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| Ceremony Seating |
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| From the placement of guests in
the pews or seats to the entrance of the bride and
groom, any wedding ceremony requires a fair amount
of choreography in order to run smoothly. Here are
some traditional guidelines for seating arrangements,
procession, ceremony formation, and recession. You
can choose to conduct your ceremony in a different
way, but be sure to ask the officiant if he or she
is amenable to changes before doing so. |
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Seating at a Christian Ceremony |
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| Christian Seating |
| At a traditional, formal Christian
wedding or a large civil ceremony, the bride’s family
and friends are seated on the left, and the groom’s,
on the right. Mark off the first few rows with flowers
or ribbon as seating for immediate family and special
guests (such as the flower girl’s and ring bearer’s
parents, someone giving a reading, and close relatives),
as labeled below. Divorced parents may sit together
in the front row. If they are remarried or not on
good terms, the father and his wife should sit in
the third row. Ushers seat guests as they arrive,
from front rows to back; the final guests to be seated
are, in this order: grandparents, mother of the groom
(with father walking just behind), and mother of the
bride. |
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Seating at a Jewish Ceremony |
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| Jewish Seating |
| At a traditional, formal Jewish
wedding, the bride’s side is on the right, and the
groom’s is on the left. The parents stand under the
huppah during the ceremony; stepparents may sit in
the aisle seats in the second and third rows or stand
under the huppah if they are very close to the bride
or groom. |
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