Three Things: About your ceremony

Tips

Feb 4

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When it comes to planning, the ceremony tends to kind of take care of itself. The officiant will give you the rundown on how they usually do things, with a few options, and you can just sign off on a set timeline. But there are some things you might want to think about when you're planning the most official part of your wedding day.1. Make a ListPlanning a wedding involves a lot of compromise. Unless you and your person and your family AND their family all have the same tastes and opinions, anyway. So make yourself a list, starting with what's most important to you. Do you have your heart set on a particular venue, or does is absolutely have to be an elegant evening affair? Prioritizing what's the most important to you will help you decide where to fight your battles (is bubbles over birdseed really the hill you want to die on?), and it'll also help you decide where to spend your money.2. Choose your own adventureAt the end of the day, the goal is to be married. There are a billion ways to accomplish that, and you get to decide which traditions are important to you. You don't HAVE to get a veil. You don't HAVE to do traditional vows. You don't HAVE to wear white, or a dress, or a tux, or any particular thing. To get legally married, you only need a few witnesses and an officiant to sign your papers. If you're not worried about legal, your options are wide open. Decide together what traditions matter to you.3. Mind the GapWe were guests at a wedding once where we had about 3 hours to kill between the ceremony and the reception. We ended up sitting around at a Starbucks that was en route. Consider how much time you're leaving, and how far you're asking people to travel between the two. If you know you're going to want a lot of portraits, but don't want to make your guests wait too long, consider getting some shots before the ceremony, or pop out during your reception to do some. If you're adamantly against seeing each other before the wedding, at least think about doing a cocktail hour so that your guests have somewhere to go. Aside from your guests, think about what you and your wedding party are going to be doing during that time. Give yourself some time to relax.If you're finding your planning to be overwhelming, check out the last Three Things on Gettin it Done.Have a question? Ask the photographer! we want your skulls