Are Wedding Programs a Must?

They are really only needed for complicated weddings. For example, we had them because the ceremony was Jewish and much of it was in Hebrew, so we had translations and transliterations of the Hebrew, and explanations of the Jewish customs. I've also seen them at bilingual weddings, with for example English on one page and Spanish on the facing page.

However, for a plain vanilla ceremony, they aren't at all necessary. If you really want people to know who is in the bridal party, you could have a big sign. But anyone who already knows them doesn't need the sign, and anyone who doesn't is probably going to forget the information anyway. Unless you've got something critical to communicate, I'd just skip them.

No so not a must. Maybe for a catholic wedding if a lot of the guest are not catholic. But even then you can get away with not having them,

I’m making my programs on a Zazzle postcard, and redesigning the back to be info about the reception. Two birds, one stone. They are only $1.00 each during the sales. With zazzle you can design the whole thing yourself.

Originally we were going to skip programs, we we’re just gonna do a large one on an easel by the main entrance. My fiancé is co owner of a small company, and has a bada** toner printer in the office, so we used it to make our own invitations. Well, I had to buy a whole extra package of card stock just to use like, 20 pages out of it. So I figured since we already have all that extra card stock, technically it won’t cost us anything more to make them. And we are doing things fairly traditional with a few tweaks so it will be good to have for some. For example, the bar is going to close after the “cocktail hour” (I’m calling it happy hour cause we are beer people lol) until the dancing begins.

I’m doing one per couple but I only have 25 guests total. Mostly fun and informative with info about Jewish wedding traditions (no one on his side will have any idea what’s happening otherwise), Wedding Party, Bar menu, Buffet menu. I designed them as “in flight magazines” to match our flight/travel theme. And printing them off Zazzle is under $15 then I just assemble myself.

I did them only because i was able to incorporate them into my Phantom of the Opera themed wedding, I designed them as a Broadway playbill. My godmother had them made as a wedding gift so cost turned out not to be an issue anyway. But otherwise, I may have skipped them since we had a fairly simple ceremony

I think it depends on if you’re having “audience” participation in your ceremony or not. We chose to nix them because we are having a very short (less than 15min) ceremony. But we recently went to a friend’s lengthy traditional catholic ceremony with lots of standing and sitting and congregation prayers and singing so the program was actually really necessary in order to be able to participate. But for most people, it’s definitely a thing you can cut!

Cut! Unless your wedding is bilingual, long, religious, or just unusual most people won't need them!

I'm going to be doing them, but mostly because we're going to have nontraditional readings. I'm also sentimental so I want one to keep for myself.

I’d love to have a program. Great way to thank those who have helped out. However, my fiancé is in charge of our ceremony & he’s not giving me any of his secrets planned!

15 minute ceremony. We're skipping them.

We arent doing programs. They are such a waste. Save your money and spend it somewhere else

I think Wedding Programs are more of a "nice to have" vs a "must have". If you want to save some money I would skip out on these, but if these are a must for you I would suggest making them yourself to save some cash! These can be easily made with Canva (they have templates too I believe), Illustrator, or using a site like Zazzle - seriously I found a wedding details card I wanted to gift my bridesmaids but they were like $30 on Etsy, so I made my own and had them printed for less than $6!

I've also coordinated several weddings and I don't see programs as much as I use to. Another way to have a program is to make one on a sign and just have one big one displayed (:

I’m doing a sign with the details from a wedding program at the entrance of my venue. If people want to take a picture of it to look at later they can.

We weren't going to have programs, but are now considering making our leaf confetti packet into one instead of using those tulle bags. It'll have basic info and some reminders on it.

Nah!! It is a waste of money and saves trees!

Skipping them here too. No point for a simple ceremony.

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100% agree!!

They're not necessary! Neither are favors, a DJ (use Spotify or a friend), alcohol (dry weddings are fine), etc.

They're entirely not necessary at all. Save your money and the trees! No need to waste paper for something nobody cares to read or keep.