Based on my experience making custom wedding chuppah canopies, the most popular wedding chuppah sizes are 5.5’x5.5’ and 6’x6’. Over the past few years I’ve created close to two hundred custom chuppah (aka huppah, huppa) canopies, and these are by far the sizes that clients request most often.

These sizes provide ample space under the chuppah for the wedding couple, an officiant, and a small table for the ketubah and wine.

A Useful Rule of Thumb

To give you some perspective on how much elbow room this gives everyone under the canopy, event planners typically recommend about 8 square feet per person for a standing cocktail party. That provides enough room not only for people to stand comfortably, but also space for people to move easily around the room. If you figure three people standing comfortably under the canopy use a total of about 24 square feet, and a small table takes maybe two square feet too, then these two popular chuppah sizes provide plenty of floor space:

5.5’ x 5.5’ = 30.25 square feet
6’ x 6’ = 36 square feet

This driftwood frame is 6’x6′ with 7′ tall poles. One of my clients discovered this frame on Etsy by crafter NorthIdahoDrift and paired it with a 6’x’6 satin canopy.

Gaining in Popularity: Smaller Chuppahs

Over the past wedding season, I’ve seen a resurgence of small chuppahs, with clients requesting canopies sometimes as small as 5’ x 5’. A five-foot-square chuppah provides a little bit more floor space than typical large tallit prayer shawls, which are about 4’ x 6’ and which have been used for chuppah canopies for centuries.

4’ x 6’ (typical large tallit prayer shawl) = 24 square feet
5’ x 5’ = 25 square feet

The hand-held chuppahs rentals that I have been offering for more than ten years now have canopies that are 5’ x 5’ or 5.5’ x 5.5’. The 5-foot-square size works wonderfully for intimate ceremonies and small or informal spaces like backyards, restaurants, museum spaces, and –on more than one occasion—zoos.

Larger Chuppahs

If you want more people from the wedding party standing under the chuppah during the ceremony, or the wedding is especially formal, or you’d like a chuppah that will create drama through its size, you might want something larger, like 7’ x 7’ or 8’ x 8’. Eight-foot square chuppah canopies are fairly popular, primarily because the chuppah frames available through synagogues and other organizations are often this size.

7’ x 7’ = 49 square feet
8’ x 8’ = 64 square feet

I occasionally get requests for canopies as large as 10’ x 11’ or 11’ x 12’, which offer 110 square feet and 132 square feet of floor space, respectively. You can see that as you increase the dimensions of the canopy the square footage underneath can increase dramatically.

One final, quick point: When you think about chuppah sizes, be sure to give a thought to the height. And if your ceremony will be in a small space, be sure to check the ceiling height so you know the height limit of your chuppah.

Find out more about custom chuppah canopies.

Take a look at additional informative wedding chuppah posts.