To Arbor or Not to Arbor?

burichan

So.. I've been thinking my WC insists that we have an arbor to create a nice focal point at the ceremony. It can get up to $500. I was thinking about foregoing it. I think it looks great with or without it.. and our backdrop is the beautiful ocean. What do you ladies think? Are you having an arbor at your ceremony?

~BFF~

We are opting to NOT have one, I didn't really care either way.  It was actually my WCs idea to not have one.  I figure the backdrop of the ocean is beautiful enough and why spend the extra money for something you will only use for 20 mins.

Angelshann

We are not having an arbor. We picked our location because it is gorgeous and it overlooks the ocean. I refuse to spend more money for just 30 mins. Plus the guests should be focusing on FI and I and not an arbor. hehe

kaesha

We went with one because I wanted the framing it provided. Call that the stage director in me. It draws the guests' eyes to you and provides a place for the eye to rest. You could think of it as a picture frame, with you two as a picture.Of course, it's completely not necessary - it's really just there for staging purposes.

maui2011

I was planning to have one for the reasons Alyson mentioned above, however for my own selfish reasons i don't want to have anything between us and the ocean which is why we picked our venue in the first place.  My FI wants to save money where ever possible so he's fine with not having one.  Plus i want flowers on it which adds an additioanl $300.  I will ask my photog for his thoughts on this as well but i'm 99.9% sure we will not have one. J. :-)

BoBride28

You don't have to have one. However, we are having a bamboo canopy with fabric draping. I agree with Alyson that I like that it shows the focal point of the ceremony and I don't think it takes away from the scenery or the focus on the couple. I am not having flowers because I like the simplicity of just the draping. Canopies and arbors look great in pictures too! I am positive that you can get one for waaaayyy less than $500 if you are still on the fence about it.

kaesha

Have you taken a look at myday1708's? Hers was super inexpensive and totally gorgeous.

ETweet

It's totally up to you and your own personal preference. We are having a bamboo one with fabric draping. I personally like the look and agree with the reasons Kaesha provided. I think it provides a nice focal point.

maui2011

This is my first PIP...well technically 3rd since the copy and paste method did not work and i had to delete my previous posts...long story...here goes...hopeflly this works if not my trying to PIP days are are hold for a lil bit.  If we were to do some sort of arch it would look something like this...[img]http://tinyurl.com/ylsq2rr[/img]

maui2011

OMG...yeah...i'm sooo proud...it actually worked!!! J. :-)

ginajade

You really don't need one - I actually didn't want an arbor either, we had intended it to go elsewhere, but the florist forgot and set it up where the ceremony was going to be. And I actually ended up liking it more than I thought I would.  We didn't do a full arbor - if you look at Frank's blog you can see it's just a single bamboo pole and this, with the flowers and fabric was under $300 I think.

akbride09

Here is what we were going to do:The bamboo arch was $75 to rent, and I purchased 10 of these "whirly balls" from cb2.com ($3.95 ea) - they're really cool little glass balls that have a hole in one side. We were going to put sand in them to keep them from blowing around too much, and then either a flower or some shells.Like Alyson said, we wanted a focal point even with the gorgeous background, and I thought it would help our wedding party know where to stand.Long story, but now we're not sure where our ceremony will be so we may not be using one. I really think if you're getting married anywhere near the ocean, you don't need one!