Friday, December 4, 2009

Down the Aisle

You’ve probably dreamed about it a hundred times, playing it over and over in your mind – the magical moment you’ll walk down the aisle to the man you love before starting your lives together as husband and wife. I’ve imagined it countless times, too, but in my vision, the only thing that was never entirely clear was who would be walking down the aisle beside me.

As Stephen and I work out our ceremony details, we’ve toyed with different ideas for the processional, especially after learning the Catholic Church prefers that the bride and groom walk down the aisle together. In the Church’s view, this symbolizes the couple as being partners both before and after marriage, and is preferable to the bride’s being “given away” by her father. But while I like the reasoning behind our walking together, I just can’t shake the feeling that it loses a lot of the excitement associated with this special moment for the bride.



Ideally, we’d like Stephen to walk down the aisle first, escorted by his parents and best man. They would be followed by pairs of our bridesmaids and groomsmen, and then by my sister, who is also my maid of honor and will be walking down the aisle solo. I would then walk to the altar accompanied by my parents, who have stood by me through 26 years of the good, the bad and the ugly. Will our clergy go for the idea? We haven’t had a chance to ask yet, but for now, I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

How do you plan to walk down the aisle? Accompanied by your parents? By just your mom or your dad? By another relative or friend? By yourself?

(Photo Credit: Los Robles Greens Golf Course)

4 comments:

  1. You continue to surprise me with info about the Catholic church I have never heard before. That really surprises me since biblibcally, the groom actually went and got the bride to signify the beginning of the wedding. It's interesting they prefer you to walk down the aisle together for the processional. I don't like that at all :( Hope you are able to do what you described because I love that idea!

    For us, the officiant will lead the groom and groomsmen out to the altar from a side area (not down the aisle). Then the groom's parents will walk down together followed by my mother who will be escorted by one of the groomsmen possibly. The bridesmaids, Maid of Honor (my sis), ring bearers and flower girl will follow. Then, everything will stop! (wink, wink) I can't share more but I won't be making my walk down the aisle with my father just yet after the bridal party. I have a surprise to share in the next couple months about my walk :)

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  2. Im sure it will work out.

    I would loooooooove to walk down the aisle together. But my guy wants to dance down the aisle to RUN DMC (yes, dance. sigh.) and I am not doing that.

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  3. I hope your clergy goes for it. It doesn't sound like anything out of the norm so I can't really see why you can't do this. There seem to be so many rule and restrictions for you guys already!
    The church we are getting married in is very very small. It has a capacity of only 40 people and maybe even less. So we are going to do a combo of both. In Greek-Orthodox weddings the groom waits for the bride outside the church, she gets "handed off" by her father, and the couple walks to the alter together. Since we will have rows of chairs outside the church too, to accommodate our guests, I will walk down that aisle with both my parents, to Mr. Milk who will be waiting at the entrance of the church. We will then walk together to the alter (the 10 or so steps it takes to get there that is :))

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  4. I hope they let you do it the way you want! My brother was married in a Catholic Church and his wife walked down with her parents. So hopefully they'll go for it! My brother will be walking me down the aisle.

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