Who does the readings?

mstuttle12 · August 2013

My fiance and I are having a difficult time choosing people to do the 2 readings and the responsorial psalm for our ceremony. Who typically does these readings? Any opinions on how we choose who to read and from which side of the family?

Thank you!

MobKaz · August 2013

I can only speak from the perspective of a Catholic mass. In our wedding, there is no one typical person. My daughter and her FI looked first to their Godparents. One from each side read one of the two readings. Our cantor sang the responsorial psalm. Finally, my daughter recruited her Godchild to bring up the gifts. In her case, my daughter and her FI chose those people closest to them spiritually.

mstuttle12 · August 2013

mobkaz said:

I can only speak from the perspective of a Catholic mass. In our wedding, there is no one typical person. My daughter and her FI looked first to their Godparents. One from each side read one of the two readings. Our cantor sang the responsorial psalm. Finally, my daughter recruited her Godchild to bring up the gifts. In her case, my daughter and her FI chose those people closest to them spiritually.

Ours is a Catholic ceremony, but we are not doing full mass as I, as the bride, cannot receive communion and would be a bit embarrassed not doing so at my own wedding. Thank you so much for your input! I was thinking of asking my Godfather to do one of the readings. I have a feeling that he will not be comfortable speaking in front of that many people, though, so I was trying to think of a back up in case he declines.

itzMS · August 2013

We had the 3 spouses of our wedding party members. We're obviously good friends with them as well, so it worked out.

Since they were going to be at the rehearsal anyways, it also worked out for that reason ;-)

mstuttle12 · August 2013

itzMS said:

We had the 3 spouses of our wedding party members. We're obviously good friends with them as well, so it worked out.

Since they were going to be at the rehearsal anyways, it also worked out for that reason ;-)

I'm enjoying the idea of using a family member or close friend who will be at rehearsal, anyway! A lot of his family will be coming from out of town, so it may be difficult for them to get into town a day earlier to make it to rehearsal. Is it bad etiquette to ask somebody in the WP to do a reading as well? i.e. my SIL?

Jen4948 · August 2013

Anyone you like can do a reading.

NYCBruin · August 2013

mstuttle12 said:

itzMS said:

We had the 3 spouses of our wedding party members. We're obviously good friends with them as well, so it worked out.

Since they were going to be at the rehearsal anyways, it also worked out for that reason ;-)

I'm enjoying the idea of using a family member or close friend who will be at rehearsal, anyway! A lot of his family will be coming from out of town, so it may be difficult for them to get into town a day earlier to make it to rehearsal. Is it bad etiquette to ask somebody in the WP to do a reading as well? i.e. my SIL?

I see no problem, but since being in the WP is an honor and doing a reading is also an honor a lot of people choose to have different people so they can include more people.

Since you said you're getting married in a Catholic church, I would check with your priest about any requirements for readers. These will vary by parish. For example, our priest requires that readers believe in what they read. That means that our readers must be Christian (but not necessarily Catholic) for the New Testament reading. We can also ask one of our Jewish friends to do a reading from the Old Testament.

MobKaz · August 2013

mstuttle12 said:

itzMS said:

We had the 3 spouses of our wedding party members. We're obviously good friends with them as well, so it worked out.

Since they were going to be at the rehearsal anyways, it also worked out for that reason ;-)

I'm enjoying the idea of using a family member or close friend who will be at rehearsal, anyway! A lot of his family will be coming from out of town, so it may be difficult for them to get into town a day earlier to make it to rehearsal. Is it bad etiquette to ask somebody in the WP to do a reading as well? i.e. my SIL?

I think what most posters are suggesting is that almost anyone you choose can do a reading. However, I wouldn't be so quick to rule out OOT family or someone not able to attend the rehearsal. Especially if the OOT guest is familiar with the order of Mass, there is really almost no need for a reader to attend the rehearsal. I would worry more about the content. To that end, you could email the reading to the OOT guest to familiarize him/herself with the reading. My daughter did this for her readers, even though they both attended the rehearsal. Her aunt was concerned she might cry through the reading, so she in particular wanted to familiarize herself with the content.

I see no reason why someone IN the wedding party cannot read a passage. One of my daughter's BM's also served the role as Eucharistic Minister during her Mass.

southernbelle0915 · August 2013

Why don't you pick someone and have FI pick someone? We had two readings and that's what we did. They came to the rehearsal, but it wasn't really necessary. The officiant will indicate when it's time to do the reading and they'll just go up and do it and sit down when they're done. Easy peasy.

allispain · August 2013

We chose to have our siblings do the readings, since they weren't in the WP. One of DH's sisters speaks Spanish, like me, so I chose a reading for her to do - his other sister then read it in English translation. DH then picked a reading for my sister to read. It worked out really well for us. They were all OOT guests - no big deal. I e-mailed them the readings a week in advance so they could practice if they wanted to or at least familiarize themselves with the content.

Who does the readings?

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