Bendenken Chairs & Chuppahs

evalynn68

Hello all -

I just got the price quote from my florist for a Bedenken Chair & Chuppah and almost hit the floor.  HOWEVER, it might be "reasonable" and I just don't know.  Can someone share with me - what they paid?

Thanks,

Eva

2dBride

We made our own chuppah, in part because the quotes we got for renting one were so ridiculous.  If you want to check out alternatives in this area, here are some local chuppah sources:

• Huppahs.com
• Elli-Chai's One-Stop Judaica Shop 301-933-1800
• Washington Jewish Bookstore    301-942-2237 
• Women's League of Conservative Judaism   301-946-4043 Charlotte Zeidman  $150 (hangs in hallway at Tikvat Israel in Rockville)
• Shirley Waxman   301-299-5526 www.shirleywaxman.com
• General Rental (Chantilly)    703-941-3520  various styles
• Charm City Chuppahs    410.549.5490/877-856-5490     Mona Freedman

Another alternative would be to DIY one.  I have plenty of resources for how to do that, if you are interested.

lolson1215

We are making ours....4 closet poles put into large potted flowers/plants. There's only one place in Tampa that rents chuppahs and they COMPLETELY take advantage of that fact. They were going to charge me a ridiculous rate for the fugliest chuppah I have ever seen.

2dBride

You might want to Google "DIY chuppah."  There are lots of ways to do it:

• • Mine (picture below and instructions at this link) was built on the frame of a portable popup gazebo.  We live in DC and got married in Massachusetts.  Our chuppah could be folded up and easily transported, and was also easy to set up once we got there.

• • This one relies on putting each of the four poles into PVC pipe set into a flowerpot partly filled with concrete for stability.

• • This one is based on using a lattice for the ceiling, which stabilizes the whole structure so as to make support for the bottoms of the poles unnecessary.

• • This one has a wooden frame at the top, held up by lattices at each of the corners.

• • This one has a PVC frame, anchored in concrete.

• • This one is based on birch poles put into umbrella stands.

• • This one attaches foot flanges to slate tiles for each corner of the base.

• • This one is not free-standing, and would need to be held by four people during the ceremony.  However, it uses bungee cords to attach the four corners of a tallit to the four poles, so that the fabric of the tallit won't get torn if the pole-carriers aren't perfectly in sync.

Hope this helps!

Our DIY Chuppah

(Click on the photo to see a larger version.)