Suddenly, Cranes! Thousands of them!

1000 paper cranes.  Based on an ancient Japanese legend, any person who can fold 1000 of them will be granted a wish by a crane.  There's also a more contemporary story of Sadako Sasaki, a young girl who tried to fold 1000 cranes to fight her leukemia as a result of the bombing of Hiroshima.  Whether she was actually able to finish is up to speculation, but either way, her efforts are remembered by many.

I don't know if I really believe that I'll have a wish granted if I fold 1000 of them.  But I do believe that the level of dedication, perseverance, and joyful effort required in folding them all will be helpful to a marriage, as well.  On top of that, the strings of cranes are beautiful, and a single folded crane looks an awful lot like a flower.

This is my trick, actually.  I'm probably not going to buy many, if any, flowers for my wedding.  Decorations, bouquets, and things of that nature can all be constructed from cranes.  And the paper required to fold this many is really quite cheap.  Even if I purchase origami paper, all new, I could pay only $8 (plus shipping and handling).  But I'm using papers I already have, and cutting out squares from computer paper, to make it even cheaper.  Though I'll still buy some paper, there's just to fighting how cheap this will be.

I've already started folding, because I know how long it will take to finish them all.  As of the time of posting, I've got 60 of them done.  I'll order more paper soon, and continue to make them out of paper I already have in the meantime.  But I'm really excited about how beautiful the end results will be.  I can't wait to see them all strung up and hanging at the reception site.