You are all so smart!  Yes, indeed, when you combine PVC pipes, gold spray paint, yards of organza and iron-on seam tape, you get a lovely, easy-to-make, reasonably priced chuppah! For those that don’t know, a chuppah is a Jewish wedding canopy. It symbolizes the union of two under one roof and stands for their new home together as husband and wife. The chuppah is open on all sides, representing a dwelling in which family and friends will always be welcomed.

Today is my 6th wedding anniversary. Six years ago, in one of my earlier Jewish crafty moments, my husband (at the time my fiance) and I, (along with some help from my friend Suzanna), created this lovely chuppah that we were married under. My husband engineered the structural piece and helped me explain how he put it together:

The frame is designed around “3-way corner PVC fittings” available online: http://flexpvc.com/cart/agora.cgi?product=PVC-3-ways or at any big-box hardware store. The other materials are 1″ PVC tubing cut to the desired length and 1″->3/4″ threaded fittings to accelerate on-site assembly. In our case we used 4 ~7 foot poles and 4 ~5 foot poles. Painting takes longer than the entire design/assembly. Total cost including paint was well under $50. For the ceremony it was anchored using planters filled with rocks with flowers and greenery added. Although PVC production is not terribly environmentally friendly, our chuppah has been reused several times and is still holding up.  Sometimes I contemplate setting up in the yard for an afternoon tea but have yet to follow-through 🙂

As for the fabric, the organza was purchased from one of my favorite supply places, Paper Mart, who has terrific selection and prices on packaging and party-prep stuff. Suzanna and I cut a roof and then made four panels that we attached using iron-on seam to tape. We then cut each panel in half so that two smaller panels came together on each pole. It was then tied to the poles using ribbon (in our wedding colors of course). We enjoyed the chuppah even more by putting our sweetheart table underneath after the ceremony!

Hope you’ve enjoyed my little trip down memory lane of our fabulous wedding at Lake Union Cafe with these lovely photos of our chuppah taken by Beautiful Endings photography. Happy 6th Anniversary to my mensch of a husband!

Did you make your own chuppah? What did you use? If you have a picture, and feel like sharing, please do!