Family is an important part of any wedding, and that often means finding ways to include mom and dad in your ceremony or reception. You can even make them part of the planning process if they’re more behind-the-scenes types. If you’re looking for ways to make your parents a big part of your special day, these suggestions should make it easy to show some love for the parents of each member of the couple.
Asking For Help With Planning (Beyond the Budget)
Many parents help pay for the wedding, but you can show your parents how much you respect and love them by asking them to actually get involved in some of the planning beyond just paying for it. Think about what their strengths are first. If you know that your parents are excellent planners—good at getting bargains from vendors, wizards at arranging hotel or travel details—recruit them to help you plan some of the logistics of your wedding. Creative parents can get involved with making ceremony decorations or wedding favors. You can even have your parents help you make decisions on details like invitations or decor colors.
Finding Symbolic Opportunities in the Ceremony
The tradition of having the bride’s father walk her down the aisle is a nice way of getting one parent involved in the ceremony, but many couples are choosing to take this tradition a step further and have both parents walk both members of the couple down the aisle. That way, it’s not just the bride’s father who gets special recognition during the ceremony.
If you’d rather stick with tradition, you can still have moms and dads play a part in the way your ceremony unfolds. From symbolic family unity candles and sands to poetry or religious readings, you can feature your parents in both active or passive roles to represent the unity of families taking place during the ceremony.
Reception Ideas for Social Butterfly Parents
Having super social parents can be really fun, especially at a big event like a wedding. If you know your parents love to be the center of attention or chat with a bunch of different people, you can recruit them to participate in your reception in a few different ways. The classic choice is to have parents give a toast after dinner, but you can take this a few steps further by asking your parents to serve as official ambassadors at the reception. They can help guests find their seats, circulate among the tables to make sure everyone’s having a good time and generally take responsibility for some of the social duties that actually keep some couples from really enjoying their own weddings. Of course, it’s important for you and your new spouse to thank everyone for coming, but circulating during dinner can make it difficult for the happy couple to actually sit down and relax for a moment. Let your parents take over for you so you can actually have a nice meal and a few minutes together in the whirlwind of the wedding day.
