ceremony decor

crb3754 · July 2010

What is the proper way to decorate the church. I have read a lot about where you can't put flowers and where you can. It's a little confusing. What do you all plan on doing for your ceremony decor?

Theresa626 · July 2010

It one hundred percent depends on the church. My church doesn't allow anything other than what we hold in our hands. Most churches don't allow aisle runners or petals being thrown by a flower girl or more than one or two arrangements on the altar. You need to call your church and specifically ask them.

Nickie431 · July 2010

You should know that you may not be allowed to remove flowers (other than your bouquets) from the sanctuary after the ceremony to re-use at your reception. I've read that since the flowers are present at a sacrament, they are considered to take on sacramental status and that placement other than in the church would then be considered profane. Most churches won't allow any pew decorations that involve tape/staples/tacks that could damage the wood's finish. Blessings!

oogiejonz · July 2010

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/cultural-wedding-boards_catholic-weddings_ceremony-decor?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Cultural%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:615Discussion:be6ab27f-4382-4b01-b494-2873d8e2e69cPost:6412a0ff-ba34-4cb4-9db1-9bc480f1d412">Re: ceremony decor</a>:
[QUOTE]You should know that you may not be allowed to remove flowers (other than your bouquets) from the sanctuary after the ceremony to re-use at your reception. I've read that since the flowers are present at a sacrament, they are considered to take on sacramental status and that placement other than in the church would then be considered profane. Most churches won't allow any pew decorations that involve tape/staples/tacks that could damage the wood's finish. Blessings!
Posted by Nickie431[/QUOTE]

I'm surprised by this. My florist is also a member of my parish, and has done the flowers at many weddings in our church. He planned the flowers explicitly to have dual use, for both the wedding ceremony and the reception. He has been doing this for over 25 yrs.

oogiejonz · July 2010

looks like you are right, I found more about this here -

http://www.weddingdetails.com/lore/catholic.cfm

Now I'm going to have to go back and talk to my florist about this, we will need different flowers for the reception!

[Deleted User] · July 2010

I definitely agree to talk with your priest or whoever coordinates the weddings. For us, everything was outlined our church's wedding packet which was available online. Our church allowed us to have pew bows or decorations, however, nothing could be attached with tape. We were required to have an floral arrangement for both the altar and the ambo. It said something like this in the wedidng guidlines: it is customary for the floral arrangements to be left after the ceremony as a donation to the church. We were not allowed to have an aisle runner, but with our church it is a safety issue bc of the hardwood floors. We were also not allowed to have the unity candle (this was per our priest) bc it is typically not part of Catholic liturgy. Our FG's were also not allowed to throw petals bc of the mess, etc but they did carry little posies down the aisle. HTH

Riss91 · July 2010

Like pp said, it can vary by church, so your best bet is to ask your priest directly. We opted not to decorate inside the church as we wanted the beautiful alter to be the focal point and didn't want anything distracting. There wound up being two small arrangements set up for the weekend, which was fine. Sometimes I think less is more!

Calypso1977 · July 2010

we didnt decorate at all. teh altar always has flowers, etc. for the weeekend masses. we asked if we were expected to provide the flowers for the masses that weekend, and our priest said no.

i think it you bring flowers to the church, its nice to leave them. my priest actually made a comment about couples who bring all sorts of flowers for the ceremony adn then walk off with all of them at the end. yes, you paid for them, but its nice to help teh church out and leave them (if they like them).

mica178 · July 2010

I'm definitely of the less is more mindset. We can put bows on the pews and flowers at the altar, and I'm inclined just to do the altar flowers and skip the pew decorations. We always planned on leaving the flowers at the church.

No unity candle for us. After I read that it was a soap opera the popularized that little stunt, I decided that we should skip it.

Riss91 · July 2010

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/cultural-wedding-boards_catholic-weddings_ceremony-decor?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Cultural%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:615Discussion:be6ab27f-4382-4b01-b494-2873d8e2e69cPost:85d690bc-4694-408b-a603-63da0c327686">Re: ceremony decor</a>:
[QUOTE] No unity candle for us. After I read that it was a soap opera the popularized <u>that little stunt</u>, I decided that we should skip it.
Posted by mica178[/QUOTE]

Ha! That made me LOL! I think the nuptial mass is a bit more unifying and symbolic than a few candles anyway.
<img src="http://cdn.cl9.vanillaforums.com/downloaded/ver1.0/content/scripts/tinymce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-tongue-out.gif" border="0" alt="Tongue out" title="Tongue out" />

Kaye Smith · July 2010

As everyone has said, it definitely depends on the church. We hung lanterns from the pews. We were allowed to take all flower arrangements to the reception site, obviously except for the bouquet we used in the Marian devotion.

oogiejonz · July 2010

I had actually expected to leave the flowers at the church, because ever since I was small I remember my mom pointing out flowers on the altar on Sundays and saying "those must be from a wedding here yesterday", and thinking that some day the flowers would be mine. I was definitely derailed by my florist.

crb3754 · July 2010

Thanks everyone

I will definitely discuss this with my priest at our next meeting with him.

I was thinking about doing bows on the pews and then some flower arangements for the alter. My church is beautiful as it is and I kind of like that I don't have to put flowers all over the place because they can be distracting and also block peoples view. That also means more money I can give as a gift to my church.

Thanks all

wifeandmommy0609 · July 2010

We plan on using what ever flowers are left in the church for our wedding.. We are getting married the weekend after Easter.. Also i am doing Pom Balls for the flowers girls just because i didn't want to ask a friend who won't be needed for picturs to stay after and clean up the church!

mswood1977 · July 2010

We where allowed to hang wreaths on the doors of the church and have pew bows so long as we used ribbon to tie the bows around the pews. We also had 2 large flower arrangements behind the altar and a small arrangement by our guest book. We could not have any candles other than the candles provided by the church for the mass (they did make one exception for my mother's memorial candle but it had to be in a glass holder) and no aisle runners or petal dropping.

ceremony decor

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