This Fall, I had the honor of building a chuppah–Jewish wedding canopy–for my friends Daniela and Talia’s wedding. They wanted the chuppah to be installed as a pergola (or “chuppola”) in their front yard after the wedding, so the construction needed to be suitable or at least adaptable for permanent use. Because of the narrow window of time we had access to the venue, I had to design a structure that could assemble and disassemble quickly and easily. It had to pack flat in my truck for delivery and be light enough to be carried down the aisle by the four posts. At the same time, it needed to be stable enough so it wouldn’t accidentally collapse and crush someone’s drunk relative whilst dancing the hora. These were quite a few, and somewhat conflicting, design constraints–a fun challenge.
I decided to make the chuppah out of salvaged old-growth redwood timbers which were left over from a Japanese pergola I had built the year prior with Offerman Woodshop. I joined two sides of the chuppah together permanently with a mortise and tenoned cross beam and glue. Those two sides were then connected at assembly by four rafters with “knock-down” half-lap joinery which you can see me laying out here.
The rafters slipped into the corresponding grooves in cross beams, creating a self-standing structure. For peace of mind, I added extra corner supports to keep the structure from racking, toppling, ruining wedding etc. These angled supports were the only places that I used screws–for easy disassembly and added strength. Once installed, the chuppah was decorated with flowers and the Tallits (prayer shawls) of the brides’ grandfathers. Here, the rabbi awaits the brides in the chuppah.
During the ceremony, the rabbi talked a lot about the symbolism of a chuppah–how it represented the home and family they would build together, and the strength of their relationship. This made me really thankful that I had gone with those extra corner braces.
After the ceremony, we took down the chuppah in a matter of minutes. A few clamps helped it travel easily and safely the 1 mile journey to the front yard where it stands today.
