Who does the readings? (Church ceremony question)

Usually close friends or family members who are comfortable speaking. I would probably steer away from somebody non-religious, since they might not feel comfortable with it anyway, and might feel more nervous about it if they're not familiar with the liturgy.

I have 2 childhood friends that I am asking to read. One of the girls had us read for her wedding. We are all Catholic so I'm not sure if that had something to do with it. I don't know if you have to pick someone religious though?

We picked people that were important to us and we wanted to honor. Well FH did, I got forced by my mom to pick my BIL. Long story but I gave in and said whatever. And FH picked his Godmother to do a reading. Neither of which are religious. We aren't getting married in a church but even if we were we still would pick the same 2 people.

I know for our Catholic ceremony, they prefer that any readers at least be baptized Christians, that's the only requirement. I believe our fathers will be doing them. I would pick people who are close to you and would be comfortable with the reading. If they are not particularly religious and would be doing a religious reading, it might be weird for them to be sharing something with the congregation that they don't necessarily believe.

We picked people close to us. In our case, two of my cousins are doing the readings and one of my good friends from college is reading the Prayers of the Faithful. FH didn't want to ask anyone (he's not Catholic).

You can pick anyone you'd like. I did shy away from asking my friends who I know are strongly anti-Catholic. It just didn't feel right.

We had my godmother, my old best friend (we lost touch for awhile and although she wasn't close enough to me anymore to be a bridesmaid I still wanted to have her do something special, plus shes religious so that made sense..) and our best man's fiancee who we do double dates with all the time and has been incredibly helpful during the wedding planning process.

I'm hoping to pick someone on each side of our families, obviously someone who is comfortable speaking in front of a large group, and not necessarily someone who is religious. I'm trying to pick the readings that aren't super religious/preachy...

Thanks for the input! I went from having no ideas to lots of ideas. Will have to talk to FH about it...

How far in advance did you ask people?

I may have just asked mine last week...

I think if you're within 6 months, you're ok asking people. I just got asked to bring the gifts up for a wedding in August. The last wedding I read in, I think I was asked about 6 months ahead of time. Readers should be at the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, so sooner is better so that they can plan for that, too.

Because of this thread, I went ahead and messaged my girls.

I'm planning on asking my three brothers to all do a short reading so that they will be involved in the ceremony. None of them are particularly religious, and the readings I am picking wont be particularly religious, so I don't feel like any of them will have an issue, but if they have ideas I will totally be open to them.

So I guess once we decide it'd be fine to go ahead and ask them.

We asked ours like 6 weeks out because before that we weren't sure how many we needed (had to discuss with church).

Confession...

I'm terrible.

I hate readings actually, yet I came across something I would like included in the ceremony but not something I would want an Officiant to read. Now, why I'm terrible? I don't want anyone "special" to read it. I want someone who can lyrically recite.