How are you/did you decorate?

pixalicious

So I can count the number of days until my wedding on my fingers and toes.   Obviously I waited a very very long time to figure out how to decorate the Church for our wedding.  (I know, shame on me.)  I need some ideas on how to decorate the Church, and hopefully inexpensive.  We have pew bows, programs are finished.  Now all we need are the little extra touches.  Examples of   where to put flowers? what to put on the doors? and how? any other ideas?? 

What will you do/did you do to add a little extra decor to your ceremony?

A little information: We're getting married in a beautiful old Catholic Church (the one I grew up in).  My fiance is not Catholic so it will not be a full Mass.  It has no air conditioning   We are not having the "give a rose to the moms and Mary" part, but we are having the Unity Candle part.

TIA.

erin5286

Especially if your church is beautiful on its own, I'd go with the less is more approach.  We're getting married in a beautiful old Cathedral, and the most we'll be doing is pew bows (possibly just on the reserved pews), and maybe a few fresh flower arrangments in the front.

bibliophile2010

Another vote for less is more. If the church is beautiful on its own, other little decorations are just distracting. If it is a less beautiful church, decorations just seem to highlight the shortcomings of the parish.

All we did were altar flowers. I felt like that was plenty, especially since I'm not a personal fan of pew bows (just NMS) and the added group of people at the front of our smallish chapel added a lot of color and visual interest in themselves.

christyhal

Another vote for less is more.  :-)   My church is stone and very medieval-looking, so it didn't need much.  We had altar flowers which we left for the weekend Masses, and instead of bows I did a small bunch of silk flowers that clipped onto every third pew for the front half of the church.  (Every pew would have been overkill, IMO, but my church is very long and narrow so we thought it looked nice with something there, but spaced out.)

monkeysip

Our church is very traditional and beautiful, so we're planning not to decorate at all except maybe a couple arrangements nears the altar. 

Unless the church is just really plain, I think ceremony decor is kind of a waste.  It's there for like an hour, and no one really notices it, especially in a church (it's different for those who marry outside of churches... you need decor to draw the eye to the "altar" and to create an aisle)

debbiem56

We did not add anything to the beauty of the church.

pixalicious

Thanks for the ideas ladies!  Christyhal, you raise a very good point!  Our Church is also long/narrow.  Perhaps spacing out our bows would look better.  We don't think we'll be filling very much of the Church (maybe first 10 rows if even that). 

I truly appreciate the ideas and polite opinions

professorscience

I am also in the less is more camp.  We only did altar flowers, which, while the arrangements were very large to "fit" with the ornate altar, they were very simple white flowers.  The church coordinator apparently clipped some fabric bows to the pews that were reserved for family, but I had no say in that.  If I'd had my way, I would have left all the pews alone.

Calypso1977

we did not decorate at all.

ElisabethJoanne

We'll do a large flower arrangement on each side of the ad orientem altar. The usual for Sunday Masses in Ordinary Time, except with more expensive flowers (that will have a lovely scent).

pretzelgrrl

We did altar flowers and a single rose with a ribbon on every other pew. Very simple but pretty.