Wedding Bridal Procession

Is it walking up the aisle or down the aisle? In my humble opinion :-) someone walks you down the aisle but you walk up the aisle (clear as mud). Sure the Ceremony table is at the Top of the aisle (no?!) at the front? The procession of walking the aisle on your Wedding Day is a key moment. Here is a complete guide to all goings on when it comes to Walking Down the Aisle in a Wedding Procession.

Surely, walking down the aisle is no big deal. People know what to do. You would be surprised. From actually not knowing what to do. To being extreme nervousness. To blanking in the moment. Or some busy body thinking they know what is going on and making an absolute bags of it. The possibilities are endless.

All we can do is, talk about some situations, make you aware of probable events and hopefully your aisle walk goes half way normal. if something odd happens, try not to let it interfere with the moment.

Who Walks in the Wedding Procession?

Flowergirls, Pageboys, Animals.

Let’s start with the little ones. Flowergirls, Pageboys and Animals. Yep, I said animals. Rules are gone folks. People have fur-babies now. If you are including an animal in the Ceremony at any point, please know what environment the animal is happy with and will best behave in. Particularly, if you want the animal to do something like brings the rings up. Most crucially! Have a person ready that is capable to handling the animal if needed (outside of the Wedding Couple). Remember with kids and animals anything can happen.

Flowergirls and Pageboys, they are little. You want them to be seen. You do not want a full grown human walking up in front of them. Blocking your guests from seeing them, the videographer and photographer from capturing them and they may even be the children of the Wedding Couple. The partner standing at the top of the aisle will want to watch their son or daughter walking up the aisle. This is one of the most emotional moments of modern weddings.

Doesn’t the Maid of Honour walk first?

There is a mindset of a tradition knocking about, that the Maid of Honour walks first no matter who is walking as part of the procession, kids or animals: she must lead the procession! Well, if someone is adamant they want to walk a head of children, leave them off, you choose them in your bridal party (you know them).

Whatever the order, leave a clear aisle before the smallies walk. Don’t hide them away, enjoy the moment.

In fact, in an Anglican Christian wedding the vicar or bishop parades in first, ahead of the Bride. Anyone else who cares to enter takes up the rear!

In a Roman Catholic Church the priest will grace the alter sometimes after the procession is complete. They are here for mass and none of that razmataz.

Mothers

Leaning into orders and who does what, first, I feel I should talk about mothers. Traditionally the groom is top of the aisle with his groomsmen and his family (including parents) are sitting close by.

The movie style entrance would have the mothers escorted to their seats. Parents of the Groom can escort each other unless you really want to mix it up. Mother of the Bride we have seen escorted by the Groom. The Groom could walk his own mother in, Groom’s dad could walked Mother of the Bride up. That all said! This does not happen in reality. The movies are going for the big wow entrance.

Most mothers don’t want that. The Groom’s family want to be close by, supporting him, chatting, feeling the tension of the build up. The Mother of the Bride is one of the last to arrive before the procession begins. She walks in maybe with a son or daughter to take her seat. The musician then eagerly awaits for the signal to start the official procession.

Bridesmaids

I think most expect bridesmaids to walk. Believe it or not this can be daunting to some. Yes, it is just walking but some do not like all eyes on them. Nervous Bridesmaids tend to be runners. They fly up that aisle. One of the more shocking walks I have seen lately is: bridesmaids being fired up the aisle by a sacristan or helper in a herd. A bunch of women walking awkwardly up the aisle. You would be surprised how poorly and frequently this happens. Take your time and pace out the whole thing. There is no need to go crazy or over controlling in executing a simple and nicely spaced aisle walk. A calm aisle walk helps set a tone for the main event.

The steppers! Ah yes, there is a lot said for having a good stride and pacing the walk gently. But some of the funniest walks are the toe to heal, ridged, bouquet of flowers firmly to stomach/chest steppers. Taking an age to exaggerate each step. When this happens, normally the first one or two do it. Then the third bridesmaid onwards realise how bad it looks and just walk normally. That then highlights how bad the first two bridesmaids were, even more! Seriously, it is not the end of the world but don’t be a stepper!

Clear aisle or good distancing. I fell I need to highlight the importance of allowing a full aisle clearance per bridesmaid (or half an aisle if it is a long aisle). If you are a bridesmaid don’t run up the back of the person in front of you!

Can the groomsmen make an entrance?

Sure, go for it! Depending on the shape of the room and the general flow, it may be possible for the Groomsmen to meet the bridesmaids at certain point, link arms and gracefully guide them to the top of the aisle. Sometimes there just isn’t the layout for this and the grooms buddies are best standing with him, supporting him.

Grandparents

You may not be aware of it but in some cultures, if you are lucky enough to have any grandparents alive and kicking: the grandparents make a entrance. Kind of leading their families into the Ceremony. It is a sign of respect and shows the bound of family. It can be quite rare to see grandparents at weddings. When we do, they may well be frail and need to take a seat discretely, without any fuss.

Officiant or Celebrant

Depending on what religious or secular organisation is hosting your wedding, they might have an entrance or method of starting the ceremony or procession. Chat with the officiant to ask if they have a plan. If it is not a formal requirement in their ceremony script, they might be flexible to changing it up. Don’t be frightened to ask, in a polite way!

My Father has passed away. I was planning on my dad giving me away. What can I do?

