Wedding Flowers in Church - Find Ideas and Inspiration For Your Church Wedding

An extensive guide of all the places you may want to use floral decorations for your church wedding ceremony.

Are you searching for photos and ideas for wedding flowers in church? If you are getting married in a church, you are probably wondering the best way to decorate it for the ceremony. Where should you put the flowers? How much is not enough, and how much is too much?

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Wedding Flowers in Church Inspiration Board

There are many different ideas on how to decorate a church for a wedding and flowers are usually top of the list. You can use alternatives if you do not love the idea of covering the ceremony site with flowers. Some of these alternatives include tulle, bows, candles, and greenery.  

Beautiful Church With White Ribbons Lining The Pews and Bouquets decorating the end of the pews for a weddingBeautiful Church With White Ribbons Lining The Pews and Bouquets decorating the end of the pews for a wedding

Wedding Flowers in Church - Wedding Arches

Many churches either already use a specific wedding arch or will allow you to bring in arches for your ceremony. A wedding arch can be covered in vines, greenery, beads, and flowers. If you choose to use a wedding arch, there will be a large number of flowers in one area. Although it can look absolutely stunning, it can also be an expensive decoration.

Gorgeous Pink, White and Green Wedding Arch on the BeachGorgeous Pink, White and Green Wedding Arch on the Beach

Wedding Flowers in Church - Alter Signs

You could choose to use an altar sign. There are many different ways to use an altar sign. Still, one of the most dramatic ways would be a large hanging sign that hangs over the altar and then is decorated in flowers either bordering the sign or hanging below it.

love pink and green floral wedding decorationlove pink and green floral wedding decoration

You could also use smaller signs above the wedding arch or on the altar itself. Signs could include:

  • Your names or monograms.
  • Your wedding date.
  • Words like wed or love in individual signs (like one for L, one for O, one for V, one for E – and each of those signs spaced apart and decorated well).

Wedding Flowers in Church - Table Cascades

A lot of weddings will have at least one table cascade. This cascade will take up space on a table on the front and center altar. A cascade is a beautiful and stunning floral decoration that can be moved from the ceremony to the reception. Still, again it is large and can be pretty costly. You can offset the cost by the cascade and also using greenery and other filler to limit the number of fresh flowers needed.

Red and White Bouquet Cascading over Wedding Bible at Church WeddingRed and White Bouquet Cascading over Wedding Bible at Church Wedding

Wedding Flowers in Church - Table Garland

Table garland is like table cascades, except instead of a large flower arrangement, it is smaller and thinner but might be longer. The garland can be made entirely of flowers, or it might be made of vines and greenery with flowers intertwined. Most people do not use both tables cascades and table garland, and when they do, they are for separate tables. If you want to use both, you might use the cascade on the centermost table and the garland on other tables near the altar or in other parts of the church.


Wedding Flowers in Church - Unity Candle Arrangements

The unity candle ceremony is popular in all types of weddings these days, regardless of religious affiliation. If you do not know what the ceremony is, it represents two families becoming one. There are two taper candles to the left and the right of a large pillar candle. At the beginning of the wedding ceremony, a representative from each family, usually the bride's and groom's mother, lights the tapers. After exchanging the vows, the bride and groom use the two tapers to light the large pillar candle.

Festive Unity Candle For Wedding, Decorated with red glitter berries, perfect for a holiday weddingFestive Unity Candle For Wedding, Decorated with red glitter berries, perfect for a holiday wedding

Unity by Corey Balazovich


Sometimes the candles are on a table alone, which is perfectly fine. However, some couples like to add some floral decorations to the table to make it extra beautiful. This does not have to be a large arrangement. It could be a few small vases or a small arrangement with a platform in the middle to hold the candles above the arrangement. You might even opt for some artfully strewn flower petals on the table.

Wedding Flowers in Church - Table Vases

Table vases are some of the most common wedding flowers you will see at a church. They are also one of the easiest to transport to the reception site afterward. Table vases can be used anywhere in the church; they can fill spaces near the altar that do not have flowers or other decorations. They can also be used elsewhere in the room you are getting married in, the lobby, and at entrances and exits.

