How are you including friends or family in your ceremony?

I didn't realize it but our officiant (one of H's best friends) asked my FIL to do a reading. It was sweet & unexpected.

Our officiant, again a good friend, was AMAZING!!! He had everyone laughing / crying and fully engaged. I can't stop talking about what a fantastic job he did and we were his first.

I hadn't really planned anything but I might steal your sweeping away bad energy with the mothers! I really like that!

I’m having my mother and fmil light the outer unity candles.

My fiance and I both wanted to include our parents so we were talking about having both parents walk each of us down the aisle. We have no young gals in the family either, so I really want my godmother to be the flower girl!

I had his sister as a bridesmaid and he had my brother as a groomsman. We also had his parents walk him down the aisle. Then both my parents walked me down. For the readings, we had the matron of honor and his long time friend read them.

We're not doing anything like that, the less emotional and mushy, the better lol. It's just us and the officiant involved in the ceremony besides the bridesmaids and groomsmen walking down the aisle.

My FH's two sisters will be bridesmaids, along with my 3 sisters. His 2 brothers will be groomsmen alongside others. There will be 3 flower girls (our two daughters and FH's niece) and ring bearer (FH's nephew)!!!

My mom and brother will be walking me down the aisle, and my brother is also our officiant!

One of my really good friends and one of his really good friends are coworkers and also good friends. They played matchmaker and introduced us a little over 4.5 years ago. They were both our officiants on our wedding day, making our ceremony that much more special and personal. While my Dad did walk me down the aisle, I didn't want him "giving me away". We wanted all of our parents involved in that so the officiants asked "who supports this woman and this man in their wedding today?" and they all said "we do" together.

We are going to have our moms come up at the beginning of the ceremony and give us each a kiss on the cheek - We will have the officiant say something like "the bride and groom want the last kiss they receive as singles to be from the person who kissed them first.

We aren't going to tell them first - just let it happen ... we wanted to include the but in a bit of a less traditional way and I didn't want anyone "giving me away."

My mom and my two closest aunts will walk down the aisle. Plan to ask Aunts/Uncles and a friend to do readings. And my FH's brother in law will be our officiant.

Officiant: His cousin.

Brother and a best friend was Best Men.

My best friends were MOH's.

No one else was in the wedding. I don't like a bunch of roles.

This is a second wedding for us both, with young kids from each previous marriage. He has a 7 year old son (ring bearer), and a 6 year old daughter (flower girl). My 7 year old son will be walking me down the aisle, and my 6 year old niece will be a flower girl as well! We have made it much more of a priority to have our children as a part of the ceremony than anyone.

We wanted an 'intimate only' ceremony, but my FH wanted his best friend there. So our wedding party are the only non-parents/siblings that will be present. However, to give my father a daughter/father moment, dad will be walking me to the dance floor to "give me away" for the first dance.

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That's so sweet!

We'll be asking my big brother to officiate

Love your idea of "sweeping away" the negative or past energies - such a unique take on the tradition!

Following for ideas. I have a friend I want to incorporate but not as a bridesmaid (she's in a different generation than the other bridesmaids and IK for a fact it would make her feel uncomfortable). I also am including FI's youngest nephew as "ring bearer" alongside our little, same age, who will be flower girl..... but he has older twin brothers who will be 5 or 6 at the time of the wedding and I would like to somehow incorporate them as well. They have an older stepsister who I plan to put "in charge" of helping the tinies walk down the aisle without getting scared or distracted.

My mother and father will be walking me down the isle and giving me away but that's it. I had wanted a couple people to do non religious reading but my mother (who grew up catholic) insisted that was just a catholic thing and that we deffinetly should not do that. She wants to sing but it is outside and already going to be easily 45 minutes so I am declining that offer lol

We had a close uncle of mine do a reading and we did a rose ceremony for the mothers. The officiant read a really sweet statement about being who we are today because of our family’s support and then together we presented each mom a rose and gave them a hug. It was really nice.

Our parents walked us each down the aisle and my brother officiated -- it was hilarious and lovely! We had his aunts who had traveled far along with my cousins who had also traveled far come with us to take pictures. Other than that we didn't include family because there were so many n my side and so few on his.