Traditional Wedding Ceremony
Wedding Ceremony > Traditional Wedding Ceremony
Wedding is a significant event in everyone's life. However planning a wedding ceremony is quite tricky.
Once you decide to have a traditional wedding ceremony, you have to follow a certain protocol. Traditional wedding is usually held at church and is a public ritual rather than a private ceremony. It takes place in the late morning or early afternoon. Select the best church wedding decorations for your church ceremony.
Music for traditional wedding will depend on the church. Classical music is played for wedding march. Then unity candle is lit, which symbolizes the lifetime union of the bride and the groom. Every guest lights the candle in the name of god and blesses the couple.
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Once every one is seated in the church and bride and groom are at the altar, priest formally greets the guests. Then opening prayer is said. After these prayers, the best man hands over the rings to the priest. These are exchanged after the recital of the wedding vows. Prayer of faithful is performed. Everyone receives sacrament. After this, the priest offers nuptial blessings. Wedding ceremony concludes with blessings and dismissal.
In traditional marriage ceremony, vows and readings cannot be personalized. You also have to follow certain instructions regarding wedding ceremony decorations. Wedding ceremony music and songs also are traditional.
The steps in a Traditional Wedding Ceremony are as follows:
- Procession - The wedding party enters the wedding site. This entry is called procession. The groom enters first followed by bridesmaids escorted by groomsmen, the Maid of Honor is escorted by the best man, the flower girl, the ring-bearer, and bride with her father.
- Greetings - The priest or officiate greets the guests and welcomes them to the divine lifetime union of the couple in love.
- Introduction - The bride and the groom are welcomed to the ceremony and are introduced by the officiate to the guests.
- Readings - This is an occasion where a song, a poem or some meaningful speech is dedicated to the bride or the groom by a family member.
- Wedding Vows - Vows are a high-point of the ceremony. This is where you proclaim the promises that you have made to your partner in private. It is a public declaration of the promises.
- Exchange of Rings - The priest explains the meaning of this tradition and what they symbolize. The rings are blessed by the minister and then are exchanged by the bride and the groom. The ring is placed on the ring finger of the left hand as it is believed that the vein in this finger directly connects to the heart.
- Unity Candle - Lighting a unity candle is an act symbolizing the union of the couple. It is the first task that they do as a married couple.
- The Kiss - After officially declaring the couple as married, the priest asks the couple to kiss each other. This is their first kiss after being married and a symbol of love that they share.
- Pronouncement - The priest declares the couple as the husband and wife and they are introduced to each other's guests as Mr. & Mrs. _________.
- Exit - The wedding party leaves the wedding site in the following order - Bride and groom together, Ring bearer and flower girl together, Maid of honor and best man together, Bridesmaids and groomsmen together, Parents of the bride, Parents of the groom, guests and the Minister.
Usually wedding ceremony reception is held to celebrate the wedding in the evening. A wedding reception party is the first function arranged by the bride and the groom as a married couple. They generally gift the wedding attendants as a token of thanks for helping them out during the testing and exhausting wedding planning process. This party is usually arranged on the evening of the wedding day or before they depart for honeymoon.
