By Georgina Clatworthy

Decorating your wedding ceremony venue may just seem like a case of adding a couple of floral arrangements, but if your ceremony is going to be a long service then adding in more wedding ceremony decorations can make a big difference to the venue and the feel of your wedding.

Depending on the type of service you are having – religious or civil; and your venue you may be able to add decorations to your ceremony.  Some venues may already be decorated, in which case you will have to live with them, but you will save money.  In other cases, such as an outdoor civil wedding ceremony at a venue where you will also have your reception, then you will need to think about decorations which coordinate with your wedding style and theme.

Despite what you may think there are many different types of ceremony decorations you can have for your wedding, including:

• Pew ends which hang on the aisle end pews or chairs.
• Altar arrangements are a formal floral display which will sit on the altar
• Tall arrangements of flowers are usually positioned on stands to the back of the altar area and at the top of the aisle
• The church door maybe decorated with a garland of flowers
• Floral arrangements or topiary in pots may greet your guests as they arrive at the entrance to the church
• Aisle decorations include covering the aisle with flower petals, having a personalized aisle runner and adding in arrangements such as floor sitting pomanders at intervals along the aisle.
• Candles can create a wonderful atmosphere, particularly in old buildings. Many churches will have candle holders and elaborate candelabras in place for you to use.

As you can see you can get carried away with the number of decorations you could have!  What you need to consider is the atmosphere and first impression you want to create.  All your decorations should tie in with your wedding style, theme and colors and not be different to the decorations you have for your wedding reception.  You can save yourself money by having the ceremony decorations moved to the reception venue afterwards.

Pew ends can be used to decorate the backs of chairs, floral arrangements can sit on tables, at the entrance to the venue or reception room and a personalized aisle runner could be folded and hung as a backdrop behind your chairs on the top table.