As I have mentioned before, our ceremony will be held in a church. It’s lovely - huge bell tower, beautiful stained glass windows and wooden pews. Now here is my dilemma: how much do I need to decorate? How much are your decorating your ceremony venue?
Come on all crafty brides… here is your time to shine! And all of the brides that feel like they’re all thumbs when it comes to crafts, tell me what you plan on doing too. I am all ears to any ideas!
I agree with Crysten, My venue isn’t nearly as ornate as yours and all I’m doing is the cone type things on the inside of the aisles, a few candles, and then a grandmother display for our grandmothers that have passed away. There is no need to spend a fortune to decorate something that already sounds so pretty to begin with. For crafty stuff I am decorating all the candles with gems and I will probably decorate the holders, I am putting together the aisle flower displays and I will be making the guestbook.
I, uh, didn’t. I was married at the hall, not in a church or temple. I was planning on putting paper flowers on the chairs along the aisle, then I got a good look at the chairs and realized there was really no way to attach them. Then I thought about putting them in containers on the floor, but realized they’d probably get kicked over. So I gave up. I was married outside on a lovely brick patio underneath a pergola dripping with vines of purple flowers, with flowers planted around the side, with the greens of a golf course going down to the ocean in the background. Didn’t need anything for decor, really. There was some tulle wrapped around the pergola, and then there was my gorgeous chuppah. It was a beautiful wedding.
My ceremony site sounds similar, mine doesn’t have a bell tower that I noticed, though. I don’t think we’re planning on doing any decoration, as it’s a very pretty place as it is. I may tie tulle bows around every other pew if I decide it needs a little something, but I’m not planning on it.
I second all the brides above. Our wedding was in a beautiful church and we passed on all the decorations. I had originally wanted pew decorations, but chose to save the $500 they were going to cost. We did have one pretty altar arrangement made for the church, which everyone compliment. No one mentioned the lack of any other decorations. We got tons of compliments on the beauty of the church alone. Also having too much decoration may take away from the beauty of the church, depending on how far you take it. Also, it might be worthwhile to check with the church to see how many flowers they’ll have around that time of year.
I had the same debacle when thinking about how we will decorate the church for our wedding in October. Our church is a beautiful, historic church in the heart of the city, and is very ornate and actually doesn’t need much decorating at all. I think what we’ll do is tie some silk bows around the first few pews signifing that they are “reserved” and we may put some flowers out in the foyer of the church - but that is it. I wanted to spend the bulk of my ‘decorating’ (i.e. flower budget) on our reception venue.
My daughter was married in a colonial style Baptist Church on June second. The interior of the church is rather simple. Pale blue walls, white painted woodwork and pews and carpeting/padded pews in burgundy.
I made “pew poufs” using bolts of tulle (save those 40% coupons from Michaels). I measured the length to the floor molding on the pew and added about 6 inches for the pouf. I doubled the tulle and used a rotary cutter and mat to cut the lengths. Using clear rubber bands for ponytails (I bought the bands at Ulta) I secured the pouf. I think we used about 3 or 4 bolts of wide tulle to do all 28 pews.
I used white round beading elastic from Wal-Mart to attach the poufs to the pew.
I then used a Bowdabra (from Michaels) to make organza ribbon bows with long streamers to add a bit of color to the poufs. The ribbon came from Nashville Wraps. Each bow took about 6 or 7 yards of organza ribbon and the Bowdabra made the job go fast.
Instead of altar flowers we used Boston ferns
which were in hanging baskets. We used 2 on plant stands on each side of the stairs leading to the platform and put 4 ferns equally spaced on the rail to the choir loft. I bought them at a local super market, and was able to buy 6 huge ferns for about $80.00. They looked beautiful. The ferns are now on my deck and in my bow window.
To see an ornate altar with Boston ferns pick up a copy of the May/June issue of Cooking with Paula Deen. Her stepdaughter’s wedding is featured.
On the stairs leading to the sanctuary we used the leftover tulle to make swags - and used ribbon bows to tie at the anchor points.
Our windows were double hung with plantation shutters. We bought 2 boxes of cylinder bud vases at AC Moore (go to those midnight madness sales) - and 2 dozen roses at Costco. Each of the 8 windows had three vases with a single rose, and 4 votive candles.
Everything looked simple and elegant.
I’m a fan of MrsRobsButton’s ceremony decor–lots of greenery/garlands of leafiness. 
We’re going pretty natural as well (since outdoors) with just an arbor and green garland wrapped around it. Petals in the aisle and pental cones on every other row on the aisle seats (basically that’s our pew decs).
1st stop is to check w/ the church’s wedding coordinator go-to. There are probably some rules/guidelines in place, and maybe some precedent to follow. Might as well have those parameters in mind before coming up with ideas. Our church’s policy made for zero extra decorating, but it made no difference, as the church featured tons of historic details and stained glass.
sorry I can’t help…we’ve got the ocean as our backdrop…but for what its worth…I think anything you put in the church will potentially be dwarfed by the church itself…so why fight it.
I also agree that you should check with the church coordinator to see what type of free decorations they can provide. I was preparing all these expensive flowers for the pews but I found out that the church provides ribbon and candles! Just take a look at what they offer first before you go out and purchase.
I got married in a church that was pretty by itself, so we kept the decorations to a minimum.
I had flower on the pews with tulle draping from the flowers, and just some flowers up front. 4 on stands and the middle area was draped with flowers too.
It came out beautiful~
Mrs. Butterscotch, Seattle
Age and Occupation: 29, Advertising Sales Assistant
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 28, City Worker
Engagement Date: September 24, 2006
Wedding Date: August 11, 2007
Blogging Since: June 19, 2007
Venue: church ceremony and private club reception
About Me: I am marrying my high school sweetheart 11 years after high school ended! I am a self professed shoe fanatic with a closet full of shoes and only two feet. Planning a wedding has been my fun project since he surprised me with a proposal in Paris. We are spending our last few months preparing for our big day by wrapping up all the small things, buying a house and best of all preparing to live together for the first time.
I think in a church as ornate as that sounds, you don’t need to do much - that’s how my church is, and we’re doing a pew decorations (just little things) on every other pew so it doesn’t become too much and flowers in the front on the altar and possibly on the candelabras. Other than that, the beauty speaks for itself! You wouldn’t want to overdo it…