Entertaining Wedding Ceremonies

Your Ceremony, Your Way

For all intents and purposes, your wedding ceremony is the most significant and important part of that special day when your friends and families witness your lives being joined together. It’s a momentous occasion, laced with tradition, formality, and legality. In the light you have honored an assemblage of guests by inviting them to be in attendance, your wedding ceremony is an occasion that not only can be moving and emotional, but also entertaining and memorable.

It’s accepted and understood, the wedding celebration is a series of events that take place in a specific order. When the ceremony is approached from an entertainment standpoint, these events can be planned and presented so they all contribute to the enjoyment of your guests—individuals who have been invited to share in and be a part of your special day. If it’s what you want, in addition to being a moving and emotional occasion, your wedding ceremony can also be a time for levity and cheers. In other words, while it is a heartfelt and serious, at the same time it can also be entertaining and fun, in accordance with your unique and personal style.

The Music

Naturally, your ceremony’s agenda can include specially-chosen music, played at just the right time to compliment every segment of the ceremony. You may choose to have a solo rendered by a close friend or relation, selections played by a string quartet, guitarist, harpist, pianist, etc., or creatively-presented prerecorded arrangements. When presented effectively, the music can enhance everyone’s experience. Being creative with selections can make an appropriate and often entertaining statement. You have to be the judge. Here are some quick examples:

• During the prelude’s pre-processional music, the impressive ending of “Ravel’s Bolero” can be timed so that the climax happens at the precise moment to serve as an astounding punctuation for the parent’s processional. This can impact the emotions of everyone in attendance.

• During an outdoor ceremony overlooking the ocean, after the parents were seated, the introduction to “Rocky” (main theme) kicked in, and instantly the groom entered the scene from behind some sand dunes, to some laughter, applause, and cheers from the waiting assemblage.

• The bride and groom chose to feature the signing of their marriage license as part of the proceedings. This moment was accompanies by Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours.”

• After a very long engagement, for the recessional, the traditional fanfare to Mendelsohn’s “Wedding March” served as an introduction to the familiar “Hallelujah Chorus” by Handel.

Entertaining Features

• A bride-to-be and her mother were in my office describing the one thing that stood out about a wedding they had recently attended. It was really the only thing they remembered. It happened during the ceremony. The officiant said to the groom, “You may now kiss the bride,” and at that moment, the groom leaned over to his best man, opened wide, at which time the best man produced a dispenser of mouthwash and squirted some in the groom’s mouth.

• At the close of  their ceremony, a large biker man and his sweet, little bride were presented for the first time as husband and wife. As they faced the audience, one of the groomsmen snuck behind the formidable-looking groom and attached a life-sized ball and chain, made out of plastic, to his right ankle. As the recessional commenced and they made their exit, guests laughed and cheered when he passed by dragging his comical, new “burden.”

• Here’s a great one entitled, “Who Has the Rings” from “The Fun Wedding Guy.”