How to Make a Memorable Wedding Program

Making a wedding program is a project that allows the bride and groom to work as a team to create a part of their wedding that will reflect their personalities and life interests. A wedding program should be useful, attractive, well-designed and made of quality paper.

Things You'll Need

• Poems Song lyrics Quotes from favorite writers Photos

Instructions

1. Decide upon a theme for the wedding program. Will it be about how you met, the special dates you shared or an interest you share? Will the program focus on nature for an outdoor wedding, or will it focus on music for a couple who met while at a dance? A theme helps unify a wedding program.

2. Choose photos to use in the wedding program. Most programs feature a picture of the bride and groom together. Other photos might include a picture of the place the bride and groom met, or the site of the engagement proposal. Some couples also like to include pictures of relatives or nature, special vacation shots and childhood pictures.

3. Pick quotes by writers you admire to add to the wedding program. The quotes should be inspirational in nature and romantic too. Some authors you may want to include in the wedding program are Elizabeth and Robert Browning, Henry Thoreau and Shakespeare.

4. Pick a song that is special to the bride and groom to include in the program. Song lyrics are special memories for many couples. There may be a song to which they listen frequently or to which they danced on a special date. Include the full song lyrics in the wedding program, and perhaps even tuck a CD of the song into a pocket at the back of the program.

5. Find or create design elements for the wedding program. Some popular design elements are graphics of flowers, hearts, seashells, swans or the couple's initials. Some couples like to use an ongoing motif throughout the program, like a heart at the top of each page or handwritten love notes at the bottom of each page.

Tips & Warnings

• Begin planning your wedding program at least four months before the wedding date. Take the time to prepare a wedding program that will have much emotional significance for the bride and groom. Include standard elements in the program, such as a list of music to be played during the ceremony, the readings to be performed and religious passages to be read.

• Make your wedding program unique and matched to your interests. Don't let relatives talk you out of unique and daring ideas if they are dear to your heart.

Resources

• Martha Stewart: Ideas for Wedding Planning
• The Knot: Helpful Wedding Planning Tips