Order of events for non-religious ceremony.

I would maybe do the second reading after the Ring Warming Ceremony. This will allow the vows and exchange of rings to be back to back. Seems that would flow better to me. But the way you have it works too. I don't think it will appear disjointed so long as you have everyone organized and your officiant is aware of your wishes. That's the biggest thing- they will keep everything moving.

How many guests do you have? I'm just concerned how long it will take for the rings to get all the way around the room. Maybe introduce the concept in the welcome/opening so that the rings can be passed around during the ceremony. That way they make it back to you in time for the vows.

I think it would be ok to go

Hand ceremony

vows

rings

They do 2 reads back to back when it is in a church, and the hand ceremony isn't like reading a poem, you are doing something during it. I also like the flow of vows and rings next to each other.

I do ring warmings all the time; we never wait for them, we send them out there and keep talking. Take the music out and let the ceremony continue. And start them after the welcoming; we love that your'e all here as part of the day, and because we love that so much, we want you to be part of our day in an unusual and personal way....

Then do the reading.

I do the hands after the ring exchange.

Isn't there any story or address about you?

I agree having something besides just music during the ring warming. Especially if you have a decent sized guest list. No guest wants to just sit there waiting for the rings to get to them, then waiting again for them to get all the way around, with nothing else going on. I know people would start chatting, and do you really want that in the middle of your ceremony? I'd do a reading or another part of the ceremony during that time as well to keep the flow going.

Thanks everyone! After seeing some people online mention it, we had been thinking it would be distracting to have the ring warming during the ceremony, but I agree that it might get boring to just have the music going and could become rather drawn out. I do think it would flow better to do it the way you have suggested.

Celia - I do believe there will be a little "love story" segment but I thought that would be kind of rolled into the opening remarks part, but that should probably come after the ring warming for it to flow nicely so I suppose that will have to be listed seperately now. How would you word that on a program? And do couples typically list the ring warming in the order of events part of the program? We want our program to be small and simple so the less wordy it is the better. We are planning to only have a header and the order of events. We aren't listing the bridal party since we don't have one. What do suggest?

I think it would be nice to describe what the ring warming ceremony is. You could also incorporate a little "Thank You" to the guests in there.

Now that Ceila mentioned it, the hand ceremony after you have your rings on sounds like a great idea.