How to Decorate Your Chuppah for Your DIY Wedding
Written by: Callie Hutson
Photos: Darcy Troutman Photography
How to Decorate Your Chuppah with Flowers for Your DIY Wedding
If you are planning a Jewish DIY wedding, one of the things you may want to consider is decorating your chuppah with flowers. Flowers are sure to add a beautiful and personal touch to your big day. In this article, we will provide some tips on how to masterfully create floral arrangements for your chuppah while providing real-life DIY advice and testimonial from one of our #moxiebrides, Dara. While we are still drooling over Dara's gorgeous Jewish ceremony flowers, keep in mind that the possibilities are endless, so be creative and have fun with your own DIY wedding!
"Relax. They're beautiful fresh flowers-they will look gorgeous no matter what. Do some research, find your helpers, and then go for it. Be brave. Oh, and line your countertops with plastic wrap."
- Our Bride, Dara
What is a Chuppah?
A chuppah, also sometimes called a huppah, is a canopy that is traditionally used in Jewish weddings. It is usually made of four poles with a piece of fabric or cloth attached to them, and is often decorated with flowers or draping fabrics. The chuppah symbolizes the home that the newly married couple will build together. And as Dara says, "There are no hard-and-fast rules for how a chuppah should be decorated - or even if it should be! The only requirement is that the chuppah be a canopy held aloft and otherwise open on all sides. This represents the home that the couple will build together, one that is open to old and new friends. Beautifying the chuppah with flowers or other decor isn't required, but it heightens the symbolism of a chuppah." Ummm, okay, how perfect is that?!
Why Decorate Your Chuppah with Flowers?
First of all - there is no wrong way to decorate your chuppah! We are here to discuss all things floral chuppah, but if the simple fabric-only or bare chuppah is your vibe, that is beautiful too! However, if you love the idea of decorating your chuppah with flowers, this blog is for you! For starters, flowers add a personal touch to your wedding ceremony which is so important. DIYing your own chuppah flowers also allows you complete creative control. (Shoutout to you type A brides!) And of course, working with flowers can be incredibly therapeutic while creating lifelong memories with friends and family. Additionally, adding flowers to your chuppah can be a great way to incorporate your wedding colors and wedding theme into your ceremony décor. Flowers are also traditionally used to create an intimate setting for you and your spouse-to-be, which is perfect for your DIY wedding ceremony.
Which DIY Flowers are Right for Your Chuppah?
There are plenty of ways to incorporate your wedding theme into your chuppah flower decorations. From boho to classic to wildflower, you can make your chuppah your own with flowers.
For a boho chuppah, try using pampas grass, protea, and unexpected colors like mustard and dusty pink. If you want a more classic look, try using white roses, baby's breath, and hydrangea. Wildflower chuppahs could be decorated with lots of draping greenery and bright and bold flowers.
Monochromatic chuppah flowers can make a bold statement for your wedding theme or add a subtle touch of color to your chuppah. Using all shades of purple flowers always makes an eye-catching statement!
Pro Tip: Keep in mind that your chuppah flowers will be photographed from all angles on your wedding day, so consider adding some drama with taller floral pieces or go for a more whimsical look with cascading florals and be sure to cover those mechanics.
But You're Really Loving This Chuppah...
We get it, it's totally gorgeous, and now you need a guide for your own wedding day! Luckily, we have the deets. Dara wanted beautiful, fresh flowers that were low maintenance and hard to mess up. DIY brides and seasoned florists alike share this sentiment! For this look, you should consider a mix of cream roses, white carnations, blue hydrangeas, blue-tinted Italian ruscus, lots of eucalypti, and the always-hardy leatherleaf fern. The mix of colors and textures, the simplicity, and the jaw-dropping design, were all a perfect complement to the birch chuppah structure and white lace canopy. Having incredibly talented friends, family, and helpers of any kind (shoutout to Kathleen and Alaina who made the arrangements AND attached them to the chuppah on the wedding day for Dara and Zach!) is also essential when DIY'ing your wedding flowers. You will be getting glammed and ready to sign that ketubah, and transporting flowers shouldn't be on your to-do list on your wedding day!
