My Favorite Wedding Detail

One of the details I loved the most from our wedding is our programs. 

The story behind them is one of pure laziness, if I'm being honest. I knew that I planned to make them, but I really really dislike Microsoft Publisher and didn't really like the options I had there. I've seen plenty of super cute programs but I didn't think that I had the patience to complete the necessary 200. 

So instead, I wrote the programs... but I did NOT write each one individually. I wrote them out on copy paper, had others check for mistakes (they missed one... a missing apostrophe that drives me crazy now), and then someone copied them onto cream colored cover stock paper, double sided. 

Someone else punched two holes in each one and tied ribbons. I think there was a group of people who did this but I have no idea now who they were or even when it was done (the week of the wedding, I think). No idea either what I was doing during that time. Thank you, whoever you were!

It's all self-explanatory, but the cover said our full names and wedding date.

The left side of the first page had the names of our parents and wedding party (the missing apostrophe is on this page. Can you spot it?). I wanted to put a detail about each person in the bridal party, but there wasn't space so I wrote how we knew them. Given time and space, I would have included a brief description of our relationship to each person. That's the one thing I'd have changed.  My nosy self loves to know why each person was chosen for a wedding party so I assumed I couldn't be the only one.

The right hand side of the page had the order of ceremony:

Prelude music (my best friend's little brother played violin)

Seating of parents and grandparents (Air on G String, Bach - this is my mom's favorite, so it was appropriate that it was playing as she came down the aisle)

Bridal Party (Butterfly Waltz, Brian Crain)
Bride's Entrance and Presentation (Canon in D, Pachelbel)
Congregational Declaration of Consent (this was from the Book of Common Prayer. It is basically a charge to the people attending the wedding to keep us true to our wedding vows.)
Prayer
Two Songs: (chosen because of their Gospel-centeredness)
In Christ Alone
Before the Throne of God Above
Reading from Isaiah 42:5-8 
*Not in our program because it was a surprise of sorts - Carson gave a little sermon on what marriage is as a picture of Christ and the Church and how he hoped ours would illustrate that
Sermon
Exchanged vows and rings (we wrote our own based on passages of Scripture)
(Instead of a unity candle:)
"Jesus Paid It All", sung by my sister and her fiance. During this time our parents came up and we all prayed together.
Closing Prayer
Pronouncement of Marriage

I included the lyrics to the two songs. My hand almost gave out because I kept messing up halfway through and having to start over.

Our vows.  We wrote these out because they weren't the traditional vows and we wanted people to hear them (we didn't have a microphone). Carson pretty much wrote them and I offered input and vetoed ideas. 

Finally, on the back, we included a schedule for the reception. My reasoning in doing this was so that people knew the kind of time frame they were looking at, so they didn't leave before it was all over.
We kept it short because we still wanted there to be a lot of people there when we left, in case you're wondering why our 5pm wedding ended at 8. We stayed longer than the schedule says, by the way. And apparently after we left, many of our guests stayed another three hours!

So those are our programs, and more details about those than you thought were possible for simple pieces of paper!