If a parent has passed for either one of the Wedding Couple, it can be quite difficult for key moments like walking down the aisle. If the Father of the Bride has passed, one of the strongest modern solutions is that the Mother of the Bride walks her daughter down the aisle. That said, some mothers are not capable of walking the aisle centre stage. Be it for physical or emotional reasons.

I want to say nice and early in these suggestions, you may want to walk by yourself. There may not be an adequate substitution and you may want to walk that moment with your father, in spirit.

Doing so can be very emotional. Approach it a way that bests suits you. If walking and allowing all the emotion come to you from the back row through the walk. You may want to at a certain row bring yourself back to the moment of meeting your groom or partner at the top of the aisle. Be able to be apart of the Wedding Ceremony that is about to take place. I say this with the best intentions, as the emotional state you may be in when walking, may impact you greatly and may take a moment to come through.

Overall it is very much true that a Ceremony can be an out of body experience and fly by. So many Wedding Couples say that when they see photos or videos that they don’t remember a moment or the image propels them back to the moment. To a moment they had not recalled before looking at the image. Audio too has that astonishing effect on emotions and recall.

Of course you can walk half way by yourself (with a Parent in Spirit) and the second half with a Mother or other significant person. Your Mother then still gets to shake your partner’s hand and wish you both well at the top of the aisle.

A brother or close uncle is always a nice option. We have even seen a Son of the Bride, both child and adult walk their Mother up the Aisle. Whatever the situation is that lead to this event it is quite impressive, special and heartfelt to see the moment as it happens.

A top class moment (as my father would say) was when a Bride walk half way by herself. Having had no immediate family remaining. The Groom then walked from the top of the aisle to link up with the Bride and walk the rest of the way hand in hand, to meet the officiant at the top. The response from the congregation was special. One of those electric moments.

Give me away!

It is a phrase steeped in heritage and not that offense. If you are taking a bit of power back from the old ways and someone is going to walk with you down the aisle. All power to you. In fact, we once saw a bride very concerned about the phrase, so her father walked her so far, the Bride then walked the final couple of rows herself. A balanced affair to meet everyone expectations.

If you are considering this, The Father of the Bride will most likely not get to shake the Grooms hand and have those final interactions. That sometimes can be comical, at best are emotional.

Singing Me Down the Aisle

When family sings or a key person in the Bridal Party sings, the Wedding Couple must own it. A superstar DJ we know says about one of the services he offers is that “if the Couple don’t own it, if they turn away from it, get a little embarrassed and distance themselves from it, then it is not for them, and I encourage them away from the service”. Own it and support the person putting themselves on the line.

We have seen Brides sing themselves up the aisle. If you are going to do this you better be comfortable in a crowd sing and walking, be confident. The mood can be celebratory or emotional, be aware of the impact the song has on the mood. It might be a song you really want to be sung when you walk down the aisle. You might be able to sing it but would you rather listen?

One bride, a great singer told us she thought about singing herself up the aisle but decided against it so she could be totally in the moment. She later in the day sang a brief verse of a song to her husband after a small thanks to all her guests for attending. It meant she still got to do her party piece but in a subtle and gentle way.

If someone, whoever it is, is a lovely singer at home, in the kitchen or during a noble call by a fireplace. That is lovely but they may not have the experience or confidence to sing in public at a key pressure moment. Many a gentle soul has faded into the rustle of a crowd. Just be careful with expectations and unintentional pressure.

Grooms have sung Bride’s up the Aisle, once it was such a surprise and done so gently that the Bride did not realise until she got to the top of the aisle that the groom was singing. Bestmen who are musicians have sung, once with the groomsmen supporting the Bestman in the chorus. Sparks of natural electricity be flying!

Random Movements while walking down the Aisle

Pesky Humans! They get up to all sorts.

People are bonkers. Don’t get distracted by anything going on around you. If it is significant and you just need to give someone a chance to skip along out of the way, pause and continue when ready. No fuss, things happen.

That said, wedding guests are notorious for getting in the aisle (needlessly) at key moments. Blocking the bridal party from passing or blocking the sight off bridal party.

Guests, staff or people who have nothing to do with the wedding: hang around the back of Ceremonies. They may or may not realise it but they are in the back of footage and moments that are captured with them in it.

Top of the aisle is not all plane sailing either! An officiant can step forward too quickly and interrupt heartfelt moments. Priests can potter up to people, to say hello to parents, tell them to do something or just fuss about, as you do. This could be in the middle of Bridesmaid walking down the aisle. The Father of the Bride shaking the Groom’s hand. Whenever it happens, smile and carry on. It will be grand!

Music

Whatever your music plans are, try not to rush. Let the music begin, transition or finish. There is lots of time. If the music is wrong, send word of the issue to the musicians and be Zen (both go to the dark side).

The signal will go into the Ceremony that everyone is ready to walk the aisle. When music begins, gently begin the procession. If there is a starting hiccup, no stress. Sometimes you cannot hear the music from outside the ceremony room, if you think the music has or should have started. Get someone to check or have a sneak peak inside.

After the procession, the music will come to a close and the hustle and bustle of everyone getting to their places will happen. Let it happen and don’t stress too much about the smoothness of it.

Pro tip; if a song is lengthy. You may not want or need the whole song. Indeed, at any point in a ceremony the full song might be over kill. If so, tell the musician to ease the song to a close when they see that the ceremony is ready to move on to the next stage.