Weddingbee Blog

Like I’ve said in my introduction to our church, the building was once a strip club. Because of that, our building doesn’t have a normal church ambiance. There are no vaulted ceilings, no stain glass windows, and no glossy pews. Basically, there is none of this:

Image via St. Clement’s Shrine in Boston, MA

It’s a simple building with little decoration. The church is more about focusing on God than on appearance.

With that in mind, since the church does not have a lot of natural beauty, I want to bring in some decorations without overpowering the room. Which because of its simplicity, is going to be a challenge. So I find myself before every service on Sunday scanning the room for possible ideas. I have managed to come up with a few that have met with the approval of Mr. D and the church.

When you first walk into the church from the outside, you will go through generic glass doors into a small lobby. We have decided to spruce up the doors to give a little punch to the plain doors. I would really like to hang our initials, much like this:

Image via Martha Stewart

Mr. D and I are going to tag-team this project. He is going to do the cutouts of our initials and we are them going to give the letters texture by covering the letters in white poms. He will also probably get the job of doing the scrunching of the tissue paper, and I will be in charge of the gluing, which will leave us with pretty, white, fluffy letters to hag on our front door.

In the lobby we will have a table set up containing our transportation information, the apparatuses that we will be using for our exit, and some small odds and ends. We will also have an easel holding our large chalkboard program.

Upon entering the sanctuary out pre-ceremony music will be playing softly ( A little VSQ anyone?) and we will have some more simple decorations like a hand painted aisle runner:

Image via Starry Night Design Studio

pew pomanders:

Image via The Knot / Jessica Johnton Photography

and some window decorations (these will be hanging in the windows by window cling hooks):

Image via Smashed Peas and Carrots

We will also have a have a slideshow playing before the ceremony that will showcase our encagement pictures, our story through the years, and fun facts about us. When the ceremony starts, the PowerPoint will turn into a stained glass window, bringing in a little bit of that old church feeling.

Because we are not doing any extra ceremonies, the stage area will be empty aside from us, our pastor, and a cross. I’m so incredibly excited to see how everything pulls together in the sanctuary! I believe that our simplicity of decor matches the simplicity of our surroundings and ceremony.

How did you decorate your ceremony site? Did you face any unique challenges?