How to plan the Perfect Wedding Ceremony

The ultimate guide to making sure that your Big Day is memorable and lively.

Timing is everything!

When it comes to a planning a wedding ceremony, you want to have a timeline of every aspect. Try to estimate how long things will take. For example, how long will it take for the flower girl to walk down the aisle? or how long will the introduction music be playing? An important question is how long you want the whole ceremony to be, especially the speaking part with your wedding officiate. Typical wedding ceremonies should be around 30 mins, with a 10 to 20 min speaking part. You want to keep your wedding ceremony short and sweet. However, if you are including traditional rituals in your ceremony you might want to keep this in mind.

Celebrating your love story

After you have a rough draft of your ceremony timeline, it's time to get specific. Set up a meeting with your wedding officiate to talk about your love story and what's important to you. As a wedding officiate, it helps tremendously when I have background on the couple so that I can incorporate it in my script. Every couple is different, so spend some time thinking about what your dream wedding looks like. Some couples prefer a funny or lighthearted ceremony, while others want a romantic and sincere ceremony.

It's all in the details

Last but not least, when thinking of your perfect ceremony make sure to include music! What song do you want to walk down the aisle to? or what song do you want to be played as you kiss your bride? Music is a great way to signal to your guests the start or end of your ceremony. It also helps as a transition from ceremony to celebration time.