January 31, 2025

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4 Ways to Make Your Catholic Wedding Ceremony Welcoming

This article is a guest post, written by the talented women over at Simply Sacred Events! Joy and Mary are Catholic wedding planners in Indianapolis and also serve Chicago, Detroit, Cincinnati.

4 Ways to Make Your Catholic Wedding Ceremony Welcoming

” One thing we make sure to tell our clients about their Catholic wedding: your wedding might be the first time someone is stepping foot in a Catholic church for the first time in years, or maybe even in their life. Make it as beautiful and welcoming of an experience as you can!

With that in mind, here are five ways that you can make your Catholic wedding ceremony welcoming to those who aren’t familiar with Catholic weddings.

  1. Provide friendly and informed ushers

More informal weddings often don’t have ushers, but having someone to greet and guide a guest from the entrance is the perfect way to help someone in an unfamiliar environment. By choosing friends with great people skills to be your ushers, you will reassure them and help them find their footing from the start. Have your ushers be prepared to greet guests with a smile, point out where they can find the bathrooms, and show them an appropriate place to sit.

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  1. Lay out expectations on your wedding website

Lay the groundwork beforehand! Make sure your wedding website informs guests of the expectations for a church wedding. Make a note on your invitations to direct guests to your wedding website, and include expectations for dress code, not bringing food into the church, and the expected length of the ceremony. Remember though, that it is essential to be very kind in your language! Welcoming guests requires love and compassion, and not just a strict list of rules.

  1. Provide a Ceremony Aid

                As Catholics, our weddings are rich with tradition and beauty, but it can also be a little overwhelming to those who aren’t accustomed to it. Consider providing a program that does a little to explain what is going on in the ceremony so that guests can read along.

  1. Ask your priest to assist with announcements

When it comes to participating in the ceremony, guests may feel a bit adrift in understanding their part in participating. Ask your celebrant to address this at the beginning of the ceremony by informing them of their options, particularly when it comes to keeling down, and receiving communion.

The beauty of a Catholic wedding ceremony is staggering! Attempting to make your wedding ceremony welcoming, engaging, and reflective of the beauty of heaven is a wonderful step toward using your marriage as an evangelization tool. “

A warm thank you to Simply Sacred Events for their expertise on how to make your Catholic wedding ceremony welcome!

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