Stealing for our Ceremony - Building a Chuppah

Stealing for our Ceremony - The Chuppah / Canopy

One of the most beautiful elements of our friend's wedding was the chuppah. We decided we had to have one, but we decided that Bubbs would make it.

This was also the one and only thing about the wedding that stressed me out.

I had a vision in my head of a rustic structure with flowing fabric blowing in the wind. Since I'm not an artistic person it was really difficult to convey this image to my fiance.

We set out to the San Francisco Flower mart to find some (in order of preference)
1) birch branches
2) bamboo branches
3) anything that would work

We came across the "stick" guy who had beautiful curly willow branches for sale. 5 branches for $15 dollars (the birch were about $75 each and bamboo was about $50 each). Bubbs decided that we needed 15 branches to do the job which is where my first concern started to bubble over. I let him guy them and we strapped them into my teeny car and brought them home.

Some of the first attempts really stressed me out. Bubbs just wasn't getting my vision, but he really wanted this to be HIS project.

Most of his "creations" were just too bulky, function over form, and really not steady enough for me to feel safe standing under during my wedding.

A lot of people build their Chuppah or canopy using cement to anchor the sticks, but I didn't like the aesthetic of that, nor did I want to have to carry heavy buckets filled with cement up to the wedding.

I suggested using Christmas tree stands on 4 of the branches and draping the fabric to the top. It would be easy, light, and look like what I wanted (see example below), but he wanted to use power tools :)

Eventually, many designs later, we came to one that would work for me. It used all 15 sticks, was big enough for us to stand over, and stood free form in the backyard for several days.

When Bubbs and the "men" at the wedding recreated the Chuppah, it didn't come out exactly as we had planned, but once we arrived at the wedding, I put on my "I've done my planning and I will refrain from micromanaging the process" attitude, and let it be.

Lesson's learned:

· Simple structure is better

· Take pictures and give them to the people who are setting up for you

· Write down the details they might not know are important to you

· Secure the fabric to the top of the chuppah so it doesn't blow away or move around during the ceremony

· Set up the day before so you can tweak anything that doesn't work for you