woodland order of service card

Church wedding order of service: Your questions answered

For a church wedding you will usually need an order of service booklet.  It should contains all the details for your wedding ceremony, including music, readings, and hymns. It’s useful in that it helps to guide your guests through the ceremony. And of course, it gives them those all important words so they can sing along at the appropriate times! For many guests it will also be a treasured keepsake of day. Read on for some of the most asked questions I have from my couples about their order of service for a church wedding.

wedding order of service booklet with navy floral design
Wedding order of service booklets

What size is a church wedding order of service?

My most popular sizes are A5 (A4 folded in half) or dinky little pocket size A6 (about postcard size).  Amazingly you can fit pretty much the same amount of detail in either size (and not with a font size so small it’s unreadable).  The big bonus about the pocket size is that it fits (as the names suggests) in a pocket – or those silly little handbags we all take to weddings 🙂 Of course, if you’d like a different size or shape just let me know and I’ll see what we can do!  My standard prices include up to 8 printed pages, but you can have more or less depending on the number of hymns and other text you might want to include.

eco friendly wedding order of service lilac
Bilingual order of service in Welsh and Italian

How many church wedding order of service do I need?

I recommend ordering at least one order of service per household/family and a few spares, although many couples prefer to order one per guest. Don’t forget to include some for the bridal party and the choir if you are having one.

Retro school book style order of service
Retro school book style order of service

What do you need to include in your order of service?

The exact details to include and the order it all goes in can vary quite a lot from church to church. As a general guideline you should include:

  • Couple’s names, wedding date, ceremony time & church
  • Entrance music
  • Hymns (include all words in full)
  • Readings (what and who they will be read by)
  • Details of any music/musicians played during the signing of the registers
  • Prayers
  • Recessional music
  • Details of the Bridal Party
  • Any special thank you’s if you want to

Always check with your minister or church first as they often have a standard template for you to follow.

So that’s pretty much all you need to know about your church wedding order of service. Do you need one (yes), what size should it be (pocket size if favourite), how many do you need (at least one per household) and what goes it in (lots of things – check out my blog). If you have any other questions about your order of service booklet, drop me a message I’m always happy to help!

Jo

To find out more about what goes in a wedding order of service, head over to my blog here

Check out my Pinterest board for order of service inspo!