Now that you're all caught up on DIY chuppah decor, it's time to start the planning party! For more floral inspiration, check out all of our DIY Wedding Collections here.
Real-Life DIY Advice and Testimonial from One of Our #MoxieBrides
If building and decorating your own chuppah seems intimidating, we want to take this time to encourage you as well as highlight a bit of the process from a real-life DIY experience. Read what Dara had to say below!
Q: How important was decorating your chuppah to you?
A: It was one of the most important parts of the wedding for me! It's a focal point for the ceremony, so of course we wanted it to be beautiful. But it's also where we would make those life-changing promises to each other, and where our families would share their hopes and dreams for us. We wanted it to be beautiful because that was one of the most important moments of our lives.
Q: Did you consider other ways of decorating the chuppah that did not include flowers?
A: I think I always knew I wanted fresh flowers on our chuppah, it was just a matter of how! Chuppah flowers do add another layer of logistics to DIYing wedding flowers, but with your support, lots of research, and very Type A friends, we got it done! The other element of our chuppah that we spent a lot of time on was our chuppah cover - the white canopy that's above us. We DIY'ed it out of a couple of lace curtains we found at a yard sale. That was another labor of love!
Q: Are there any other traditions leading up to or in your ceremony that you would like to share?
A: There were plenty! We had a fairly traditional Jewish wedding, with a bedeken (ritual veiling of the bride), blessings from our parents, ketubah signing (religious marriage contract), and me circling Zack under the chuppah at the start of our ceremony. He also smashed a glass with his foot at the end of our ceremony, a tradition that livens things up while also symbolizing that life includes both sorrow and joy. That was fitting because my mom died 4 years ago. We all felt the sorrow of my mom not being there for this joyous moment. These traditions were really important to us because they're the same traditions that our parents took part in, and their parents, and their parent's parents, and on and on and on. Taking our place in this legacy was important to us. And having flowers to beautify these moments made them even sweeter.
Q: What tips do you have for other couples who wish to DIY their chuppah flowers?
A: Go for it! It is an amazing feeling to work with your partner and your community to build this symbol of your home together. Get your most type A and most creative friends together, give them some reference photos and resources, and then let go of expectations (maybe the hardest part!). Your chuppah will be beautiful no matter what, because your love for each other is the most beautiful thing of all.
An encouraging note from Dara to future Jewish brides:
"I'm so proud of our chuppah. Not just because it looked gorgeous, but because it was such a team effort. Another Jewish bride told me where to buy the birch poles. My husband and one friend practiced building it, another friend transported it to the venue on the day of, and then another 3-4 friends helped with the build. Our go-to seamstress spent a long time with us figuring out how to turn those yard sale curtains into a 7'x7' canopy. Another set of friends created those beautiful chuppah arrangements and then got there early to install them and make sure everything was perfect. At the time, I was very stressed about the chuppah - Would it stay up? Would the canopy work? Would the flowers wilt? But looking back, I get such a warm feeling thinking about it. This was our community coming together to make something beautiful for us. The chuppah is meant to be a symbol of our home being open to all. But I think our experience shows that being open is not a one-way street. We had to be open to accepting help. And when we did, our community rushed in to support us. I can't think of a more fitting way to start this next chapter in our lives."
We hope you are feeling inspired to DIY your own chuppah flowers after reading Dara's story! If you need more tips, please reach out to us with any questions - we're happy to help however we can!
Happy planning!
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About the Author
Callie Hutson is the floral wunderkind of Flower Moxie. She works in Order Managament and does Custom Designs, so if you need help with your floral emergency she is your gal. When she's not creating incredible floral masterpieces she can be found adventuring in the outdoors with labradoodle Sierra or sipping on Lavender Lattes.