Online-ordained ministers of the Universal Life Church are more likely to perform a wedding for family, friends, congregation members, or complete strangers than do anything else. As such, the Universal Life Church staff frequently receive questions from our ministers about how to perform weddings. We have realized our collection of materials regarding officiating weddings is heavy on the planning of weddings and does little to help our ministers prepare for the ceremony itself.
The Universal Life Church Ministries is proud to announce that it will release a series of five blog posts over the coming month that will elaborate on how to perform a wedding, from the beginning (processional music) to very end (pronouncement of marriage), in order to counteract this deficiency. This series of blog posts will be compiled and added to the "Free Church Supplies" section of this site as a free PDF download as soon as it is finished.
If you want to perform a wedding, we highly recommend that you read this series of blogs. It will give you an idea of what the components of a marriage ceremony are and how you, as a Universal Life Church minister, can prepare for one. Even if you do not want to perform a wedding, recognize that any ULC minister may need to assume the role of wedding officiant at a moment's notice. It may thus be wise to study the contents of this blog posts series in your free time.
The five topics we will discuss in this series of blog posts are as follows:
The Processional - the period of time when wedding guests are being seated and the bridesmaids, groomsmen and groom take their places. As you will see, music is an important component of this portion of the wedding.
Greetings, Readings, and Prayers - the initial components of every wedding ceremony, though non-religious weddings are likely to be light on prayers.
Wedding Vows - binding promises engaged couples make to each other during their wedding ceremony.
Exchange of Wedding Rings - the act of the bride and groom exchanging rings, and the words that the wedding officiant says to accompany them.
Pronouncement of Marriage - the final component of every wedding ceremony (per legal requirements) where the wedding officiant officially announces that the bride and groom (or some variation thereof) are now legally married.
Click on the name of each blog post in order to read it. Blog post names that do not have a hyperlink have not been written yet.
We recognize that there might be components of wedding ceremonies you are interested in that are not included in the above five categories. Let us know if you are interested in such an unmentioned component and we will be delighted to add it to the above list.
