dnaimages/gallery/2/paewhite/1.jpg
It’s a very Hawaii tradition, and as ocicats said, I don’t think it’s very common in Japan, actually. (There, they’re more connected with the Sadako story and the legend that if you fold 1001, you’ll be granted a wish. In Hawaii, it’s more of a specifically wedding-related general “good luck” thing; I’ve also been told growing up that it’s supposed to teach you patience and endurance…characteristics you need in marriage…yeah…I wasn’t down for learning more patience.)
People here mostly have them framed in all kinds of designs — family crests, kanji (usually love or double happiness), animals, hearts…). But, and I hate to tell you this…if you do that, the people who lay them out and frame them tend to want them flat, not popped out with the wings extended like you have them.
Some other things I’ve seen done with them: one person did itty-bitty ones (like 1/8″ big) and glued them to brances, like a little bonsai tree; someone else ran them on fishing line and hung them in a bird cage.
Oh, and if you do want to donate them later, try searching the web for Sadako and Hiroshima…I think there’s some organization that accepts cranes around the anniversary of either her death or the Hiroshima bombing and puts them up in a peace monument.
[...] It seems like there is a lot of origami paper folding happening in the hive! Miss Donut made a post a couple of months ago about the significance of 1001 cranes. [...]
[...] my devoted daily reading, I stumbled across this post at Wedding Bee. Yay! I wanted to fold 1,001 pretty cranes too. I’m not Japanese but I sure do [...]
I am about half way through folding the 1001 cranes for my wedding in November. I grew up in Hawaii and one of my bridesmaids is second generation Japanese American, so she is helping me with the whole project. We are making crane wedding favors stringing them with small coral and pearls, placed in a small take out box with an insert explaining the story. Others will be scattered around the dessert and guest book table, part of the centerpieces and even in the floral bouquets. The rest will be strung as a back drop for the ceremony. My finance even learned how to make the cranes and we work on them together.
Mrs. Donut, Singapore/Natchez, MS
Age and Occupation: 31, Classical Singer
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 33, Attorney
Engagement Date: January 28, 2007
Wedding Date: May, 2008
Blogging Since: November 27, 2006
Venue: St. Mary Basilica & the historic Eola Hotel, Natchez
About Me: I am a displaced Southern belle trying to orchestrate our big day with my sweetie while living in a land far far away. When not planning for our classic Southern celebration, I love to read, travel, explore my artistic side, and bake brownies for Mr. Donut, who happens to love eating them. It works out well.
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?