A wedding for you and your nearest relatives and friends
If you want your relatives and friends to attend the wedding, without a wedding party, this is a very good alternative.
The wedding ceremony will usually occur forenoon and perhaps concluded with a lunch. In this kind of wedding the clothes are less conventional. Dark suit for the gentlemen and a dress or frock for the ladies .
The flower girl walks down the aisle before the bride, scattering flower petals from a basket.
The flower girl is usually an adorable little lady, but cute little boys can fill this role, too. Traditionally, she spreads flower petals on the floor before the bride, but other alternatives can be wrapped candies or confetti or blow bubbles. Other alternatives are carrying a bouquet of flowers or carry a bunch of thorn-less roses, which she passes out to the guests as they go down the aisle.
The flower girl is usually between four and eight years of age.
Most flower children sit with their parents after completing their stroll.
The Ring Bearer carries the wedding rings for the bridal couple.
The Ring Bearer carries a large white satin pillow on which imitation rings are sewn. The real weddings rings are being in the safekeeping of the Best Man.
Ring Bearers are usually nephews or young brothers and are generally about five to ten years old.
A young girl can also serve as a ring bearer. The flower girl can act as a ring bearer as well. She can carry the rings on a miniature pillow tucked into her flower basked.
What is an appropriate amount to pay the officiant?
The officiant’s fee is generally a donation. If the marriage take place in an other place, it is also suitable to compensate for travel expenses.
If you are planning a civil ceremony, your officiant is a civil official. Simply call their office and ask for the rate.
The most luxurious and comfortable is of course if you are able to choose a reception room in a manor house or a castle. The wedding can take place in a nearby church or outdoors in the park.
The wedding day is one of your life’s biggest event, a special occasion to celebrate together your family and friends. A lifetime memory, you will remember with great delight. Remember to reserve the reception site in good time before the wedding. Summertime is high season for weddings while October and November is off-season. A wedding in autumn or winter can become equally romantic as one in the summer. Think of the autumn’s beautiful colour or the winter’s twinkling snow with torches lighting up the sky and the crackling of woods that heat indoors.
Try to find a reception site close to the wedding, making the transportation easy for the guests. If there are possibilities, a horse-drawn carriage or a boat etc, is a very romantic way for the bridal couple to get to their reception. In wintertime a sleigh ride with torches can bring the couple there.
Contact various reception sites and ask for an offer. Visit different sites and talk with the organizers. Many organizers can help you with the wedding, wedding dinner, wedding cake, party, music and transportation for overnight staying.
Some good advice:
- Read the contract closely and check that everything you want to be included is stated in the contract, such as the bride’s toast, three-dishes menu, wine, coffee with cake and wedding cake. Moreover, of course, the setting of the table, the cost for using the site, cleaning and staff.
- Ask for a total amount, to be sure that no more costs will be added.
- Is there a parking lot, and is it free?
- Is there enough with restrooms, and perhaps also restrooms for disabled.
- Settled with the organizer how to place the dinner tables and where is the dancing floor and the bar.
- When shall the wedding take be served
- Organize the seating
- Can the organizer take care of flowers and presents over night, which will be collected the day after by the newlywed
- How long can you have the site? Is there an overtime fee?
- Invite personnel and musicians to your dinner
Perhaps, you spend your wedding night in a luxurious suite with heart shaped whirlpool, where also roses, morning gowns, slippers and champagne are included.
This is an arranged wedding, but not a pompous one.
This alternative is something between the other two alternatives. The day begins with the church or civil wedding. At the reception the guests can make their speeches to the bridal couple. The toastmaster organizes the reception.
No organised seating is made. The atmosphere is more relaxed. If no specific dress code is said in the invitation, it is allright for gentlemen to wear a dark suit and the ladies to wear a suit or dress.
What would your wedding be without music! Here some alternatives to accompany you, as you walk up and down the aisle.
It is really a pleasure to choose the music for the wedding. Below some tips:
Bride - and wedding marches
Air – George F Handel
Bridal chorus (Here Comes the Bride) – Richard Wagner
Spring – Antonio Vivaldi
Wedding march – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Romeo and Juliet love theme – Tchaikovsky
Winter – Antonio Vivaldi
It is also very nice to have a solo performer, someone who plays the acoustic guitar, flute or some other instrument.
Other music songs:
Annie´s song – John Denver
Ave Maria
Because you love me – Celine Dion
Endless love – Lionel Richie
Everything I do I do it for you – Bryan Adams
From this moment on – Shania Twain
Hello – Lionel Richie
The Rose – Bette Midler
The way you look tonight – J Kern
Vision of love – Mariah Carey
Your song – Elton John
Take your time to choose your music, to make the most of this beautiful moment!
Discuss your ceremony plans with a potential offician
Some questions to ask your intended officiant:
- Is the officiant available on your wedding day?
