Let's talk about ushers

Simky906

I'm a bit confused about ushers and what exactly they do. My fiancé and I were trying to decide whether we wanted to have ushers and mentioned this to my grandmother. She will be directing our ceremony (for context, my grandfather is a Presbyterian minister and has performed hundreds of weddings and my grandmother has directed almost all of them) and she stated that we need ushers as we need someone to escort our guests to their seats as they arrive. Now, I've only been to a few weddings as an adult but I have not seen one where all the guests are escorted to their seats. Our wedding isn't extremely formal, and I'm concerned that a) it will look out of place and b) that I don't know how it will work logistically since our friends are the kinds to save seats for those arriving later. My original thought regarding ushers would be that they would be the ones to escort my fiancé's grandmothers and my stepmother to their seats before the profession started and let people know where the programs are if anyone asks. Now I'm trying to figure out the best approach- all thoughts are welcome! ETA: our wedding will be in a hotel courtyard

getaclue44

Our church required them. We used the two GM as the ushers and my two brothers. So two were in suits and two in tuxes. My brothers also escorted my mother and grandmother down the aisle.

indianaalum

I think ushers are also used to roll out the white aisle runner right before the ceremony in the church, too. At least, mine did that (in addition to other tasks)

kjvaracalli

We're using ushers (Catholic mass), but it's not required by the church or otherwise.  The guys we're using are not groomsmen (some ppl use the groomsmen) but we wanted to include these 4 other guys in some way into the day.  They give out programs, escort guests to seats.  I don't think it's "too formal" to have them.  I've been to weddings with and without them.  

HisGirlFriday13

Some churches require them and some churches don't. We had them because we had reserved pews for family seating and it was the job of our ushers (my brother, DH's brother and a good friend) to recognise their family members and seat them accordingly. 

Other than reserved family pews, we didn't have sides for seating, so the ushers basically just said, 'Sit wherever you want.' I have no idea if they actually seated anyone or not, other than my brother seating my mother and BIL seating DH's grandmother (and I only know that because we have photos of that).

I think your sense of having ushers to escort VIPs to their seats is a good one.

Simky906

I think we'll probably go with the seating VIPs route; I just wanted to make sure I wasn't totally off base with my line of thinking.

Simky906

@scribe95 That was my original thought as well, but my fiancé wants his groomsmen with him leading up to the ceremony. He also wants a way to include his youngest cousin and I would like to include my brother. We were thinking of asking one or both to do readings but with combining our religious traditions the ceremony is getting kinda long so we scrapped that idea.

jessicabessica

We asked all of our uncles in attendance to be ushers.  My DH's cousin did that before our wedding, and we liked that the between all the uncles, they knew almost all the guests (we had more family than friends).  Our ushers offered kippot (Jewish head coverings) and greeted guests.  We didn't have bride/groom sides for seating, so they may have told guests that if asked.  

APDSS22

We had my brother as an usher and one of the groomsmen acted as an usher to get the grandmothers to their seats.  One of them is in a wheelchair so she actually needed someone specifically to push her down the aisle so she wouldn't roll too fast and end up on the altar.  Then my brother forgot there were two old ladies to escort back out so the groomsman's wife ended up noticing the stranded wheelchair-bound grandmother and pushed her up the aisle at the end.  For which, I am eternally grateful. Having someone dedicating to seating the VIPs is a nice touch.

phira

We're sort of having ushers?

We're not going to be asking anyone in particular to get gussied up for the purpose of showing guests to their seats before the processional starts. I assume that our DOC will try to hide me in the bridal suite (HAHA GOOD LUCK THERE, YOUNG LADY), but I'm reasonably sure that the DOC will let everyone know when it's time to sit, and otherwise the mother of the bride and mother of the groom (both elementary school teachers) will be able to wrangle everyone to the ceremony area very easily.

There aren't any sides (people can sit where they want besides the first couple of rows), so I'm not too worried.

However, once the processional starts, we're going to have grandparents and parents walking down the aisle, so we WILL have some people acting as ushers in that capacity who are not also groomsmen or bridesmaids.