Creating Your Greek Wedding Program

Written by Greek Boston in Greek Wedding Traditions Comments Off on Creating Your Greek Wedding Program

It’s the perfect day for a Greek wedding. You’re dressed and ready. As you step into the church, a woman hands you a program with a smile before you’re escorted into the church. You treat the program as an after thought until the ceremony is underway – then you realize that you want more information about what’s going on.

Whether you’re of Greek descent or not, the program contains essential information that will enhance your enjoyment of ceremony.

Should you have a wedding program?
Now, it’s your turn to plan the wedding and you’re wondering if you should have programs printed out for your guests. Most people think that a program is a nice touch. It can be as simple or as complicated as you want.

At its simplest, it is a nice way to give the participants of ceremony credit. Most Greek Orthodox Christians choose to take it one step further, however, and include vital religious explanations that will enhance their visitors’ understanding of the ceremony.

What should go in the program?
Once you decide you want to hand out programs at your wedding, the next step is to decide what to put in them.

• Everyone in the wedding. This includes the bride and groom, parents, priest, readers, and Koumbara and Koumbaros, and anyone else who is in the ceremony. If you choose the simple approach, this is all you’ll need.

• Greek wedding ceremony basics. There are aspects to a Greek wedding that may not make sense to attendees who haven’t attended an Orthodox Christian wedding before. These include the Blessing of the Rings, the significance of the candles used in the ceremony, Joining of Hands, The Crowning, The Readings, The Common Cup, and The Dance of Isaiah.

• The Readings. It can also be a nice touch to include the selected readings within the program. Some guests love to read along and find that they get so much more out of the passage. You can even take it one step further and offer a small explanation as to what the reading is about and why it was chosen.

Though you don’t need all these elements, they are a nice touch.

Should you hire a professional?
Once you know what you would like to put into the program, the next step is to design it. You can either hire a professional or design it and print it yourself. You can also design it yourself and then have it printed professionally. Any of these options are perfectly acceptable.

For my sister’s wedding we designed the program ourselves and then had it printed at a local print shop. We researched the elements of the ceremony that guests may find unique and even confusing. People commented that they really appreciated the extra step we took to offer these explanations, as a good portion of the guest list wasn’t Greek.

No matter what you decide, the ultimate goal of the program is to help your guests enjoy it even more because they will now understand the religious and symbolic elements that are key in the Orthodox Christian sacrament of marriage.

Categorized in: Greek Wedding Traditions

This post was written by Greek Boston