Weddingbee Blog

I present to you, my darling friends, our ceremony site:

Pretty boring, huh? The view is gorgeous, and the built-in seating is pretty awesome… but otherwise we’ve got a big, blank canvas. Sometimes “big blank canvas” can mean expensive decorations. I am determined to avoid that, as our budget is bursting at the seams already. Time to get creative!

I’ve read that it’s always a good idea to have some sort of altar if you’re holding a wedding outdoors. That way, everyone knows where to stand and it doesn’t feel like the bride and groom are standing out in the middle of nowhere. While doing my research, I found photos from another couple who was married at Crissy Field a couple of years ago. They had a giant pot full of flowers to serve as a sort of altar (those are the ceremony musicians under that umbrella):

I don’t think a giant pot is going to be necessary for us, because we’ll have our chuppah. However, one thing I was concerned about was the “no aisle” problem. I really want an aisle. I searched high and low for pictures of outdoor aisles, and really liked this one, which I found from knottie blackcurrant:

I’m not much of a pomander kind of gal, though (I didn’t even know what the heck a pomander was until I started planning this wedding!), and I preferred some waist-high shepherd hooks. When I started searching online for shepherd hooks, I was appalled at the prices. I certainly did not intend to spend $15 for each one when I’d probably need at least a dozen! Luckily I found a place that sold them for under $2 each (although I really wouldn’t recommend this place–it took three months for them to arrive, and I’m not even sure if they still carry them), so I bought 20. They showed up the other day. Here they are (please pardon the not-so-lovely photo):

They aren’t as attractive as blackcurrants, but hey–you can’t beat $1.37, can you?! They’re 3 feet tall and 1/4″ in diameter.

I haven’t exactly figured out what to hang off of them. Because they’re so thin, we won’t be able to hang anything heavy. I am thinking about connecting all of them with some not-cheesy-looking tulle (or ribbon), like this (from knottie bigbootyjudy):

But I still think we need to hang something off of them. I’ve nixed the pomander idea (too expensive and too girly, I think), but I’m toying around with the idea of hanging white tea cups with colorful flowers inside. Although I haven’t quite figured out how to actually execute this idea (and they might be too heavy), I think it could be whimsical and cute, plus kind of funny (my friend Amanda is also Jewish, and her fiance is half Chinese–she asked if we were going to be making any jokes about breaking a tea cup instead of a glass!). I’m also a little concerned that 20 tea cups could get kind of expensive.

So… I’m also thinking about Chinese lanterns, like these:

I’m kind of worried that they could look tacky, though.

I’ve seen tin buckets with flowers (too country), mason jars (too heavy) and lanterns (also too heavy). Anybody got any other ideas?