Your walk down the aisle will be emotional, exciting, and filled with love. From your immediate family, to your wedding party, to yourself, here are a couple ideas of how to arrange how and who should walk down the aisle with you…
Procession
1. Family to be Included – your immediate family is important to include for the procession, however siblings may be doing double duty if included in your wedding party. Having a sibling bring your mom down the aisle and circle back after is the perfect way that they can be included in both options and of course ensure that mom is not alone. Grandparents are a sweet addition to walking down the aisle, however depending on age and health it may be easier for them to be sitting down in advance. Your fiance’s parents may want to come down the aisle together, or you could have one of them walk your fiance down while the other is sat in advance.
2. Wedding Party – there are numerous options of how your wedding party could walk down the aisle, of which we find the following two to be the most common styles:
- One by One – having each wedding party member walk down one by one is the more traditional and common style we see. Typically the groom’s party will walk first followed by each bridesmaid.
- Two by Two – having one wedding party member from each side, i.e. your side and your fiance’s side, walk side by side down the aisle together. This style definitely helps with a nervous wedding party!
3. Groom’s Party – by far the fastest walkers down the aisle, it is always important to remind our groom’s party to take is slow verses speed walking it down. A few common ways we see our groom’s party walk out includes:
- Side Aisle – for some venues, there will be an additional aisle on the side of the ceremony which the groom and his groomsmen may prefer to walk down. A common reasons for this is typically flowers lining the main aisle, or just preference based.
- Immediate Walk Out – whether on the side or down the main aisle, an immediate walk out is when all of the groomsmen either are led or lead the groom out and tend to be closer together of roughly two steps apart. The officiant is typically in front of the group. Half body shots are typically more beneficial for this style due to the closeness in distance.
- Paced Walk Out – about 30 seconds or so apart, a paced walk out for the groom’s party includes a longer distance in between. Full body shots are typically available due to each groomsman having enough space between one another.
- Groom – the groom in general may walk out with his group as mentioned above, or with his mom or a close family member, or alone before or after the group.
4. Bride’s Party – for most of our bride’s party the girls walk out at a well paced style so that each has their moment to shine!
5. Flower Girls and Ring Bearer – seriously could flower girls and ring bearers be any cuter! Depending on their age, it may be beneficial for your flower girls and/or ring bearer to walk out together. With our very little ones, mom or dad may have to accommodate helping them down the aisle, but an alternative could be a pulled wagon by one of older kiddos. A new tradition taking place has included grandmothers as flower girls, which are just as cute as our little ones!
6. Bride – typically on the arm of her father, grandfather, or a special family member, our bride will walk out separately in a traditional fashion.
Recession
1. Newlyweds – our newlyweds will always walk back down the aisle first and we just love when they stop for their ‘second kiss’ half way down! A sweet moment that is typically unexpected by guests, everyone always cheers a second time. Ensure to let us know ahead of time if you plan to have this special second kiss!
2. Wedding Party – typically two by two, the wedding party will follow our newlyweds. We have seen additional styles of each wedding party member walking one by one or in threes depending on the number. Just make sure your aisle is wide enough!
3. Family – immediate family (typically in the first row) will follow after the wedding party. It is important to have your family either follow your wedding party after the ceremony so that they are aware of where to go to circle back after for formal portraits, or to ensure that they are made aware to remain seated when guests are dismissed to cocktail hour. Depending on your grandparents health, it may be easier on older family members to remain seated even if the rest are asked to walk after the wedding party.
Ceremony Send Off
A fun way to have your exit may also include a sweet kiss, bubbles, flower petals, beach balloons, or other light and airy objects that can be laid out in advance for guests to celebrate with you for an ‘ceremony send off!’ Just have the officiant or DJ provide instruction before the ceremony so that the bubbles last until the end.
These tips to planning your procession and recession will definitely help when planning out the style of photos you would like and how you would like the entrance and exit of your ceremony to flow!