The Wedding Ceremony Planner: The Essential Guide to the Most Important Part of Your Wedding Day

by Judith Johnson

Many couples want a spiritual but not a religious ceremony that truly celebrates their unique set of beliefs, values and life circumstances. They want their ceremony, their way but don't know where to begin or what questions they need to ask. The Wedding Ceremony Planner is a comprehensive and user-friendly guide. It covers everything you need to know to create a beautiful ceremony text and to anticipate and address all the profound and mundane logistics with ease, grace and fun. It includes hundreds of text excerpts reflecting the many voices with which our hearts speak. There are also ten sample ceremony texts for the inclusion of children, the telling of the couple's story, the renewal of vows and a commitment ceremony. Checklists and worksheets are included to manage all the details. The Wedding Ceremony Planner is also an invaluable resource for clergy of all faiths, wedding planners and location coordinators. Sprinkled with anecdotes about lessons learned by couples creating their weddings, this book is filled with the wisdom of experience

Praise for The Wedding Ceremony Planner

"Weddings are sacred acts surrounded by material hoopla. The Wedding Ceremony Planner clarifies the worldly issues but keeps the spirit central. It's the balance that every couple needs."
-Marianne Williamson, author, The Gift of Change

"With countless samples of ceremony segments and worksheets to put them all together, The Wedding Ceremony Planner affirms what we all hope to communicate our love in a clear, heartfelt manner that truly reflects who we are."
-Jack Canfield, co-author, Chicken Soup for the Bride's Soul®

"In this time of increasing exchange and friendship between people of many cultures ... what the world needs is an intelligent and compassionate 'how to' book on performing interfaith ceremonies. This book is an excellent example."
-The Very Reverend James Parks Morton Founder and President of the Interfaith Center of New York

"[This book] was [wonderful] in helping us create our wedding ceremony. Not only was it easy to follow, but it made us think of things we never would have thought of on our own ... Going through the book also brought us closer ... it is the one thing we have sat down and done 100% together."
-Jennifer Buehler and Frank Yanoti Jr., Bride and Groom

"Planning the wedding ceremony in itself can be a process of discovery for a couple entering marriage ... this marvelous book ... help[s] couples design a ceremony that truly and personally characterizes the meaning and uniqueness of each union."
-Pril Smiley, Mohonk Mountain House

"This book will aid and guide the couple in the creation of their unique wedding ceremony that appropriately states their personal beliefs. How refreshing, how important, how appropriate to help make the wedding yours."
-Alexandra Stoddard, author of Choosing Happiness

Genres: Nonfiction, Reference, Spirituality, Self Help

362 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2005

Reviews

[megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A co-worker of my mom's recommended this book to me as she said it really helped her in preparing for her own marriage. It was truly one of the most useful guidance books I've ever read--and I'm so pleased she recommended it because i don't think I would have picked it up otherwise. It gives lots of options for putting together a wedding ceremony and urges couples to be creative and as structured as you need to be.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great book for mindfully planning out your wedding ceremony! It has a lot of example texts that you can mix and match to create your own meaningful experience. I'm so excited to start planning the most important part of my wedding day!

[Samantha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of good tips and lots of examples for different sections of a wedding ceremony. However, I wish part two was organized a little better. Author suggests people read all of the options when I think most people don't need over 20 options for each section, especially with some being only applicable to certain religions.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

So incredibly helpful.

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has been unimaginably helpful! So many examples and suggestions that let you find the right words for the big day. We just planned out our entire wedding ceremony in a short time and we couldn’t be happier with the results. If you’re doing a DIY wedding this book is essential!

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book that answered all our questions about planning our ceremony text on our own. We are using a friend as an officiant, so weren't expecting him to do any of the planning. We agreed that we could just keep googling ceremony text ideas, but this book presents a large number of good ideas neatly laid out in sections. A much cleaner way of doing it than just googling, and 1 of only 2 wedding planning books we used.

As a Reverend, Johnson includes a large amount of Christian text options, but also balances these out with a large amount of 'spiritual' and secular texts. There are no suggestions for specific ceremony readings in this book, but many options to choose from for all the other bits you'll need: greeting, vows, ring exchange, pronouncement, etc. She also includes, for those who have wedding parties & procession/recession, a lot of advice on how to manage all those moving parts and rehearse them. We didn't need this bit, but it would be useful to most people!

Good book, straightforward, a fun read sitting at the bar with Jeff rapidly going over text options. Sounds like: "No... No... No!... Oh my goodness, no... Hmm, maybe..." Good fun!

[Jenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great reference book for anyone planning a wedding ceremony! I didn't get ALL the way through it but it definitely had some great pointers. I checked it out because I wasn't exactly sure what was required of us in the whole planning of the vows and order of things in the actual ceremony (since then I have learned that our minister has a pretty set plan for what she does). It is a really great resource if your planning to write your own vows or are trying to avoid having a specifically religious ceremony.

What I found very helpful were the checklists about what you should do/know going into your ceremony. I had not really thought much about the ceremony (much more focus on the reception) until I read through this book. Even though mine will only be about 15 minutes long...there is a lot that goes into planning it and making sure everything goes smoothly. VERY helpful book and I highly recommend to anyone planning a wedding!

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a great resource for anyone who is planning and writing their own wedding ceremony. The first few chapters cover the ceremony planning basics: setting the tone, deciding on the participants, choosing the location, and special considerations to be made.

The real value to this book is with part two, Designing Your Ceremony. The author goes over the different parts that can be included in a ceremony, and includes sample texts for each part. If you are writing your own ceremony, this part is immensely helpful. It is possible to pick from among the different options listed and complete your ceremony that way, or tailor the text to your liking. This book would even be useful as a starting point, even if you don't use any of the sample text.

Finally, the book includes ten sample ceremonies, along with planning checklists and worksheets. Overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone with a wedding in their future, especially if you are writing your own ceremony.

[Jenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This had a lot of really good tips for the wedding. It gave me a really good base for drafting our ceremony as well. Drafting the ceremony was something I was really worried about, and this book helped with a lot of the stress. I wasn't very enamored with the ring exchange words, however. It would have been nice to have some shorter phrases that weren't "With this ring I thee wed." (Seriously, who says "thee" anymore?!) or some online resources that could be tapped into, but between this an APracticalwedding.com, and the sample ceremonies from my officiant, I was able to cobble together something that seems both personal and befitting the moment.

[Brooke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful book for personalizing your wedding ceremony. Tons of options for various faith/spirituality traditions, various elements of the big day, etc. Lots of creative suggestions to make your ceremony really special. A must-read for wedding planning if you have some flexibility with what is said and done at your ceremony.

[Trinity · Rating 4 out of 5]

My fiance and I are writing our entire wedding ceremony from scratch, and this book was immensely helpful. It gave us guidelines for coming up with an overall structure, and it provided numerous readings for every aspect of the ceremony. I'd recommend it to anyone trying to personalize their ceremony, as well as anyone who officiates!

[Zachary · Rating 3 out of 5]

helpful. You might think: "Why do I need a book? It's all on the internet." I found sitting down to read the advice and browse the options was really helpful. I of course also used the internet ... but still worthwhile.

I had never heard of the bread/wine/salt/silver polish tradition. interesting.

[Bronwyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent resource for wedding ceremony planning. I absolutely loved all the sample scripts and readings. The author also includes lots of helpful tips and creative ideas. I'm so glad I found this book!

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

I cannot even begin to say how helpful this book was when Mike and I wrote our own wedding ceremony. Johnson is an incredible source of knowledge and I would not hesitate to recommend this book to anyone else taking on the same challenging task.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Useful in helping think through a lot of details that you might otherwise forget about. Occasionally the author's voice is a little patronizing. TONS of alternative language for each part of the ceremony. A quick read - a few hours will do.

[Kim Miner Litton · Rating 4 out of 5]

We're not using everything in this book, because honestly this book does a lot of the work an officiant might do, and some things you can leave to them. However, there are great ideas here and I think it's great for people building their ceremony or for officiants.

[Lashette]

This is the 2nd edition of the book I read years ago when starting out as a licensed officiant. The major changes are in the language. Ms. Johnson has made it more inclusive which is nice. Glad to own this.

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

We used this to plan our wedding ceremony. Super super helpful if you want to customize things. We got a lot of compilments on how well everything turned out and how sweet the ceremony was.

[Sue (booknbeachbag) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an incredibly helpful book for trying to come up with a ceremony that feels right for us.

[Nicole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book if you are writing a wedding ceremony, it is such a help!!

[Corinne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful and well-organized!

[Devon Tutak · Rating 4 out of 5]

Exceptionally helpful if you're building the ceremony from the ground up.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was really good.

[Christa · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was like talking to my grandma. Which is not a bad thing; it is just a very specific viewpoint. It was helpful for determining the various parts of a ceremony.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very helpful to me when I was planning my wedding ceremony.

[Katrina McBride · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was very helpful in writing my wedding ceremony. I mixed and matched some stuff with other stuff I found online but it was very helpful for structure and flow.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

We used this book to help plan our ceremony. It was super helpful and the ceremony turned out to be amazing and perfect.

[Miss Kristine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I used this to plan and write out my wedding ceremony. A family friend was the officiant and the whole ceremony took place outside.

[Elissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of very helpful info. The only major issue I have is its insistence on wife / husband language and binary opposite gender coupling. If you can set that to the side, it's a great tool.