Wedding Wednesday: Knowing Your Role (Part 4)

I apologize for being a day late with the final installment of this month's Wedding Wednesday series. As promised last week, I will go into greater detail (as written by my dear friend and personal cheerleader Debbie Tobias) of what an usher does on your wedding day.

Ushers are typically responsible for

• Arriving early to the wedding ceremony. They can help you with any last-minute details like lighting candles, checking the audio system, etc.
• Greeting wedding guests as they arrive to the wedding ceremony
• Escorting female guests down the aisle and to their seats; her male guest follows behind them. Traditionally, an usher offers his right arm so that he may escort the ladies. But if that seems too formal for your client's wedding, a simple greeting and a "please, follow me" is completely acceptable.
• Distributing any programs to guests at the wedding ceremony
• Right before the processional, rolling out the aisle runner

Make sure that each usher knows the seating guidelines for the wedding ceremony. For a Christian ceremony, looking from the back of the room, guests of the bride sit on the left-hand side of the aisle/altar, while the groom's guests sit on the right. This is reversed for Jewish ceremonies.

If the divvying up of wedding guests is unbalanced--say, the groom has 100+ guests and the bride has 20--instruct the ushers to direct guests, as they arrive, to the best available seats.

The role of usher is ideal for teenage boys and/or adults whom your clients want to include on their big day. Ushers should be comfortable talking to people. Most ushers will have to rent (or buy) formalwear unless, of course, you are comfortable with them wearing their own suit.

Hope this information has been of some assistance to you in determining the role of the persons selected to be a part of your wedding party.

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