Nothing is more meaningful or romantic than creating something unique for the ceremony with your own hands. Not only that, making your own arch as a backdrop can save hundreds of dollars and after the wedding can be used in your garden as a permanent keepsake.
My friends Allison and Ryan are getting married in Iowa next month, and Ryan made the wedding arch for his bride. He went to a workshop there where provided the tools and the plans and took him to find the appropriate twigs and branches. Although, there aren’t any classes similar in the Portland area, it is easy to put together with a little creativity and some simple woodworking skills. You can find plans online or in books from simple to complex. Or if you're really handy, you can follow Ryan's progress in the photos below.
Rockler.comGardenweb.com
Making Twig Garden Furniture, by Abby Ruoff
I'm not a woodworking expert by any means, but I have decorated hundreds of wedding arches and chuppahs. The easiest way to decorate your arch is to buy some floral wire or ribbons and attach whatever you wish. Allison and Ryan are using flowers and faux birds (they’ve promised photos after the wedding). In the past I’ve used fruit, paper and floral garlands, paper cutouts, sheer fabric (tuille is inexpensive and works great), vines (honeysuckle is my favorite, and all you need to do is wrap the vines around the boughs), flowering branches, floral clusters, or arrangements in Iglus.
I love that Ryan made this arbor for our wedding. It's super romantic. I have heard that a lot of women have trouble getting their grooms involved in the wedding planning, let alone the decor. Not me! We looked around for arbors at the typical places and didn't like any of them so he started looking online and found the workshop. He wanted to do this and had a great time doing it. I am so excited to see our photos with this as a backdrop.
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