Preparing Your Wedding Liturgy

Preparing the Service booklet

The Order of Service has a two-fold function: to help people participate in the celebration of the wedding and to provide a memento for the occasion. An Order of Service should contain everything necessary for the congregation to play its part in the liturgy. It is not intended to be a ‘full script’. There are times when the role of the congregation is to listen not to read along (such as the scripture readings); there are other times when its role is to observe (and listen) rather than follow along and have one’s head down (such as the Rite of Marriage).

Sometimes a booklet can contain too little information rather too much. Some booklets just offer the hymns and a series of headings. It can be useful to include the responses as since the introduction of the new translation of the Mass in 2011 people may be unfamiliar.

The Liturgy Office offers two types of templates for Orders of Service both with and without Mass. An alternative approach is a Card (pdf) which gives the liturgical responses etc and could be use with a leaflet which offers the hymns etc.

The first is a Word document which provides a template which can be editted. The document makes use of the Comments feature in Word to provide notes on the various options. These comments should be deleted or hidden before printing.

• Order of Celebrating Matrimony with Mass (Word doc)
• Order of Celebrating Matrimony without Mass (Word doc)

The second form offers a pdf which may be freely reproduced. This includes the structure of the wedding liturgy and the responses made by the people. It is intended that it might be inserted into another leaflet which contains the hymns etc. of the Wedding

• Order of Celebrating Matrimony with Mass (pdf)
• Order of Celebrating Matrimony without Mass (pdf)
• Order of Celebrating Matrimony without Mass where one of the couple is not baptised (pdf)