Order of service for civil ceremony?

laura_hoggle

Hi everyone,

We are having a civil ceremony on 20th July this year, and I can't decide if we should have an order of service or not.

For those of you who have had/are having a civil ceremony, have you had/are you having them?

If you are, what are you putting in them? We are having a couple of readings so I thought if we had one we could put them in, and also thought could put a little map of directions to the reception venue and possibly a little info on the buildings people pass (will be walking through Oxford city centre past some colleges etc.) but at the same time wasn't sure if it was just a waste of paper/card and people might just leave them at the ceremony!

I can't remember if I've ever been to a civil ceremony in the past so not sure what we should do! Any advice would be gratefully received

LEJC

a lot really depends on whether you want an order of service or a plan of the day...And indeed whether you are having just a basic ceremony or you are having some readings/special music etc

you could therfore make it more of an information sheet or as I said order of the day and include the timings for guests to arrive...ceremony noting any special music etc...then detailing the arrangements for photos/drinks etc...followed by reception details

You dont have to have an order of service any more than you have to have anything really .....but ive been to a couple of civil marriages where the events of the day have also been listed which can be quite helpful even if everyone knows them!

I also had a lovely order of day that detailed the bridesmaids and thanked the parents for their love and support...so I think you can be as detailed or informal as you wish....

People might leave them at the venue...but thats up to them really...I think its a nice touch whatever you put in....my only suggestion would be that it probably does need condensing into no more than a double page insert...potentially I wouldnt put directions to the reception people are quite capable of following eachother and should have chexcked those details before they left...that probably does then give you the option to print your readings out as part of the order....ive said all this but if you have family or friends that would be interested in knowing about the landmarks they go past...then why not!

wendz86

I am doing an order of day with an order of service in it. It will detauil the day and rough timings on one page and then the service on another page. I am putting what the readings are and who is reading them but not the songs as i want it to be a surprise.

Pinzy

We're having a civil ceremony and are having an Order of Service, it's got the order of the ceremony, order of the day, thanks to various people, and various other ramblings! More to give people something to read if I'm late

floss2

We didn't bother - short service with no readings so we didn't think it was worth the effort TBH.

minerva_windsong

I've been to a few weddings with civil ceremonies and am having one myself, and I'll probably do an order of service for ours as from being a guest (and how I am naturally) I like knowing what's happening next. But equally I think it is one of those things that only works for a ceremony if you've got lots of stuff like readings, music etc, whereas if you were having a very basic ceremony it probably wouldn't make much sense.

As has been mentioned you can do the combination order of service/running order for the day (or one or the other) - the last wedding I went to did this and I thought it was a nice touch so will probably end up stealing that for my own wedding. You can also include some extra info if you want - the ones that seem to be most common are names of the wedding party/people doing readings, or a few details about the music. I haven't seen many with the full text of readings, but if you want to do it then that's entirely up to you.

laura_hoggle

Thanks everyone.

I really like the idea of an 'Order of the Day' Wendz & Pinzy, so might borrow that, and put other bits in as minerva_windsong has said, like the names of the wedding party.

That's another thing to add to the to-do list, but might have a look on Vistaprint and see what they have that could be used - that's where we got the save the dates and invites from so might find something with the same style.

kwmlondon

There was my partner and two friends as witnesses. We went in, sat down, followed instructions, repeated a couple of short lines, signed some form or other and then we were sorted. 10 minutes. Walked back through the park, took some lovely pictures, saw an interesting shop and the entire wedding party went to look at rugs for a few minutes. Decided not to get anything then and there, but mean to go back. Got home, had a bottle of bubbly and then everyone got in a single taxi to the restaurant me and my partner went to for our first date. Didn't even need to book a table! Best wedding I've ever been to!

james.lew

Hi Guys,

I saw your thread and thought you may find this useful. Paper themes are currently doing a promotion on 'Order of Service' stationary, offering 30% off! I've had some invitations from Paper Themes in the past and they are really good quality products so this offer is a real steal!

It won't let me post the link on here but if you Google Paper Themes and go to their order of service section you should find it no problem! It only lasts until the 16th June though so grab it while it's there!

Share and spread the word!