7 Tips For Your Wedding Ceremony

Your ceremony is the most important part of your wedding, the official ceremony of you both joining as one whilst being surrounded by all of your friends and family. Even though the standard civil ceremony will only last around 30 minutes, it is a very important 30 minutes that you want to get perfect and not have any regrets when remembering your special day. 

I have put together 7 tips for your ceremony that will make your ceremony run smoothly and your photographs turn out perfect!

Reserve Seating

The bridal party will require specific seating at the front, although this is common at weddings a lot of guests don’t think about this when taking their seat. To make sure there are enough seats available in the right places put reserved seating signs on the chairs or create a specific seating plan. Give your ushers or wedding co-ordinator this information so they can ensure guests sit in the right place and everything is ready for you to walk down the aisle and marry your partner with no last-minute awkward shuffles of seats. 

Bonus Tip – If you have the choice between rows of three or four seats go with four to cater for the majority of your guests being in couples or families of four, always try and go with an even number.

Have a back-up song for the signing

Most commonly signing the register can only last the duration of one and a bit songs, so it is commonly suggested to have two available. I would recommend having an extra song prepared as a backup option just in case it runs over or your chosen songs are slightly shorter than average. This way the same songs don’t have to be repeated to fill time.

Make sure a professional looks after the music

The music is such an important factor of your ceremony, it is not only expected but it creates the perfect atmosphere for each part of the ceremony and the memories of these moments will stay with you forever. You will be brought back to these special moments every time you hear these songs, you don’t want to be remembering them for the wrong reasons. The music needs to be perfectly timed, faded in and out and at the correct volume so make sure you arrange for someone to do this that knows exactly what they are doing.

Write your vows onto something fitting

Your vows create a beautiful moment and promises between you both, they deserve to be presented on more than a scrappy piece of paper. They will also be noticeable in your photos, you won’t want to look back at your photos and think how something so simple could have had an impact on the whole photo. You will be dressed beautifully and the room will be decorated for the occasion, your vows should look the part too. A couple of ideas for this would be to write them on some nice card or a clear piece of acrylic with a white marker pen.

Have an unplugged ceremony

You will want your guests to be fully involved in this beautiful moment with you, experiencing it for themselves and not through their phone camera. You also don’t want your professional photos coming back with lots of phones and cameras in the background instead of your guest’s reactions to this special moment. Let your guests know that you want to do an unplugged ceremony beforehand and also create a sign fitting with your style at the entrance of the ceremony as a reminder.

Delay the setup on a white aisle runner

If you are going for a light coloured aisle runner then speak to your wedding coordinator about setting this down after your guests have all sat for the ceremony, this way it will be beautiful and clean for the entrance of the bride. There will also be no appearance of dirt marks or muddy footprints in your photos.

Create a few seconds to take it all in

The ceremony will go so quickly and you will feel as though you are in a bubble the whole time, before you make your exit from the ceremony turn around to face your guests and simply take it all in for a few seconds. Your exit song will be playing, all of your loved ones will be together cheering and you will have just married the love of your life. This is a special moment not to be forgotten.