Wedding Helpers

Here are some necessary helpers for your wedding day. If you enlist several people's help, give them small, quick projects to do, none of them will feel like they are "slave labor" for your event. Many hands make for light work = perfection!

Guest Book Attendants - These attendants are instrumental in making sure that your guests sign your guest book. Not having the traditional sign-in book? Then these helpers are even more valuable as they will help your guests understand what to do. They are also responsible for making sure that all guest book materials are packed away when the wedding starts as well as transporting the materials to your reception site and setting up at that venue for those guests that forgot to sign in or who may have come late.

Program Assitants - The job of a Program Assistant is to make sure that your guests receive a ceremony program. They may stand just at the entrance of the ceremony area or at the guest sign-in table. You could enlist the help of your Guest Book Attendants to do this job or your ushers as well. If you would rather, have an usher place a program on every other chair or in the pews of your ceremony space just before your guests arrive. You could even place a stack of programs at the beginning of each pew or in a beautiful basket decorated in your wedding colors.

Ushers - The job of an Usher is a very important role. They are the people that will assistant in seating your guests. Before the wedding begins, you will want to instruct your Ushers about making sure that they seat guests in a uniform and balanced manner, meaning that no one side of the ceremony space is more filled than the other. This creates a very unbalance look for your photographer not to mention confusing guests.
When seating guests, tradition holds that the bride’s family is seated on the left while the Groom’s family is seated on the right; friends of both are seated on which side they would like. An Usher will extend his arm to the female guest while the male accompanying her will follow behind. The Usher will then stop just shy of the seat or pew while her male accompanist will help her into her seat.
Ushers may be asked for directions, give out programs, asked for the time, or assistant anyone with special physical needs. They are also the noise keepers—meaning that they may have to ask a parent to remove a fussy child. They should always ask guests right before seating them to turn off any cell phone devices. They will be the last people to close the ceremony space doors and to make sure that any late comers are taken care of. For that reason, one or two Ushers should always sit at the back of the ceremony space. -- You will need one Usher per 50 guests.