- Does the officiant charge a fee?
- Can the officiant travel to your wedding site or can she/he suggest one?
- Does the officiant have any samples of vows, readings, poems, or music?
- Can you tour the ceremony room?
- What does the site provide (flowers, candles etc)?
- Is there a dress code?
- Are there any restrictions on tossing items?
- Would the officiant like to come to the reception and the party?
It is very important that the officiant makes you feel comfortable, and that the feeling is mutual.
Civil Ceremony
You do not want a religious wedding. A justice of the peace, a judge, magistrate, county or court clerk, mayor, nor notary public can officiate you wedding. |
Who does what, who stands where, who goes first/last etc.
A perfect ceremony requires a lot of planning. The ceremony includes many moments that shall be coordinated. It is superb if you can arrange a rehearsal with all included.
In the church, the bride's relatives and friends are seated to the left of the aisle and the bridegroom's to the right. The nearest relatives are seated in the first rows. First the guests walk down the aisle, then the best man and the bridesmaids and at last the bridal couple’s parents. The flower girls walk down the aisle before the bride (together with her father), scattering flower petals from a basket.
When the bride is walking down the aisle the rest of the party are rising. According to tradition the bride’s father give away his daughter, but nowadays it is common that the bride wants to aisle-trek alone.
When the music stops the officiant gives a sermon or a speech. Then, the classic question comes “Do you take …?). When the bride and bridegroom have replied “YES”, the vows are exchanged. Now is the time for the best man to give the bride’s ring to the bridegroom.
After the ring ceremony, the officiant confirms the marriage, and the wedding is completed with a wedding speech.
According to old tradition the wedding guests tossed rice on the newlywed with wishes for fertility and prosperity.
Still, we follow this tradition to a great extent. Now and then, we hear that birds die when the rice swells in their bodies. Probably, it is not such a big problem as one earlier believed. However, if you make sure that the church stairs are swept after the rice tossing, you minimize the risk.
Contact the church intended (or other site for the ceremony) to find out if rice tossing is allowed.
Other alternatives to rice tossing are:
Blowing bubbles
It is very beautiful with soap bubbles up in the sky, glimmering in all rainbow colours.
Balloons
Why not send heart shaped balloons up in the sky. Label the balloons with the bridal couple’s names, dates and wedding site. It will be such a nice surprise for the person who catches the balloon, perhaps several miles away.
Rose petals
Rose petals thrown over the newlywed is very romantic.
Serpentines and confetti
Throw colourful serpentines and confetti. With the help of a perforator you can make your own confetti. Remember to sweep the church stairs afterwards!
Your guests want and need a program for your wedding ceremony. A wedding program is a wonderful memory from your wedding and it also allows your guests to follow along with the ceremony.
The wedding program begins with the full names of the bride and groom, the wedding date, and the city where they are marrying. Following this you can inform about the names of the musical sections, the composers and the performers, lyrics etc. Next are the names of the wedding party and the officiant.
Personalize your wedding program by adding special touches relating to your love story. It is very nice if all your stationery match your wedding theme and style.
You can use beautiful baskets, or antique trays containing all the programs at the entrance to the ceremony site so that guests can grab one as they arrive. Or you can put the programme on each chair. You can also ask your bridesmaid or groomsman to hand out the programs to your guests.
The churchwarden welcomes the wedding guests, and shows them where to sit. According to tradition, the bride’s family and friends will sit on the left side in the church and the bridegroom’s family and friends on the right side. The first benches on both sides are always reserved for the nearest relatives.
Nowadays, we do not follow tradition so strict, but still it is important with bride- and bridegroom side for the nearest relatives. It looks nicest if friends place themselves so that the left and the right side in the church become levelled seated.
Although the parents are divorced and perhaps also remarried, they have their roles at their child’s wedding. If the relationships are good, biological parents and their new wives or husbands can sit beside each other. Otherwise, they may sit some bench behind.
Slowly and silently the guests find their seats and await the wedding couple.
The bridegroom’s family arrives after the last guest and are seated on the first bench to the right. Last of all the bride’s family arrives and are seated on the first bench to the left.
Then the bride and her father walk in procession to the bridegroom who is waiting at the altar.
Important
It does not fit to laugh and speak highly in a church. A church requires rest and esteem.
The wedding takes about an hour. During this time, it is important that all attention is on the wedding couple. A crying or screaming child can destroy the wedding ceremony. It is often difficult for small children to sit still during the ceremony. Therefore it may be safest to arrange a babysitter.
Mobile telephones may definitely not be on in the church. It is not only interfering and embarrassing if the phones start to ring, it moreover shows on an incredible lack of respect against the wedding couple, guests and church.
Remember, it is not always allowed to take photos in the church. |
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