Here's the church, here's the steeple

Look inside and see all the decorations!  (Anyone else remember that little saying and accompanying motions that were a staple in my childhood Sunday School classes?)

Before the beginning of Advent, the committee that I chair at our church was responsible for decorating the sanctuary.  With the beautiful, clean lines and the serene green paint, we had an easy job.  Everyone pitched in to provide decorations and manpower.  I even brought the wine and cheese for a little snack break!

There are 5 large windows on each side of the church (on the lower level).  The arches are colored glass are already decorative, so we just spruced them with bay leave wreaths on every other window and then candles in every window.  The candles are covered with a hurricane and we added fresh cut magnolia branches from a member's yard.

Here's a close up of one window.  It was so simple, but gave just the right amount of warmth.  At the front of the sanctuary, one of the more creative ladies filled urns with wild berries, holly and other greenery.  Unfortunately the lighting was not very good, but in person, these arrangements looked organic and fresh!

I was particularly invested in the decorating since it will all be up through our wedding.  I love that the remnants of my favorite season will flavor the decorations at our wedding.  We freshened all the greenery this week by replacing the magnolia leaves with some evergreen trimmings and the front arrangements with rosemary bushes.  The additions to the decor that we will be making are a plethora of candles on the ledges of the choir loft and those romantic feather wreaths on the pews.

(Photo sent to me by Ms. Planner)

Ms. Planner finished 12 of them and we loved them so much, we decided to shoot for 12 more!  As you can see from the picture above, there is no center aisle at our church.  To accommodate using both aisles, we thought it'd be nice if we could decorate them both equally.

Mmmm - candlight, romance, feathers, my future Mr. Palindrome waiting at the end of the aisle.  Just a few short weeks until I see the vision come to life!

Is anyone else using holiday decorations in their decoration scheme?