Walk down the aisle with style by adding personalized touches to the decorating.
If your wedding were a theater performance, the aisle would be center stage. This is where the radiant bride makes her first appearance, and where the new couple will take their first walk together as husband and wife. Whether your wedding is indoors or outdoors, you will want to do something to set aside a special path for your processional and recessional. As every stage manager knows, a good setting enhances any production.
Arches
Create the aisle and decorate it simultaneously by using arches spaced several feet apart. You can buy arches in crafts stores or rent them from party supply places. You could even ask your florist or wedding coordinator for the number of a local business that will make arches from helium-filled balloons that match your wedding colors. Decorate the arches with streamers, swags of tulle, flowers, Mickey Mouse figurines or whatever is significant to the two of you. If you are in the military or marrying someone who is, you can have an arch of sabers where the two of you walk under an aisle of crossed swords--something you and your guests will remember forever.
Runners
Runners--the long carpet that's rolled down the aisle after the guests are seated and before the wedding procession begins--are a traditional decoration. You can buy or make them plain white, colored or printed with your monogram or a quotation. You can also use something nontraditional as an aisle runner, especially if yours is an outside wedding. Consider a carpet of thickly spread rose petals in two or three colors, or mix confetti with a bit of glitter and sprinkle that along the path. If you're having an at-home wedding you can plant a living aisle of moss or a darker grass; edge it with small border plants such as lobelia.
Greenery and Flowers
Hang greenery from the pews or chairs that line the aisle; this works inside or outside. Create an aisle in an open space by lining your path with potted trees or columns topped with flowers. You can connect them with swags of netting in which you've rolled up a few leaves and petals, or with garlands of flowers or leaves. You can also drive poles into the ground to suspend a long garland of flowers threaded together lei-style, which is even more effective if you've chosen a fragrant flower such as lilies or gardenia.
Lights
Evening weddings are greatly enhanced by incorporating lights into your aisle decorations. Use huge pillar candles in tall hurricane lamps to line the walkway, or hundreds of votives in jewel-toned holders. If you're using arches, pillars or poles, mix strings of twinkle lights in with the flowers or use them alone; select wedding-white lights or a color combination that fits your theme. If you're having a beach wedding, simply draw the aisle in the sand with a stick and line it with tiki torches for a beautiful, tropical look.
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