Order of ceremony?

courtneyjean88

Hi all,

 

My fiancé and I have a good friend of ours marrying us. I really haven't been to enough weddings to have a solid idea of what all goes in to your ceremony. Clearly your vows, but we aren't religious so won't be having any "readings" per say. I saw on a website something about an introduction but I'm still just really confused on the order of the ceremony and what our friend's "duties" are. I know it is personal choice but any help/suggestions would be much appreciated!

Bubbles2014

This is basically how ours is going. We are having a non religious ceremony officiated by a celebrant. This is what he suggested

1.      Preliminary Activities:

·         Meet & greet

·         Engaging with guests 

2.      Processional

3.      Welcome by Celebrant 

4.      Introduction/Outline of Ceremony

5.      Reading (we are having a non religious reading called Union)

6.      Your Unique Story

7.      The Rite of Marriage – enactment of the key social & legal aspects:

·         Testing of Intentions

·         Declarations of Love – The vows that we write to each other

·         Making of Vows – The legal line that we must say (NZ law)

·         Exchanging Rings

·         Pronouncement & kiss

8.      Signing the Registration Papers:

·         Presentation of Marriage Certificate

·         Presenting the married couple 

9.      Closing words - We are doing this before the presenting of the couple. It's another reading.

10.  Recessional 

11.  Mingling & Photo Session/s (cocktail hour)

12.  Transition to the Reception

I have taken out the presentation of the bride because I didn't want it. If you want to add it in I think it went after the welcome.

Hope that helps

samanthajodances

We consider ourselves more spiritual than religious, though we have both Christian and Jewish families (FI practices Buddhism), so we are trying to figure out the same thing....All in all, we are trying to keep it simple, short, but us if that makes sense. 

Probably planning on:
-Processional
-Welcome speech by our officiant/friend
-Readings-probably 3 very short readings from the different faiths about community/love/etc
-Passing of the rings-found this tradition online.  Putting the rings in a little pouch that gets passed around to all of our guests so they can 'bless' them, say a prayer for us, or simply pass on positive vibes, while our friend sings to a live cellist
-Vows
-Recessional.

Good luck!!

SP29

Our ceremony is the following:

- Processional (family seated, minister, then bridal party, then myself and father)

-Affirmation (giving away)

-Welcome (by the officiant)

- Statement of Intention

-Reading

-Vows

-Exchange of Rings

-Declaration of Marriage

-Kiss

-Motivational Moment (talk given by the officiant)

-Signing of the Register

-Closing Words

-Announcements (any instructions we'd like to give the guests about what follows the ceremony)

-Presentation of B & G

-Recessional

Ven&Radio

As long as you meet your state's legal requirements, you can more or less do the ceremony however you want.  I haven't been to many weddings either and wrote our ceremony.  It's pretty simple and should take less than 10 minutes:

Processional
Welcome/Opening
Declaration of Intent
Vows
Ring Exchange
Clsoing/Pronouncement
Recessional

Sue&Blake

Hi, I read this because I was thinking the same thing. I found this website, which I found to be very helpful- http://www.rockies.net/~spirit/sermons/wedding-recessional.php
Fortunately, my brother is getting married in two weeks, so I'll be taking notes!

Majelin86

Ours will be short & sweet (our officiant thinks about 20mins, yay!):

Processional
Dad gives me away
Welcome/opening words by officiant
Scripture (short verse on love)
The Charge (basically just explains the magnitude and significance of taking vows)
Vows
Preface to the Rings
Ring exchange
Pronounced husband and wife (YAYYYY)
Kiss
Signing of the Register
Introduction (introduced to everybody as Mr & Mrs)
Recessional