DIY backdrop???

I'm trying a DIY backdrop for my ceremony. Something like this... It's not PVC, but I think you could do this with PVC pipe as well.

We thought about doing the same. Ended up ordering this. For the price and portability, it's worth it. Think about how much time and energy you'll spend building that and then transporting it. You might consider one of these instead.

I actually have one of those already. I used to for the backdrop for my sister's wedding. But for some reason I feel like it won't work for the look I am trying to achieve. (I will post pictures of what I want to do in the below comment)

This is the look that I am trying to achieve and I feel like the PVC pipe would work better

That's an awful amount of fabric you want hanging from a hollow piece of plastic. I'd be worried about it swaying at best and all falling at worst.

Maybe you could put the bottoms into buckets of concrete, since they could be hidden by the drapery? I'm not sure what you'd need to do to reinforce the top bar, though.

I know! That's what I'm afraid of. I think I'm gonna just try one section and see how it turns out

Yeah that backdrop I posted wouldn't work for that for sure. You know, I found a few event rental people locally here that rented them out and set them up and tore them down for what I thought was really reasonable. I would definitely check out some rental places. If you price everything out including the fabric it might be worth someone else doing the work. If not, the I think maybe if you make the footing out of wood and attach the pipe it might be sturdier.

Yes, start small. We bought a garment rack and made it a little higher for ours. Was same price and less work than pvc.

Renting!! Good idea!! I never even thought about that. Because I own a small crafting business the entire wedding is DIY I am doing EVERYTHING from centerpiece to bouquets to even making the flowers for the bouquets. So my mind has just been stuck in DIY mode. That's a good idea. I'm gonna look into that.

I'm doing mine. Going to HD. To get pvc

How are you going to secure the bottom of them? I've seen some people put the bottom into bucket of concrete. Not sure how I'm gonna do the bottom of mine yet.

You can either make it into a stand or secure it to another structure or overhead beam. We secured it to a beam to help decorate the park pavilion we were married in front of, and our florist added a garland to the front of the pavilion as well. To make a stand you can look up tutorials on Pinterest with the search "DIY PVC pipe backdrop. Idk about putting tons of fabric draping on it, but the PVC I used very easily held the ribbons I used as streamers, even at a length of 16'. Had we wanted to add some florals at the top I'm sure it would have held up. Because of the sheer size of the backdrop I made I wasn't able to add too many ribbons without this becoming a very expensive project, but it served our purpose just fine. again, you can find lots of inspo for the aesthetics of your backdrop on Pinterest, it doesn't have to look like mine.

From the front (no pro pics back yet)

From the back, inside the pavilion (you can't see how it's secured when viewed from the other side)

If you do use fabric, I would definitely go for lighter fabric such as tulle, make long "base legs" on your PVC stand, and then maybe some large garden stakes over the PVC base legs and driven into the ground to anchor them, assuming you have a dirt or grass ceremony space. If indoors I would figure out a way to weigh down the base of the stand, either with concrete like you said or possibly by securing the base legs to heavy pieces of wood that can be hidden by your draping. You definitely have options, it's just a matter of what will work for you and your venue and also whether you would rather invest more time doing the DIY vs. getting a rental.

Our ceremony is inside so digging into the ground isn't an option. I did see on Pinterest that someone used a heavy piece of wood. FH and I are gonna go to home depot today and he said he will try to build different ones while in the store...oh gosh....we'll see how this goes

Haha best of luck! It also just occurred to me that the shorter you cut your pieces the more "joints" you can add, which should increase the strength of your top bar. Have fun!

We are clipping ours to the wall. i'm hoping people dont step on it or through it that way.