Catholic brides and usher question

[Krissie]

Hi!

I''ve had some free time lately, so I''ve been trying to fill all the slots for our wedding. We''re having a full Mass and we''re trying to make sure that all of our Godparents and close cousins are involved in the ceremony.

Catholic brides: how many readers did you have? I know that we''ll have the Old Testament and New Testament readings, but did you also have a reader for the intercessions, or psalm? I''ve left a message for our priest, but he''s out of town for the week. Ideally we could have 3 people participate in the readings.

Second question, not just for Catholic brides: how many ushers did you have? Did you have separate ushers from the groomsmen? D has 5 groomsmen and a best man; he has said that he''d like his best man to be with him during the prelude before the ceremony, which leaves 5 groomsmen to serve as ushers. If we have around 275 people attending, is that enough? It''s a 30-minute prelude. I''m just curious as to how you handled this. We have another couple of friends that we would love to have involved in our ceremony and I thought we could ask them to be ushers, but I also don''t want it to be overkill.

I think that''s it for now!

 

[doodle]

If the reading is something you plan to include anyway, my thinking is that it doesn''t matter WHO reads it, provided that the priest is okay with it. He''s the best person to ask this question because he can tell you how other ceremonies he has performed were arranged.

On the other hand, if including these people as readers means you''re going to be inserting additional readings, keep in mind that Catholic ceremonies tend to be lengthy. One of my closest friends recently had an Episcopal wedding, which is similar, and she said having to stand there for that long in heels was MURDER. We were wondering what was going on up there with her--turns out, she kept slipping one shoe off and standing shoeless, then putting it back on and taking off the OTHER shoe, just to get a break!

If you and your FI are the only ones who do Communion instead of getting the entire congregation to take it, too, you will also have a bit more wiggle room.

As for ushers, you could add more if you wanted to, but I think if you don''t, you''d also have enough, which means that i have been NO help on your question whatsoever, haha.

Hope SOMETHING in here was helpful!

 

[aprilcait]

We had two readers, but we could have had three (my cousin's wife read one reading, my cousin read the other reading and read the intercessions).

We had groomsmen and ushers. We had two ushers and hubby had two groomsmen. We had about 120 people attending our wedding.

We also had two people bring up the gifts (the host and wine) and two greeters who passed out the programs, if that helps you. Also, if you know anyone who is a Eucharistic Minister, that's a good way to get people involved.

 

[oobiecoo]

We had 3 readers but could have had 4. One did the old testament, one read the new testament, and the other read the prayer of the faithful as well as something else that was required... don''t quite remember what it was now.

 

[mimzy]

i was a reader in my brother''s catholic wedding last summer and i did the prayer of the faithful (or something like that?). if i remember correctly there were at least two other readers, so you should be totally fine with three!

FI is having four groomsmen (or three + best man), then we are having my four (maybe three, one might be deployed) brothers and a friend be ushers (240 person wedding). the groomsmen aren''t ushering anyone, they will just stay with FI up until the processional. four or five ushers is probably overkill, but i wanted to include them all, and i really can''t think of a negative of having that many.

 

[Sabine]

You can definitely have 3 readers if you have one of them do the prayer for the faithful (which i think is the same thing as intercessions).

I don't know about the usher question, I don't think our ushers are actually going to be doing anything.

ETA: You can also involve people by assigning a person/couple/family to bring the gifts (wine and bread) up to the priest.

 

[lovelylulu]

we had three readers - old, new and prayer of the faithful.

 

[jcrow]

we had 3 readers and no ushers.

 

[Krissie]

Thank you to all - this is incredibly helpful! I will have my Godmother read the Prayer of the Faithful. Also, thank you to those who suggested Eucharistic Ministers and gift bearers - we will surely be able to fill those slots quickly! I have 12 sets of aunts and uncles, and D has 5, so you can imagine how many family members we''ll have at our wedding!

 

[pocahontas]

Date: 6/11/2008 2:03:11 PM
Author: aprilcait
We also had two people bring up the gifts (the host and wine) and two greeters who passed out the programs, if that helps you. Also, if you know anyone who is a Eucharistic Minister, that's a good way to get people involved.

I love this idea! When my girlfriend and her husband got married 5 years ago they did the same thing. I'll be following her lead sometime next spring