Beautiful Red, White and Green Floral ArrangementBeautiful Red, White and Green Floral Arrangement

Gorgeous Pink, Yellow, Orange and Green Wedding Floral ArrangementGorgeous Pink, Yellow, Orange and Green Wedding Floral Arrangement

Wedding Flowers in Church - Floor Urns

Another popular choice is floral arrangements in floor urns. These can be placed on either side of the altar and on either side of the entrances and exits of the church. In the case of the floor urn, the actual flower holder – the urn – could be just as expensive as the flowers inside, depending on the material used to make the urn and the intricate design of the urn itself.

unique wedding aisle with flowers and Floor urnsunique wedding aisle with flowers and Floor urns

By Pinybal [CC BY-SA 3.0  or GFDL from Wikimedia Commons


Wedding Flowers in Church - Pew Bouquets

Much of this article has focused on the altar, and it is undoubtedly true that much of your floral budget will be dedicated to that space. There can be flowers in other places as well. One of those choices would be at the end of the pews. Many pews either already have bouquet holders are temporary ones can be attached. Each pew can hold a small bouquet to add to the beauty of the ceremony.

wedding pew floral bouquets for a church weddingwedding pew floral bouquets for a church wedding

Wedding Flowers in Church - Pew Wreaths

Like the idea of decorating the pews with flowers but are you unsure how the bouquets would look in your church? Why not use pew wreaths instead? Wreaths can be made in many different sizes from tiny to enormous. You can save money by having a bigger decoration with fewer flowers without sacrificing the beauty a pew decoration can provide.

Wedding Flowers in Church - Aisle Petals

Lastly, do not forget the aisle. If you do not mind the idea of flower petals, you might consider decorating the wedding aisle with them. You can do this a few different ways. The first one, where you will use the least amount of petals, would be to artfully scatter them down the aisle. If you dislike that look, you can go to the other end of the spectrum and cover the aisle in petals. Another option would be to only cover the ends of the aisle runner with them; this way, the aisle runner is still visible, and you can still have flowers on it!

Wedding Aisle with scattered pink flower petalsWedding Aisle with scattered pink flower petals

If you are having a flower girl, you might want to have her have different colored flower petals so you can tell the difference between the petals there before the march and after the flower girl walks down the aisle.

Beautiful Fall Wedding in a Church with large fall themed floral arrangements, white ribbon draped across the pews and smaller floral arrangements at ground level with fall colored flower petalsBeautiful Fall Wedding in a Church with large fall themed floral arrangements, white ribbon draped across the pews and smaller floral arrangements at ground level with fall colored flower petals
I Jina_Lee [GFDL or CC-BY-SA-3.0], from Wikimedia Commons


If you are having a flower girl, you might want to have her have different colored flower petals so you can tell the difference between the petals there before the march and after the flower girl walks down the aisle.

Wedding Flowers in Church - Flowers Everywhere

What we have already discussed might be more than enough flowers for you – but if it is not, the reason is that we have mainly focused on the altar and the aisle. Those two areas are the areas that most people would expect to be decorated, so if that is all you want to do, that is fine. However, if you love flowers, there are other spots you can also decorate.  

You can put vases or urns in the room's corners, entrances, and exits. You will want to consider how people get inside the chapel area for your specific church. Will they walk directly in, or will they enter through a lobby? If there is a lobby, how much time will they spend there? Will you be receiving your guests there after the ceremony? You might want to have floral arrangements in this area as well. Finally, do not forget outside the church – you can start with large wreaths on the church doors or urns on the steps. If you are leaving a different way than the front door (where your guests will blow bubbles or toss petals at you as you go by) you might want to decorate that area as well.

Wedding Flowers in Church - What Flowers Will You Choose?

So how are you going to choose your wedding flowers? Most brides use a few different ideas for this decision. First, the most popular wedding flowers in a church are white and red. White represents innocence and purity, and red symbolizes love.  

Gorgeous White, pink and orange flower arrangements in church weddingGorgeous White, pink and orange flower arrangements in church wedding

People also tend to decorate using their specific wedding colors or the colors of the season they are getting married.

Finally, you might consider any existing church decor before choosing your flowers. You do not want your choices to clash with how the church looks in such a way that it would affect the beauty of the ceremony itself.

Beautiful Red Rose Bouquet on Wedding LimoBeautiful Red Rose Bouquet on Wedding Limo

Wedding Flowers in Church - Church Restictions

We have covered a ton of different ways that you can decorate for a church wedding, but this is not any wedding or any church; it is your wedding in your church. Before you go forward with your decorating plans, you need to consult the church to find out any restrictions that you might have. Depending on the church, this could be none, or it could be quite a few.  

They may only allow flowers in certain areas or limit the number of arrangements that you can bring in. They may have restrictions you may have never even dreamed of – for instance, maybe they only allow a few florists in your town to deliver to the church or may have banned a few. This does seem like something that could not happen – but think about it.  

Beautiful Flower Garden For Outdoor WeddingBeautiful Flower Garden For Outdoor Wedding

Your church has weddings all the time, possibly more than one a week during the wedding season for many years. They could have dealt with a florist who did things wrong, including not delivering on time, being rude to the church staff, or even overpricing the bride and groom to the point that the church did not want to help them get more business. So before choosing a florist and what arrangements you can use, check with the church first on any restrictions they might have.

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