Todays brides and grooms are exchanging vows in many kinds of wonderful places from their childhood churches to lush vineyards and elegant lofts. Your search for the right place will be influenced by many factors including your religious beliefs, your families, where you met and the time of the year that you choose to get married. Some couples choose the ceremony location first and consider it to be the most important part of the wedding since this is where you will become husband and wife. Once you choose the location you will want to look at the ceremony with meaning and simple beauty focusing on what the location has to offer. If you are getting married in a rose garden, you may not need additional flowers but have lanterns lining the isle along with a custom made isle runner with your monogram. If your ceremony will take place in a house of worship, look at it from a design standpoint. Is it very ornate, or modern. Does it have rich colors and ornamentation. This will help to determine the scale of the floral décor. If the altar is very large and ornate, a small floral piece will look very out of scale. Typically in church décor, there is an altar piece either with the unity candle or it can be two large vases of flowers. It gives the guests a pretty view while waiting for the ceremony to begin and provides a nice backdrop for the bride and groom. There may also be pew décor. I don’t recommend large arrangements for these since people will be brushing by them to get in the pews. Keep it simple and every third row. A beautiful wreath on the church door says something special is happening here!If you are getting married in a non religious space, look for a special area to exchange vows like a fireplace or between beautiful windows or under a gorgeous chandelier. Then find creative ways to enhance the area with floral décor. I love large glass floor vases filled with tall branching flowers like cherry blossoms or willow branches with beautiful garlands wrapped around them. If the beach is your venue of choice, make it fun and line the isle with giant shells and silk orchids. The beach can be rough on real flowers, so silk florals are the way to go. A simple wooden arch with a simple garland and some silk orchids makes a beautiful backdrop on the beach. Ceremonies on the beach don’t typically last very long so don’t go crazy with décor, the ocean is the main décor here. I recently decorated a sweet ceremony in a carriage house in the bourbon district in Kentucky. It was a small , quaint all red brick carriage house with a lot of character. The ceremony took place in front of a brick wall that was beautiful but needed some spark. The couple rented a very large iron candelabra that was the main focus. I then used those large glass vases with branches and garlands, then I put lanterns on the floor around the candelabra with greenery and wisteria accents. Since it was in the Spring in the south, I went with magnolias as the bridal bouquet. It was magical.
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