Chuppah/Arch Rental

You will find the price for such thing s varies greatly depending on your location, what exactly you want and if you plan to rent these things and do ask the set-up yourself or use a full service decorator & do nothing yourself, your best bet is to get several quotes and see what best fist your needs.

You need to talk to 2d bride. she has a DIY chuppah guide that a few other WW brides on here have used.

Some DIY alternatives:

• • Ours (picture below and instructions at this link) was built on the frame of a portable popup gazebo. We live in DC and got married in Massachusetts. Our chuppah could be folded up and easily transported, and was also easy to set up once we got there.
• • This one relies on putting each of the four poles into PVC pipe set into a flowerpot partly filled with concrete for stability.
• • This one is based on using a lattice for the ceiling, which stabilizes the whole structure so as to make support for the bottoms of the poles unnecessary.

• • This one has a wooden frame at the top, held up by lattices at each of the corners.
• • This one has a PVC frame, anchored in concrete.
• • This one is based on birch poles put into umbrella stands.
• • This one attaches foot flanges to slate tiles for each corner of the base.

• • This one is not free-standing, and would need to be held by four people during the ceremony. However, it uses bungee cords to attach the four corners of a tallit to the four poles, so that the fabric of the tallit won't get torn if the pole-carriers aren't perfectly in sync.

If you prefer to rent instead of making your own, some suggestions:

• Check with local synagogues. Some of them have their own chuppot, and may be willing to rent them out.

• Most florists have them.

• Check out Jewish bookstores/gift stores.

• Many party rental stores have them, and they are often the least expensive source.

Good luck! If you were in the DC area, I could give you some specific places, but unfortunately I'm not as familiar with places in Philly.

Oh, as for prices: again, I don't have specific information on Philly. But when we were looking around, we found the one below for rent by a party rental store for only $80. However, it is very easy to find ones way more expensive. We found one place we loved, but their chuppot were $425 to rent, and $3,500 to buy. (And that did not include delivery or set-up.) Another wanted to send out guys wearing tuxedos to babysit the chuppah the whole time, and charged $800 to rent. I think it was right after I talked to this place that I decided I could make ours. ;-)

If what you want is an arch, you might go to somewhere like Home Depot or your local garden supply store. Garden arches tend to be less expensive than wedding arches. For example, Home Depot has this arch for $149, including the shipping. You could buy it for the wedding and either resell it or use it in your garden afterward.

Finally, check out this $169 chuppah on eBay. Or do a search for chuppah on Etsy.