Creating the perfect program.
Wedding programs are great keepsakes, but they're also a wonderful gesture: Programs help guests understand the ceremony and lets them know who is who in your wedding. Here's how to create the perfect program for your special day. Find great do it yourself progams here.
WHAT SHOULD BE IN IT?
Include wedding party members' names (and their relationships to you two), a list of the ceremony's traditions, the names of musical selections (and musicians, if they are friends or relatives), and the titles of the readings (and names of the readers). If you're including wedding traditions or customs from a culture many guests might find unfamiliar, provide explanations in the program. If you're including African-American traditions, explain why you're jumping the broom. If Jewish traditions are incorporated, explain why you break the glass. If you're lighting a Unity Candle, discuss why you've chosen to do so and what it symbolizes.
WHEN IS IT GIVEN OUT?
Guests should get programs as they arrive for the ceremony. Post someone at the door to distribute them, or put them on a table and let guests pick them up themselves.
HOW LONG SHOULD IT BE?
Brief is best. Guests should be able to read the program between the time they sit down and the time the ceremony starts, or they should be able to follow along as the ceremony progresses.
Click photo to see more wedding program samples.
CAN I INCLUDE MEMORIALS?
If you wish to honor someone's memories on your wedding day, your program is the place to do it. Reserve a page where you can tell guests what the person meant to you, and include a favorite memory or a poem the departed loved. You can also honor and thank your parents and grandparents in your program.
HOW DO WE MAKE IT?
You could provide information to your stationer and have her print it for you, or you could assemble the program on your own computer. You can make a simple program with word processing software, or use PageMaker, Publisher, or Quark for more complex programs (also great for wedding newsletters). Read the instructions about working with columns, changing paper sizes, and using multiple fonts. Then print your programs on cool paper, lace pretty ribbon through the fold, and compliment yourself on a job well done.
Cool modern programs with rivets and satin ribbon trim.