How to Incorporate Young Cousins in a Wedding Ceremony

Asking a young cousin to be a flower girl is one way to incorporate a family member.

Weddings often incorporate close friends and family members into the ceremony. Though many jobs are suitable for adults, such as attendants, bridesmaids, groomsmen and readers, generally fewer jobs are available for children. If you have a family with a lot of young cousins, find creative ways to add them to the ceremony so they're part of the nuptials on your special day.

Instructions

1. Ask male and female cousins to serve as ring bearers and flower girls, respectively. If you have an abundance of cousins, consider expanding the roles. For example, ask two male cousins to be ring bearers, instructing each to hold one ring. If your ceremony location has multiple aisles, assign two flower girls to each aisle.

2. Ask cousins to serve as attendants helping to seat people before the ceremony begins. Though this is traditionally done by males, these roles can be performed by females as well. If the cousins are very young, pair them with an older cousin or attendant.

3. Ask a cousin to perform a reading if he has developed good language skills. Give the cousin the text several weeks ahead of time, encourage him to practice and have him to read the text at the rehearsal so he gets used to the podium and microphone.

4. Give a scrapbook to one of your cousins and ask that she request signatures from all guests in attendance. This will give her a job to perform throughout the ceremony and reception.

5. Instruct young cousins to hand out wedding programs before the ceremony. At the end of the ceremony, ask them to hand out directions to the reception.

6. Ask if your cousins want to participate in the religious ceremony. For example, Catholic weddings have roles for altar boys or altar girls.

7. Ask cousins to turn pages for the musicians playing at the wedding. Check with the musician beforehand and have the cousin to practice with the musician a couple of times before the ceremony.

References

• Wednet: Roles That Children Can Play
• Virginia Weddings; Rev. Elisheva Clegg; Incorporating Children into the Wedding; January 2008
• 2 a Wedding Day; Make It a Family Wedding; Nily Glaser; 2006
• Romance in New Orleans; Your Wedding Day: Including Children; Rev. Don Bohn
• I Do Take Two: Children Involvement in Wedding Ceremonies and Wedding Planning