Get­ting mar­ried can be the open­ing scene to a life of hap­pi­ness that in­volves the cou­ple build­ing a fam­i­ly to­geth­er, pur­su­ing shared goals and dreams, and con­tribut­ing their en­er­gies to a bet­ter so­ci­ety. But be­fore the hap­py cou­ple can ride off in­to the sun­set to live out their dreams, there is the ac­tu­al busi­ness of the wed­ding cer­e­mo­ny to ac­com­plish suc­cess­ful­ly. To give the love­birds the best send-off in­to their promis­ing fu­ture, it is crit­i­cal that every­one in­volved in their big day, play their re­spec­tive roles su­perbly.

Fam­i­ly mem­bers and friends

Al­though each mem­ber of the wed­ding par­ty will have a dif­fer­ent du­ty on the wed­ding day, the clos­est fam­i­ly mem­bers and friends should serve as a source of ad­vice and sup­port for the bride and groom.

Brides­maids - be­fore the cer­e­mo­ny

Brides­maids are re­spon­si­ble for pur­chas­ing their wed­ding day at­tire and all oth­er clothes they will need for var­i­ous pre-wed­ding par­ties. As part of their pre-wed­ding role, the brides­maids will col­lec­tive­ly share the costs of, and host, a lun­cheon or show­er, in ho­n­our of the bride. The maids must pur­chase a present for each oc­ca­sion they at­tend as well as han­dle their own trans­porta­tion and ac­com­mo­da­tions. Each brides­maid will choose a wed­ding present for the new­ly­weds, or join the oth­er maids to pool their funds for a more valu­able gift. Be­fore the wed­ding, the bride's ho­n­our maid (or chief bride's maid) will like­ly ac­com­pa­ny the bride to shop for the bridal fash­ions and will or­gan­ise the or­der­ing and fit­ting of the brides­maids' gowns. She will al­so be the head of host­ing the bridal lun­cheon or show­er.

Brides­maids – on the wed­ding day

On the wed­ding day, the brides­maids are in full swing ready to serve their 'queen'. Af­ter the grand­par­ents and the par­ents have been seat­ed, and the grooms­men have tak­en their po­si­tions at the front of the church, the brides­maids en­ter one at a time to join the men in the for­ma­tion. The chief brides­maid will play the part of the bride's chief as­sis­tant through­out the cer­e­mo­ny by help­ing in any way that she is re­quest­ed. She has the ho­n­our and re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of help­ing the bride dress for the cer­e­mo­ny, car­ry­ing the wed­ding band the groom will even­tu­al­ly wear, and the aus­pi­cious role of ar­rang­ing the bride's train at the al­tar. She is al­so ho­n­oured to hold the bride's flow­ers dur­ing the vows and to wipe away any tears of joy the bride might shed. At the re­cep­tion, she par­tic­i­pates in the re­ceiv­ing line.

Grooms­men – be­fore the wed­ding day

Grooms­men al­so host a bach­e­lor's par­ty for the groom as part of their pre-wed­ding du­ties. They are al­so re­spon­si­ble for pur­chas­ing or rent­ing their wed­ding day for­mal at­tire. Each grooms­man will choose a wed­ding gift for the bride and groom, or con­tribute to a large gift from all of the grooms­men. The best man as­sists the groom in se­lect­ing the for­mal wear for the men of the wed­ding par­ty and or­gan­is­es the or­der­ing of each grooms­man's at­tire.

Grooms­men – on the wed­ding day

Grooms­men are tra­di­tion­al­ly re­spon­si­ble for ar­rang­ing trans­port for his as­signed brides­maid, to and from the wed­ding and re­cep­tion venues. The best man helps the groom dress for the cer­e­mo­ny, car­ries the bride's wed­ding band, and of­fers the first toast at the re­cep­tion. Af­ter the wed­ding, he de­liv­ers the new­ly­wed's thank-you note and/or gift to the bride's par­ents, that ex­press­es their warm ap­pre­ci­a­tion for them host­ing such a won­der­ful cel­e­bra­tion.

Flower girl/ring bear­er

Flower girl pre­cedes the bride in the pro­ces­sion and scat­ters flower petals along the aisle for the bride to walk on, or she may sim­ply car­ry a small bou­quet, bas­ket, or wreath of flow­ers. The ring bear­er is tra­di­tion­al­ly a young boy who ei­ther pre­cedes or es­corts the flower girl down the aisle. He car­ries a dec­o­rat­ed pil­low on which the wed­ding rings are tied. How­ev­er, nowa­days the rings at­tached to this pil­low are sym­bol­ic and the ho­n­our at­ten­dants (chief brides­maid and best man) are re­spon­si­ble for car­ry­ing the re­al rings.

Fa­ther of the Bride

In the Chris­t­ian cer­e­mo­ny, the fa­ther of the bride es­corts his daugh­ter to the front of the church and then "gives" her hand in mar­riage to the groom. In place of the ac­tu­al fa­ther, a bride may ask her broth­er, un­cle, or close fam­i­ly friend to "give" her hand in mar­riage.

Moth­er of the groom

The moth­er of the groom is the first to be seat­ed dur­ing the pro­ces­sion, af­ter the grand­par­ents. She al­so is the host­ess of the re­hearsal din­ner par­ty if one is to be held.

Moth­er of the bride

The moth­er of the bride is the last guest to be seat­ed for the wed­ding, a few mo­ments be­fore the mar­riage cer­e­mo­ny be­gins, and is the of­fi­cial host­ess of the wed­ding re­cep­tion.

Grand­par­ents

Grand­par­ents of the bride and groom are usu­al­ly very spe­cial guests of the wed­ding. The grand­par­ents of the groom are seat­ed be­fore the grand­par­ents of the bride.

Ush­ers

The ush­ers are re­spon­si­ble for wel­com­ing guests to the wed­ding and di­rect­ing them to their seats in an or­der­ly fash­ion. In ad­di­tion, the ush­ers dis­trib­ute the wed­ding pro­gramme, di­rect place­ment of the gifts, and some­times es­cort the brides­maids dur­ing the re­ces­sion­al and at the re­cep­tion.

Wed­ding Di­rec­tor

The wed­ding di­rec­tor is an un­of­fi­cial mem­ber of the wed­ding par­ty who makes sure that every­one is in his or her prop­er place through­out the wed­ding and re­cep­tion.

Writ­ten with in­for­ma­tion from: http://www.cftech.com