By Perfect Wedding Guide ‘National Wedding Expert’, Susan Southerland
Many couples come to me looking for a special way to include their children in their wedding ceremony. That was a big concern for my husband and me as well. I have three beautiful children from my first marriage that we absolutely wanted to make an important part of our wedding celebration. Throughout our wedding planning process, we constantly had our ceremony in the back of our minds and we were always on the lookout for something special for them. I hope that today’s wedding blog post will inspire those of you who have children to include them in your ceremony in a special, meaningful way.
I should start by saying that we included the children in the wedding planning process. We discussed the various locations that we were considering with them. Colorado was not only special to us, but a particular favorite of my boys. My daughter wanted California, but we overruled her (We did, however, go to California for our “familymoon.” (You will see more about that later in the week.) My daughter chose her own dress within certain parameters that I gave her and my boys are the ones who wanted tuxedos. The boys also helped create the kid’s buffet for the reception dinner. They all enjoyed being able to be in on some of the decision-making. I think that it made them even more excited to be part of the wedding.
With the exception of my husband’s brother, my children were the only ones in our wedding party. My daughter (15) was my maid of honor and my boys (9) were Scott’s groomsmen.
After Scott and I said our vows and exchanged rings, we said vows to the children and gave them each a keepsake. We gave my daughter a gold-covered aspen leaf. For my sons, we gave them each a pouch with an Indian head in it. One of my sons said that he was going to keep it forever and that when he died he was going to leave it to his son. During those vows, there wasn’t a dry eye amongst our guests.
Finally, we gave each child a small reading to conclude the ceremony. We let my daughter pick hers out and in true teenage-fashion; she read it off her cell phone rather than paper.
By including our children in the ceremony, it made the experience richer for everyone involved. The ceremony joining husband and wife is already joyous and meaningful, but the recognizing of the creation of a new family is truly an emotional and beautiful celebration.
I would love to hear your ideas about involving your children in your wedding ceremony. Please post something for me here or email me at susan(dot)southerland(at)pwg(dot)com.
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***Photo credit goes to Kim Nodurft Photography, Ginger Midgett and some are from my iPhone.
