The bug-iest wedding that there ever was

My now wife and I made good on our plan to bring our love of all things creepy and crawly to our wedding, back in September of last year. Thanks to the efforts of Martin French of Bugz UK who rented the bugs to us (I think Martin was unaware that he rented bugs before the wedding...), and trusted us not to kill them. Thanks also to the beautiful craft skills of the brilliant Bea Roberts (who is also a rather brilliant writer) who made us some brilliant bug bunting that you see above.

 Anyway, I thought it would be nice to document the critters that inhabited the tables of our special day. Our guests were presented with a scene like you see below on each of their tables:

They eventually noticed that the little figure in the centre of the table was not only correctly labelled with its italicised binomial name, but also very much alive.

Here are some of the highlights:

A fantastic Hierodula unimaculata

Heteropteryx dilatata, better known as the jungle nymph the heaviest stick insect

Extatosoma tiaratum, the Macleay's Spectre. Complete with poo.

Deroplatys dessicata, the Malaysian dead leaf mantis

Sphodromantis aurea, the Congo green mantis

Aularches milliaris, colourful grasshoppers from Pakistan

Despite their unusual dining companions, the guests seemed to enjoy their living table decorations, and all of the critters survived their wedding experience and were returned to Martin safe and sound. We had a fantastic wedding day, and I think having that extra bug touch during the reception really made it feel like 'our day'.

Thanks again to the very talented Matt Kay for the photography, you can see more of his work at fotokay.net.