The tradition of the thousand paper cranes held together by string, or senbazuru, comes from a Japanese legend, which promises that the wish of anyone who folds 1,000 origami cranes will have their wish granted. This legend has lent itself well to weddings, with many brides choosing to fold 1,000 cranes for their big day, hoping to be granted a long and prosperous marriage.

If you want to include this tradition in your wedding, don't feel like you need to do it all on your own. Enlist your fiancee, your bridal party, or even all of your guests (include a piece of paper and instructions on how to fold a crane in your invitations and ask guests to bring their crane with them to the wedding) to help you. The last thing you need while planning is one more thing you're desperately trying to get done in time. 

To get you started, Kara will show you how to fold an origami crane.

I've used plain white paper to make it easier to see, but you can use anything you'd like - origami paper, paper in your wedding colors, or recycled newspaper or old books (do us a favor - really make sure these books aren't good for anything else before you rip them up.) would look fantastic.

How to do it:

We've come to the end of our first Pacific Coast Weddings blog series on incorporating wedding tradition into your modern wedding. And what better way to finish than with with an aspect of the "Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue," tradition that can be so much fun:

Something Blue.

According to tradition, the act of wearing something blue on your wedding day represents purity, love, and fidelity. Finding something blue might be the easiest of all of the items so because there are so many options, but that's what makes it so exciting! You can do anything you want! Here are some of our favorites: