Guidelines For Planning A Marriage Service

The preceding discussion underscores the main elements to be symbolized and therefore included in a Christian wedding service. When woven together after careful planning, they create a service that follows the general outline described below. The Entrance Procession. The Entrance procession at a wedding is a form of the Entrance procession of the ministers at Sunday worship. Since the marrying couple are the ministers of marriage, they should walk together in this procession, preceded by the best man and the maid of honor, their parents, and the presiding church minister. The long-traditional wedding procession in which the bride enters with her father, preceded by her bridesmaids, to be handed over to her husband, derives from a time when a marriage was the transfer of a woman from the legal authority of her father to that of her husband. Since few brides, hopefully few couples, see marriage in this light today, this traditional procession is best replaced by the ministerial process…