What’s involved in a Christian Wedding Ceremony? | UPlanIt Looks At Christian Wedding Traditions.
“The day is started with a processional — when all the necessary parties make their way to the altar…”
Though the number of Christian weddings held in churches is declining in the UK, we still think it’s important to learn about different traditions from other cultures and religions, especially since the world is so vast and unpredictable! Christian wedding traditions have differed since when they began, but that’s no surprise since that was thousands of years ago! We understand that Christianity is culturally diverse with lots of denominational differences, and different proceedings according to them; Anglicans, Catholics and some Orthodox have similar wedding ceremony proceedings but Protestants, Baptists, Reformed, Presbyterians, Lutherans and some others have different proceedings when it comes to weddings. Taking this into consideration, we’ll be focusing on Church of England and Catholic wedding traditions in this blog to keep it short, but please let us know if we miss anything out or if we need to change anything written!
For pre-wedding tradition, Catholic Christians are encouraged to marry other Catholics in order to have a “perfect union of mind and full communion of life”, but nowadays in countries throughout the world, it’s more common for them to enter into a mixed marriage between Catholic and non-Catholic. According to the BBC, a mixed marriage is allowed if the couple have chosen to marry without being pressured into it, if they intend to remain together for life, intend to be faithful to each other, and they intend to have children. For Non-Catholic Christians who wish to marry in their local Church of England parish church, only one of the couple needs to live in the parish; previously they could not be married in another parish unless they had attended church services there for six months and on its electoral roll but this was changed in July 2007.
The Church of England had made a change in law to make it easier for couples to have a church wedding in a parish other than their own, making it easier to marry where there is a family or special connection. The qualifying connects are that one of the couple was baptised or confirmed in the parish, one of the couple has (at any time) lived there for six months or more, a parent of one of the couple has lived or attended services for six months or more, or a parent/grandparent of one of the couple was married there. There are different pre-wedding traditions for both Catholics and Church of England, however both include speaking with the priest about the sanctity of marriage and discussing their future life together; what problems may arise and ideas on how to deal with them. The couple will also discuss hymns for the day, and if the church offers it, extra touches like flowers and musicians.
As for the wedding ceremony itself, a Christian ceremony can last for 30 to 90 minutes! Sundays are avoided as ceremony days since this is considered “Sabbath” or day of rest, but any other day can be used as a Christian Wedding day. The day is started with a processional — when all the necessary parties make their way to the altar. According to brides.com, the priest enters first (the guests will have been invited into the hall and taken their seats by now), and in a heterosexual ceremony, the groom enters next. He can either be escorted by a parent/family member, or he can enter on his own, it’s his choice. The groomsmen follow soon after, followed by the parents and grandparents of the couple. Then the bridesmaids, ring bearer and flower girl make their way down the aisle, and finally, the bride. Traditionally she is escorted by her father, but more people are choosing to either be escorted by either or both parents.
The giving away of the bride used to symbolise the bride was a gift to the groom, but as time has gone on, it’s more of a sentimental symbol of their child growing up and leaving the household; once the chosen parent(s) of the bride arrives with her to the altar, they let her go to the groom to symbolically give her away. Once the procession has been completed, the priest will call for a moment of silence in order to remember loved ones who have passed on, and they will say the names of these people in order to welcome their presence to the ceremony. After, the priest will begin the service, otherwise known as Homily. Often, the couple will have chosen a Bible passage and a number of hymns for the service, but the priest will also have passages prepared in order to guide the couple through life and their new marriage. The couple will then exchange their vows to each other, which are read out by the priest and either repeated by the couple, or the priest will simply ask each person to respond with “I do” after each vow. This is the most sacred part of the wedding ceremony, as the couple promises to one another to uphold the sanctity of their marriage, and the couple may choose to read their personalised vows after the priest completes the official version. The priest will then ask the guests to communally respond “We Do” when asked to support the couple in upholding these vows.
This is followed by a Unity Ceremony and symbolises the couple and their families joining as one. Order can differ from ceremony to ceremony but this is the common order — the ceremony can consist of lighting a unity candle, and a representative from each side of the couple (sometimes the mothers) lights a family candle to represent their family and then uses this candle to light a new flame together. Another example of a Unity Ceremony can be hand-fasting, as described in our British Wedding Traditions blog. The priest will then move onto the exchange of rings between the couple, accompanied by vows from the couple. When interviewed by Brides.com, Reverend Roxy spoke about the exchanging of rings; “The love in marriage should have an unendingness to it, just like a ring. We exchange them because it’s something we can put on the body that represents that type of love.”.
Finally, the pronouncement is the conclusion of the ceremony, and it can be up to the priest’s discretion whether they direct the couple to kiss before or after they declare the couple to be officially married in the eyes of the church. When exiting (also known as the recessional) the couple comes down the aisle and leaves first, officially married and happily wed — closely followed by their ring bearers, flower girls, wedding party and family members. The priest is the last to leave, as they were the first to enter — this, in turn, marks the beginning and ending of the ceremony, and the guests will then be directed to leave towards either a wedding breakfast or reception to celebrate the newlyweds.
And there you have it! A perfect Christian wedding ceremony, with happy couples and delighted guests. We love researching into more different cultural and religious ceremonies, so if you have any suggestions we’d love to hear them! Pop us a comment here or send us a message on any of our social media pages below!
See you next week.
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