Wedding Procession

lindzi375 · August 2010

Okay, FI and I went to our first wedding class tonight at this church and set our date! Little did we know they do the procession WAY different than the traditional father gives the bride away. Imagine grooms guests on the right seats and brides on the left. The wedding party starts in those two corners with bride on left and groom on right. We walk alll the way to the opposite side (toward the exact middle where thte red is) and procede down those aisles. All the while, the bride walks with her parents and the groom with his. Ultimately we meet in the back middle, say goodbye to our parents and then bride and groom walk to the alter together! Anybody heard of this? They had really good reasoning for it and I like the idea but it is sooo different than the traditional way. This is the church we want and we confirmed but I'm having a hard time feeling 100% because the procession is so different!

[Deleted User] · August 2010

I do know a lot of churches (Catholic or not) are getting away from the father "giving" the bride away. It is becoming more common for both the parents to walk the bride down the aisle or walk with her groom. I have heard a few girls on this board say that is how their priest encouraged them to do it. Our priest was pretty strict on other issues, but he allowed us the traditional Dad walking me down the aisle which I have always wanted.

As far as the seating of the guests goes, that is fairly typical and common. Our wedding was like that as well. It is also typical/common for the WP to be on the ends of the aisle. Our GM met each girl halfway and then they walked down the aisle together to the altar.

Calypso1977 · August 2010

actually, the traditional way is to have the bride adn groom walk together, adn not be given away by anyone. i had planned all along to walk with my H as i hate the symbolism of being given away. i then learned that this was tradition anyway, when i got my wedding planning book. the priest actually assumed we'd do it the "mainstream" way and seemed pleased we wanted to walk together, although he was open to wahtever we wanted. i think it has somethign to do with entering marriage freely.

i liked that we approached the altar together. we made a joint decision to get married, why not walk up there together?

the added bonus is that because we saw each other before, we could do all of our pictures ahead of time too. this gave us maximum time wtih our guests and allowed us to enjoy the reception we paid for.

mica178 · August 2010

My priest didn't care about how we process, but my church music director suggested that we process in together. In addition to it being the Catholic traditional procession, it moves away from the fashion show spectacular and bride as chattel symbolism of the American traditional processional.

However, my FI is Presbyterian and Southern. So fashion show chattel exchange it'll be. Well, marriage is about compromise.

lindzi375 · August 2010

I wish my pastor didn't care but he said they will not bend and let the dad walk the daughter down the aisle. He said they would switch it up a little bit but it starts to get awkward. Do you think it's weird we don't walk down the aisle between the guests?

I do agree with the symbollism and think it is a great idea. However, I've always imagined getting married the traditional way so this puts a damper on getting married at this church...

ring_pop · August 2010

I actually really love this arrangement.

You still get to walk in with your parents. You're just saying goodbye to them BEFORE you reach the altar, not AT the altar.

Your groom also gets to process with his parents and do the same thing.

And then the two of you get to approach the altar together.

Am I understanding correctly when I say that you're walking up the aisle FACING the guests? They'll get a way better view of the two of you than people usually do when the bride walks in from behind them and they have to turn around and stuff to get a nice view of the bride.

Anyway, I really really love it and I hope you go through with it. I bet your guests will love it and talk about it forever too.

clearheavens · August 2010

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/cultural-wedding-boards_catholic-weddings_wedding-procession?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Cultural%20Wedding%20BoardsForum:615Discussion:e8426b48-ba24-4c50-b8f4-45bd0239f9e3Post:7a2775ca-0524-44f9-b3c7-34ce1edb5c76">Re: Wedding Procession</a>:
[QUOTE]<strong>I do know a lot of churches (Catholic or not) are getting away from the father "giving" the bride away.</strong> It is becoming more common for both the parents to walk the bride down the aisle or walk with her groom. I have heard a few girls on this board say that is how their priest encouraged them to do it.
Posted by MissySue20[/QUOTE]<div>
</div><div>The Church teaches that the bride and groom mutually, freely, and equally must enter marriage and administer the Sacrament to each other. These are some of the basics that makes a marriage valid. Having the bride and groom walk each other down the aisle more fully reflects this Rite of Marriage. For the same reason, Catholic invitation wording says something to the effect of "bride <em>and</em> groom uniting," not "bride married <em>to</em> groom." The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops wrote a media letter in May 2009 addressing this topic: <a href="http://www.nccbuscc.org/comm/archives/2009/09-097.shtml">http://www.nccbuscc.org/comm/archives/2009/09-097.shtml</a></div><div>
</div><div>Having said this, I don't want anyone to walk away thinking that this is just another "rule" that Church has imposed. It's not a requirement that the bride and groom walk each other down the aisle, it's merely <em>a suggestion</em>. The decision is between the priest and the couple.</div>

lindzi375 · August 2010

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/cultural-wedding-boards_catholic-weddings_wedding-procession?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Cultural Wedding BoardsForum:615Discussion:e8426b48-ba24-4c50-b8f4-45bd0239f9e3Post:259ab5e3-a010-44e2-b8c6-2be012bac33e">Re: Wedding Procession</a>:
[QUOTE]In Response to Re: Wedding Procession Having said this, I don't want anyone to walk away thinking that this is just another "rule" that Church has imposed. It's not a requirement that the bride and groom walk each other down the aisle, it's merely a suggestion . The decision is between the priest and the couple.
Posted by clearheavens[/QUOTE]

I appreciate all of the posts. At our church this is the only option and they won't do it any other way. I absolutely loved it when I was there and I love the reasoning behind it, I'm just scared I'll regret not doing a wedding the 'traditional' way..<img src="http://cdn.cl9.vanillaforums.com/downloaded/ver1.0/content/scripts/tinymce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-embarassed.gif" border="0" alt="Embarassed" title="Embarassed" />

Wedding Procession

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