10 ways to create a wedding ceremony that everyone will remember!

When you’ve been part of as many weddings as we have over the years, you’ve seen the best and the worst of weddings - things that were fantastic…. and things that didn’t work so well. Here are our top tips for 2025 weddings so that everyone will be talking about your wedding for years to come!

1.) Put your ceremony first!

Before anything else, imagine your wedding ceremony. Ceremonies are not boring, they are meant to be the most magical part of the day! What atmosphere do you want to create? Fun and relaxed or stately and curated? Traditional, religious, contemporary?

As with everything in life, the more heartfelt thought you put in to it, the better it will be. Give your guests permission to enjoy themselves, and give yourselves permission too! When a ceremony has touched your guests, the cheers are louder, the laughter is deeper, new friendships are formed as conversations have an easy starter! (“Wasn’t that a brilliant ceremony?”…)

2.) Readings, songs and speeches make the service

Ceremonies can be short if you don’t add in readings, music or traditions. Choose things that reflect who you are, what you want to say and create the atmosphere you want.

Top Tip 1: If you are having bible readings, you can choose a new translation of the bible which has more contemporary language, to give your guests more chance to relate to what is being said. Choose from The Message, New Living Translation, The Passion Translation - all found for free on the YouVersion bible app.

Top Tip 2: If you have a creative person amongst your family and friends, ask them to write something bespoke about you for the wedding. Otherwise, you could pick a poem or an excerpt from a favourite book.

3.) “Wow, the music was amazing!”

Beyond nearly everything else in your ceremony, great music and musicians will be the thing that people will remember in 10 and 20 years time. Not the flowers, the vicar, your vows or the dress. It’s worth spending time and money on getting the right thing! Trust your instinct, pursue professionalism above all else and watch as many videos as you can if you can’t see them perform in person.

4.) Make sure everyone can be heard

“It was a lovely ceremony… but I couldn’t hear very much…” How many times have you been to a wedding where you couldn’t hear the bride, groom, registrar and readers? This is especially true for outdoor weddings, and civil ceremonies with registrars. We recently performed at an outdoor wedding where the couple had forked out thousands of pounds for a sound company, but the registrar refused to use a microphone. No one could hear a thing. What a waste! You can request that your registrar uses a microphone before the big day.

We always offer our microphones to anyone with a speaking role. If you’re in a church setting, don’t be afraid to move the standing microphone down to the right height for you.

Finally, if there’s one thing I would tell every person doing a reading in a wedding ceremony, it would be, “SLOW DOWN!” Encourage them to practice the reading in front of others beforehand, take their time and breathe. Choose confident, natural speakers if you can!

5.) Walking down the aisle: choose who you want, or walk alone!

Choose the right person for you, not who you feel pressured to choose. This could be more than one person too - maybe you’d like both your parents for this special moment. It could be a brother, sister, godparent, friend. Or why not do a Meaghan Markle and walk alone? It’s not the faint hearted, but it puts the bride front and centre of the moment!

6.) The vows: think differently

For our wedding, we had a mixture of the traditional vows and ones we had written. Our vicar helped by talking us through them as he would any traditional vows - I think for us, reading a big paragraph to each other would have felt a bit vulnerable in front of 200 people.

However, saying your vows directly to your other half may be perfect for you. What does marrying your partner truly mean to you? Writing your own vows solidifies your reasons for marrying, it’s a wonderful process.

As above, I truly recommend that if you are softly spoken, outdoors or in a very large church with lots of people, do use a microphone so everyone can hear!

7.) Hymns: Yay or nay? Think outside the box

I love a good hymn! You know your guests though… will they sing? If not, ask your professional musicians to lead the singing. Are you sure about the church organist? We’ve been to so many weddings where the organist has been cringeworthy. So - ask your professional musicians to lead the hymns!

Do check out our blog for do’s and don’ts for wedding hymns.

Top Tip: You don’t have to choose a religious song; why not choose a secular pop song for your guests to sing to! We recently performed at a Christmastime wedding where the entire wedding party belted out Santa Claus Is Coming To Town. Stand By Me is also another popular option.

8.) Put name tags on the chairs you want you want your favourite people to sit

Have you ever been to a wedding where the front row is empty because everyone thinks it’s reserved for someone else? Even parents and bridesmaids do this.

I’ve also been to weddings where the couple have forgotten chairs for the bridesmaids and they’ve had to stand all the way through.

Having your best people right next to you to enjoy and encourage you makes the experience even better!

9.) ‘Advice for the happy couple’: create a special moment

One lovely idea to set your wedding ceremony apart is to incorporate marriage advice from your friends and family. Pick 3 or 4 couples in different stages of their marriage to come up with one or two pieces of wisdom they can share. A couple deep in to 40 or 50 years married, a couple married just recently, a couple with young children and finally a couple with older children. This works for both church and civil ceremonies and can fulfil the ‘talk’ section that a vicar would do in the civil ceremony too.

10.) Do the legal stuff beforehand so you can create the ceremony you want!

The freedom that comes from having your wedding all in one venue, choosing your own MC who can lead the ceremony, not having to separate or eliminate anything faith-centered, and not being under any time constraints, is worth getting married legally elsewhere, on a completely different day.

Many of our clients are so disappointed when they find out that you aren’t allowed anything faith based in a civil ceremony. We’ve had clients who split up the ceremony so that the legal bit is done and the registrars leave before a pastor steps up to lead the rest of the service (this works well too!).

It means you can take your time and not have to play by anyone else’s rules. You can have a loved one lead the service for you, which is so precious. If I had my wedding again, I would do this for sure!

So what do you think? What would you add to my top 10 ways to make your wedding ceremony memorable? I’d love to hear from you!