On decorating churches

There is something very special about decorating a church for a wedding. This year I have spent some happy and thoughtful hours in various churches, mostly in Suffolk. Sometimes busy with visitors, sometimes deeply quiet, sometimes very chilly. From a decorating point of view I love finding places to ‘flower’.  A floral arch or font full of flowers always looks beautiful and bountiful, but a little vase on a ledge can be just as striking, drawing attention to some forgotten carving or inscription.

The occasional church is set up with hooks in all the right places but, if not, after a really good search I can usually find an existing nail or hook on which to suspend a garland. Ingenuity is sometimes called for – the hooks were not strong enough in a beautiful Wren church in the City of London so we adapted our plans at the last minute.

Some things I am learning to research at an early stage: is there a water supply? How close can a vehicle get? Both of these I over looked in June when we filled a remote little church with flowers and must have run up and down the church path at least 40 times.