Order of Service
The “Order of Service” booklets are the wedding programs that outline the church service or the civil ceremony when you get married. They are a lovely way for your guests to follow your wedding ceremony, understand traditions and take home a charming keepsake of your special day.
Order of Service booklets provide details about the ceremony, the names of the bridal party, the order of events, and sometimes readings and songs. Some couples like to include a favourite poem, song lyrics or story of how they met and fell in love, others honour deceased relatives, thank special people or explain unfamiliar religious or ceremonial rites.
In most cases we make hard cover booklets with paper inserts. They can be made with either a single page insert or a multi-page insert. On the cover we print the names of the bride and groom and usually the date and venue. We have occasionally printed an image of the church where the ceremony is held (provided by the couple) or another image such as a simple flourish.
Order of Service booklets with a single sheet insert:
Inside, on the first page as you open the booklet, we would usually suggest you list the bridal party and any other contributors: readers, ushers etc. You can also thank people on this page (if there is room) or you may prefer to leave a Thank You message at the end to all who attended. The centre pages will outline the service – it may just be headings/subheadings, names of each part of the service and the people who are reading – in this way your guests can follow along without needing to read every word.
Order of Service booklets with multiple pages
We have a few templates on our website which have some examples of Order of Service booklets for wedding ceremonies of different lengths – they are free and can be used and adapted to suit your service. We have made the page size A5 so that you can judge how much text will easily fit onto the printed pages when they’re folded. You can have anything between 2 and 5 sheets of A4 in your booklet – if we print them, the price depends on the number of sheets. For a full Mass, it is important to list all the responses and words to hymns so you’ll almost certainly need the longer booklet.
It is not necessary to have one Order of Service booklet per person – most couples will share; as a rough guide you should order a few more of these booklets than the number of invitations you had, just to allow for a few extras (which of course is better than not having quite enough).
Order of Proceedings cards
Alternatively, if you’re having a civil ceremony, particularly if it’s outdoors, you may prefer something a little less formal. In Sydney there are so many ceremonies held in parks and reserves or on the beach – the Order of Proceedings card is a practical solution.
We can just print all the information on a single card if you wish – one or both sides can be printed; it depends on how much information you want to include. As long as there is a “running order”, your guests will know what is happening during the ceremony.
Whether you choose Order of Service booklets or Order of Proceedings cards, these booklets will ensure that your guests have a way to follow the proceedings, and a treasured keepsake of your special day.
