ceremony readings

Tuesdays with Ty - Ceremony planning

With 7 weeks to go now we are turning our focus to the details of the ceremony.  The big pieces of the ceremony have been put into place, but now we need figure out the little things that will make our day memorable. Obviously, you need someone to perform your marriage ceremony and since our wedding isn't taking place in a church we had to decide who to use.  The minister from my hometown church is marrying us.   Most ministers are very specific on how they want the ceremony to run, so getting this detail taken care of will help you move forward on this part of planning.  In our pre-marriage counseling classes we will go through and plan the ceremony and how we want it to go with the minister.

If you want to start getting an idea of how it will go before you meet with your minister, The Knot has a good resource of program wording by ceremony and religion type.   You can use this as a basic outline until you meet with your officiant to get his/her ideas.  This way you can start getting an idea of what readings and music you want to incorporate and where it is appropriate.

As for readings, I think it is important to use things that are special to you and your fiance.  Of course, there are the very traditional readings that are beautiful and never go out of style.  However, we are going to incorporate some Bible verses Brandon used during his proposal.  He had written a few very special ones about love on little cards for me.  We are also going to have the readings done by couples that are special to us and in the program list how many years they have been married.

If you want a different twist, you can always pick a unique poem or short book.  One of my favorite weddings I attended had a children's book read during their ceremony called "I Like You".  It was SO appropriate because she is a kindergarten teacher.  Don't be afraid to go out of the box!

Music in the ceremony is the same...you can always go traditional and classic.  There are great resources for that as well on The Knot.   BUT we aren't going traditional on the ceremony music!  We are having all acoustic guitar and I am so excited!  Brandon has a friend that is a musical genius, so he is in charge.  We are using a few special songs (that will be revealed later) and one that was written by the guitarist we are using.  I also have a dear friend, who happens to be a Grammy Nominated Artist, who is also singing.    I hope it will be memorable for all.

Tip: Go to YouTube and type in different songs to see if you like them.  Most anything can be found on YouTube and you might find something different!

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Make your ceremony your own!  It is the little things that mean the most.

Happy Planning!

-Ty