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Catholic Weddings
ks5395
member
floral rules in church
I want to incorporate winding floral vines around my church's alter columns (1st picture example, 2nd picture my church's alter). Has anyone attempted decorating a catholic church beyond just doing something with the pews? If so, was your church pretty understanding and accommodating of your decorating wishes? I'm trying to gauge other people's exeriences before bringing this up with my priest. I appreciate your input!
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Re: floral rules in church
My church allows no decorations. I can't have a flower girl throwing petals, bubbles or anything like that, no aisle runner, no decorations at all except for one or two arrangements next to the altar. that's it. not even pew bows. They have a lot of rules.
Also, the church in general is neither accomodating nor understanding of anyone's wishes regarding their wedding (in my own experience anyway).
Notice that they never put floral arrangements on the altar, not even at Christmas though they may have them in other places around the church.
what? the only time of year our church doesnt have flowers is Lent. at Christmas tehy always have pointsettias, and other times they always have a small vase of flowers or a potted plant on each side of the altar. often times there will be flowers on the Virgin Mary's side of the church, before her statue.
that said, though, i doubt your priest will let you do waht you illustrate here. also, logistically, how would you get them up after the last Mass and tehn down before the next Mass? timing might be an issue. if you have, say, a 4pm Mass and then your wedding 530, your florist would have only about 1/2 hour to put up the decorations.
[QUOTE]No offense, but this post makes me laugh. Don't even bother bringing this up to the priest. Not only would they never ever allow you to do this, they'd probably be appalled that you want to. Not that I am appalled, I'm just saying. Most Catholic churches will not let you do anything at all practically to decorate. If you want to decorate, you have to get married outside the church basically. Some churches are more lenient then others in how much they let you decorate but the altar is pretty much completely off limits because it is very sacred. Notice that they never put floral arrangements on the altar, not even at Christmas though they may have them in other places around the church. My church allows no decorations. I can't have a flower girl throwing petals, bubbles or anything like that, no aisle runner, no decorations at all except for one or two arrangements next to the altar. that's it. not even pew bows. They have a lot of rules. Also, the church in general is neither accomodating nor understanding of anyone's wishes regarding their wedding (in my own experience anyway).
Posted by Theresa626[/QUOTE]
Yikes! Someone had a bad experience at their church! I agree that the church does have certain rules about what decoration is appropriate, so it would be best for you to speak directly with your specific church about what they would allow. The churches I've dealt with would allow altar arrangements, pew decorations and certain decorations elsewhere (lobby/entryways). I agree with Calypso that what you're looking for might be too much of an undertaking on the day-of even if the church is okay with it. I'd also like to put out there that sometimes less is more. It draws focus to the important events going on. There are so many beautiful churches and beautiful altars that I often think they need no further adornment.
I also would like to say that the church must uphold certain standards that others might see as not "accomodating nor understanding" of the couple's wishes regarding their wedding. To that I say - this is a very important, serious religious ceremony and the couple should respect that and not be concerned with the unimportant "fluff". The reason why many chruches don't allow petals, aisle runners, bubbles is for liability purposes and the additional clean-up costs. It's not to ruin your wedding.
To be honest, I really don't like these floral decorations around the columns, and your church's altar does not look like these would match it. You don't want to end up making the altar look like a club on madri gras. Plus, I can imagine these elevating your flower cost by A LOT!. Calypso is also right, you have to think of how to incorporate that arrangement time wise... Sorry if I am harsh, but this is just my opinion... churches tend to be really pretty as they are.
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You don't want to end up making the altar look like a club on madri gras.
sorry, that made me laugh!
theresa, have you looked into a pomander (i think that's the name of it) for your FG? its basically a ball of flowers on a ribbon that she can carry. pretty cute, and definiteily less messy than petals.
I agree that the decor should be a bit toned down from the pictures you posted - it would be much more challenging to do that sort of arrangement in a church compared to a reception venue, because of time constraints, labour, and church rules. Could you have a decorated entrance like that at your reception instead?
Hope that helps!
As far as the flower girl, I'm not having one. I'm not really that close to any little girls anyway and if she can't throw flowers it seems silly to have her walk down the aisle for no reason and buy a dres and all that so whatever.
Riss... as far as the bad experience goes... it's not so much the rules that have left a bitter taste in my mouth, it's the money hungriness. It made me really angry that many of the churches wouldn't give us a date till we donated on the envelope system for six months. Didn't matter if we had been going to church every week there if we hadn't been donating, we didn't get a wedding date. So, six months of donating in addition to the eight hundred dollars they're charging us as a "mandatory" donation to have our wedidng there and then on top of that having five million completely unflexible rules about everything.
The only instructions from the priest was if you bring it in, you take it out.
We put one lovely arrangement on the alter, pew bow W/ hydranges on every other row and two hydranges wreaths on the outside dooor. Pretty simple but it suited the church.
to OP: that is too much. it looks like a cheap reception hall and not a place of worship. stick to the basics and take your priests advice; you don't need to give him any ideas.
i have never heard of this. we donate regularly, but never in the envelopes. waht if you had been going and putting a $20 bill in there every week?
that aside, $800 is a tad high, but at the same time, some folks spend that to feed 6-8 people at their reception. you have to keep it in perspective. but in general, i don't agree with churches "charging" for sacraments. however, tehy probably have to in this day and age since many wouldnt know enough to give a proper stipend or donation on their own.
Smart guy there
1) Flower girl throwing things. This is because there is no janitor who comes in on saturdays, so there would be petals everywhere still come sunday morning. Okay, fair enough...so the flower girl is carrying the virgin mary bouquet.
2) No runner, because you would slip with the combo of fabric + their tile. I wasn't going to have one because of that, even before it was in the contract.
3) No flowers on the altar itself...the stuff behind the altar, sure. We use a high altar (as in, pre-vatican II) and there are steps sort of behind it...those steps can be decorated, but the actual altar itself which is used for Mass cannot be. Also fine.
So, really, they've been reasonable. My priest told me "you can have nothing...you can turn it into the conservatory of flowers for all I care...just don't break those three rules."
There is also stuff in the contract about not nailing things to pews and other damaging things, and that's also fair.