Do you have an 'order of service' for a civil ceremony??

Hi

For civil ceremonies it is usually 'order of the day' - including what's going to happen when and include any readings etc. You could include what music is going to be played and what significance it has to you. ie - bride enters to ................. a song that was played on the happy couple's first date.

Im having a civil ceremony & hadnt thought about making "order of day/service" cards at all :o)

We're certainly having one, although because our civil ceremony is followed by a Christian blessing service, I'm not sure if we're allowed to have it all in the same document due to the bizarre laws imposed by having a civil ceremony, I need to seek guidance.

It does seem rather wasteful to have an 'order of day' document then having to have the civil service as a separate document with no religious content.

I was considering doing a theatre-style program:

Curtain up at 12.30

Act one - the ceremony

Bride.....................Jude

Groom...................Simon

Bridesmaids............etc

Intermission for photos

Act two - Wedding breakfast, featuring speeches and cake

Act three - the bar opens at 6pm

Or something like that

Our day is a bit complicated, so we've got an 'Order of the Day' which includes a timetable. It also has a page with information about both our venues (I mean like historical points of interest), and a list of the names of those involves, a map, and a bit thanking our guests for coming as well as a breakdown of how the ceremony will go so people know when to stand/sit and what the music is.

Probably utterly pointless, but I enjoyed designing them and shall enjoy making them! I don't think they're necessary, so if you left it out, no-one would care or even notice I don't think.

Yes we are just having an "order of the day" card to put on the guests chairs in the ceremony room.

Starts with bridal arrival, tells them what time lunch is and first dance etc. plus a bit more and a poem thanking them for sharing our special day.

These are mine for a civil ceremony -

Nat, are those the Vista brochures?

If so - can I be nosey and ask what size font have you gone for? I have used size 14 for my hymns and struggling to fit everything but your back pages looks like there is lots of info!

"service' tends to have religious connotations so you might find that some more militant registrars won't allow you to use the term.

'Order of the Day' seems to be widely accepted though. Most of the civil ceremonies I've been to haven't had them. They tend to be quite short so they're not deemed as necessary, nor do you have to provide hymn words!

Yeah they're from Vista - The font is Kuenstler165 and size 12

Thanks Nat - they look very reasonable sized for reading etc.

I was just worried about people being able to read them if I went too small.

I love this idea! I am currently working on the wording of ours and it is going to be very informal...my OH is a cartoonist and I am a writer so the invites and order of the day (we are having a civil service) are a really lovely opportunity to bring both our creative minds together!

I think the civil ceromony is a bit short to bother with an order of service really, as there isnt a whole lot to it! But we do want to do an order of the day, am thinking of putting a bit on the board that will later be the table plan, outside the door of the ceremony room so people can just go and refer to it, or put one on every row of seats. I really can't be dealing with printing out 80 of them lol, they dont need one each.

Civil ceremony orders of service don't have to be short; you could put in the words of any music you're having, as well as the text of your chosen readings.

We'll have the ceremony details as part of our order of the day, assuming that the registars don't interfere.

We are having a civil ceremony but we arent having Order of the days. we have put a timetable on the back of the invites so guests will have a rough idea of what will be happenning when!