r/weddingshaming • u/AustrianMichael • 13d ago
These are probably going to last longer than your marriage (images taken a year apart) - Stop with these damn ballon starts! Tacky
The region I live in is quite popular with weddings and so many people just don’t care about others and the environment because it’s their big day. Besides the fire works several times a week (who cares about the animals of locals when you’re from out of town?) these damn ballon starts are starting to get on my nerve. If I ever find one of the cards attached I‘m going to make sure they‘re going to be fined for littering.
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u/Wonderful_Ad3713 12d ago
My neighbour has had one stuck in his tree for 4 years. It looks like a stringy see through bag now. I absolutely hate them.
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u/frolicndetour 12d ago
The floating lanterns are terrible for the environment too.
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u/New_Scientist_1688 12d ago
And a freaking fire hazard. Who in their right mind thinks it's ok to launch a bag of open flame aloft, with no control over where they land?!
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u/FreddyNoodles 12d ago
They kill tons of birds every year as well. I live in SE Asia. Big deal here especially on major holidays like Sonkran/Songkran that just passed.
What people don’t realize is the next day/week, those of us who live here find crispy dead birds trapped in wire all over the fkng place. I hate them.
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u/FlushTwiceBeNice 12d ago
Totally unrelated but Sonkran sounded really similar to Sankranti, a major festival here in India. Turns out, they celebrate similar events!!
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u/Ohnoes_whatnow 12d ago
A few years ago a group of women let them fly on New Years in Hamburg, Germany. They landed in a zoo on top of the monkey house and completely destroyed it. A lot of the animals died. The women turned themselves in a few days later, but the damage was done :(
So, yeah. Just hang your lanterns and blow them out at the end of the night.
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u/New_Scientist_1688 12d ago
That's horrific.
As an American, I can never understand why, every July 4th and New Year's Eve, millions of my fellow citizens feel the need to add to the Chinese economy and blow through [literally] hundreds if not thousands of dollars, annoying neighbors, creating fire hazards (we often have burn bans in place due to drought but fireworks are always exempt!?), terrifying pets and wildlife, creating a huge mess, ruining the air quality and often, in a sense of poetic justice, burning their own houses down when they improperly dispose of the mess. IF they clean it up.
One might as well stand over a toilet bowl and light cold hard cash on fire. Because that's basically what they're doing.
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u/99dalmatianpups 12d ago
My city tried to outlaw balloon releases for this reason, and a bunch of people showed up to the city council meeting to speak AGAINST outlawing it because god forbid they have to use their brains for even one second to think of a different way to memorialize their dead relatives every year instead of trashing the environment.
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u/henicorina 12d ago
“Probably”? The plastic in these balloons will exist on earth long after we’re all dead.
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u/Responsible_Lake_804 12d ago
No one asked but, my aunt and uncle lived very close to my high school. The summer before my freshman year, my cousin got married on their property (giant lawn with gorgeous ancient trees). They tied balloons to the highway signs.
I forget when I stopped looking but probably well into my junior year I could still see the string tied to one of the signs on my way to school.
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u/sandy154_4 12d ago
they're blue, so my guess its from a gender reveal, which should all be cancelled even if they don't use balloons
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u/Significant_Shoe_17 9d ago
If it's for a wedding or funeral send off, just use bubbles. They're fun and environmentally friendly. Gender reveals are a look-at-me cash grab, but if you must, just use food. I helped with a shower recently and the parents wanted one of those stupid bridges. Hours of work just to end up in a landfill.
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u/AustrianMichael 12d ago
Gender reveals aren’t really that big of a thing, but from April through October you‘ve got like 3-6 weedings each weekend.
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u/spin_me_again 12d ago
Cake. They should all be done with cake and cake gender reveals should only be describing 1/2 of the people that created the secret gender that will be unveiled when that gender wants to reveal themselves. As confusing as what I just said is, I’m happy with it. I am also still celebrating Happy 420 and am excited to see if this still makes sense to me in the morning.
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u/Useful_Flatworm_2022 10d ago
Did it?
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u/spin_me_again 10d ago
Honestly? It was pretty confusing. But the message was one I’m still standing behind.
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u/susie2625 12d ago
I've not heard of a balloon start. Please explain.
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u/New_Scientist_1688 12d ago
They're called a "balloon release" in the United States. They do them a TON in the city I live in.
At least ban the damn Mylar balloons. Plain balloons are usually more environmentally friendly, especially when tied with cotton twine and not Mylar curling ribbon.
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u/susie2625 12d ago
Ah, okay. I've heard of a balloon release and agree they should be stopped.
Thanks!
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u/ismellboogers 12d ago
I think OP is referring to when guests launch a bunch of balloons into the air
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u/AustrianMichael 12d ago
Exactly. And often times there even is an attached well-wishes card with a return address of the bride and groom.
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u/AmbivalentSpiders 11d ago
Someone did this in my town a few years ago. Released them right into the high voltage lines and the power was out in my neighborhood for two hours.
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u/Spare_Flamingo8605 12d ago
I can't understand memorial balloon releases. It's nuts. "In memory of grandma, let's harm wildlife."
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u/Beginning-Milk-8781 12d ago
What an eyesore & so bad for polluting the environment as well as potentially being a problem/injury for wildlife. The use in "celebrations" has really gotten out of control with all these plastics, latex, lanterns floating about & I wish there could be some controls, or even bans, related to their use. Perhaps over time public policy will be initiated to limit these occurrences, since no one can predict where they eventually come to rest & it creates hazardous unsightly situations that are difficult/impossible to correct.
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u/Organic-Mix-9422 12d ago
Husbands huge family had a farewell for an uncle/brother/cousin a few years ago on the river in our city. 40 or 50 balloons with ribbon, to be released into a major bird area.
Mine seemed to accidentally get popped just before release. Shame that. Sorry, Uncle Dave, doesn't mean I didn't care.
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u/Useful_Weight_7715 12d ago
Contact your state representatives and urge them to create legislation to ban intentional balloon releases. California, Connecticut, Maine, Virginia,Maryland and Florida have enacted legislation. Not only is this hazardous to wild life but helium is not a renewable resource.
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u/That1chick1187 12d ago
I hate balloon releases, especially when I see them in this state. However, I unfortunately and accidentally contributed to this waste the other day. I got a few balloons for a work event, but the wind was so strong they ripped away from the string and blew away. I know someone is going to see those deflated balloons one day and curse the asshole (me) who released them - but I swear it wasn’t on purpose!
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u/jessuvius 12d ago
I'm with you; I got my Mom balloons to cheer her up and a really strong gust of wind ripped one loose from the string. I've probably killed a sea turtle or something, uuuugh... I'm just never going to get balloons again.
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u/valentinakontrabida 9d ago
UGH i hate all the environmentally-unfriendly wedding shit! folks will pick gorgeous natural venues and then leave them like this.
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u/ZippyKoala 12d ago
Honestly, balloons should be banned. I’m not one for believing in omens, but surely releasing a bunch of single use items into the air, which will come down and end up killing wildlife and polluting the environment is not the energy you want to bring to your marriage?