Church decorations?

Hi Marianne! We're having a Lutheran church wedding.

Our church doesn't have Saturday services so we need to provide any flowers we want. We're keeping it simple, altar pieces and MAYBE some pew decoration. We're using the florist that the church uses. You won't find better prices and they know the church layout already. You can call the church office and ask for that info. It's nice to leave the altar pieces as a donation for that weekend's services but you don't have to. Also, if you want a unity candle, you can ask if they have a stand you could just borrow. My dad's a pastor, he has all sorts of stuff he's collected over the years or that people have donated after their weddings.

I'd skip the aisle runner, they're easily wrinkled up and it's easy to trip on them.

I'd estimate a few hundred dollars at most for that?

Also- we're keeping the church decor simple b/c honestly, it's a beautiful church already and I'd rather put more money towards the reception. But the sky's the limit. My grandparents were florists, so when my parents got married, the altar was COVERED in ferns and gladiolas and all sorts of stuff. Literally, covered. Their wedding photos are awesome, from some angles it actually looks like they're in a jungle or something. If I can dig any up I'll PM you.

Also- we're going to ask that florist to do our bouquets and bouts and reception pieces, but we have very simple floral needs. I'm estimating $1000 for everything, and that's in downtown Chicago. So it probably just depends on what you want.

This is what we are doing..with some flowers

Unfortunately I do not have my wedding photos from my photographer yet but all we did was have bows with real tulips on them at the end of every other pew and two large floral arrangements on the floor at the bottom of the alter. We had to have everything cleaned up before we left the church so my brothers cleaned up the flower petals the flower girl tossed and my parents picked up the bows off the pews.

@Lindsay that is so stinkin' cute! What a great idea! Are they going to be photos of you two, or your families....?

And are you making the frames, or do you have a florist doing that?

We were married in an old New England style big church. The church was so beautiful we only had flowers up front, where everyone's eyes were going to be any way. We didn't have anything on the pews, nothing down the aisle (nothing to trip over) and it was so beautiful. No one complained that we didn't have a flower girl, or a runner, or bows, or flowers on the pews. Do what works for you and your church. Talk with the priest or minister about agreements on flowers. Most churches say you need to provide the flowers and it is nice to leave a center piece behind for the next day, but it is not necessary.

Here is a picture where you can see most of our flowers, we also took our flowers and placed them around the reception hall. We just had some friends and our sisters crab the flowers on their way out! Do what works for you! Don't stress over the little details. No one is going to know if something isn't there!

Our wedding is the weekend after Easter. Our church will be still decorated from Easter so I don't really need to worry about it. We're catholic and our church is always decorated with flowers or some kind of decorations. I would talk to the church because they probably work with a certain florist.

I am having a Catholic wedding too! We are hardly doing anything with church decorations. The church is beautiful on its own and I am focusing on reception decorations...people will be there for five times longer and the venue could use some spicing up! I really want to put little picture frames on the pews down the center aisle like @Lindsay, but we aren't allowed to use tape, and the pews don't have a natural hook or anything...so I'm not sure if that's going to work...gahh those Catholics are so strict!

We aren't doing an aisle runner...actually aren't even allowed to have one. As for altar flowers, most all Catholic churches require you to supply them (as a donation), because they use them for the weekly service altar flowers. Our church requires this too, but we talked to our priest and he is going to try and waive it because we aren't even having real flowers, so I don't want to drop $100-$200 on something I'm not going to even use or need otherwise.

Thanks everyone. Our church is very plain - but I like it like that because I'm a simple person. :-) Maybe I don't need much but some flowers for the alter.

I recommend talking to the person who oversees the weddings, even if its just the church secretary, and get advice from her, if you only use bows, they may even have those for you to borrow and they can at least give you advice on what they've seen look nice. Catholic churches do tend to be strict, its best to get that advice from the "church lady". (and I too think simplicity is beautiful)

We were married in a catholic church and honestly it is such a stunning church we only did Alter Flowers. It wasn't a money thing, everyone who has been in the church that knew us encouraged us to just let the beauty of the church come through and not "fuss it up".

I am using pictures of us, and I am going to try and find all different frames at garage sales over the summer..Then we are going to hot glue the ribbon to the back of the frame and tie a bow at the top..