Wedding Order of Service Template & Examples: What to Include

Sitting down to write your wedding order of service can be surprisingly tricky.

You know roughly what needs to go in it, but then the questions start. Do you include the readings in full? What goes on the front? Do guests need the words to every hymn? And if you’re getting married in a church, is there a set order you need to follow?

The easiest place to start is with the ceremony itself.

Your order of service doesn’t need to contain every detail of the wedding day. Its main job is to help guests follow what’s happening, know when they’re expected to join in and give them something they can keep afterwards if they want to.

Here’s a straightforward way to put one together.

A Simple Wedding Order of Service Template

Before worrying about fonts, colours or whether you want a folded card or booklet, get the running order down first.

A simple wedding order of service might look something like this:

Front cover

Sophie & Daniel

Saturday 12th June

St Mary’s Church

You could also add a photograph, illustration, short quotation or simply keep it clean with your names and wedding details.

Inside

Entrance music

Welcome

First reading

Hymn or piece of music

The marriage ceremony

Second reading

Prayers or reflection

Signing of the register

Final hymn or music

Recessional music

That isn’t a set template that every wedding has to follow. Think of it as something to work from.

Take out anything that isn’t part of your ceremony and add anything we’ve missed. Once you’ve got that list confirmed, working out how much space you need becomes much easier.

What Should Go in a Church Wedding Order of Service?

Church weddings can need a little more planning simply because there’s often more for guests to follow.

Alongside the ceremony itself, you may have hymns, prayers, readings and other parts of the service where guests need the wording in front of them.

For example, a church order of service could run:

Entrance of the bride

Welcome and opening prayer

Hymn

Reading

The marriage

Exchange of vows and rings

Second reading

Address

Prayers

Signing of the register

Final hymn

Blessing

Recessional music

But don’t treat an online example as the finished version for your own wedding.

Different churches and denominations can follow different formats, and the person conducting the ceremony may have particular wording or an order they’d like you to use. Get that confirmed before you spend too much time polishing the artwork.

It can save quite a lot of last-minute shuffling around.

Do You Need to Print the Hymns and Readings in Full?

Not necessarily.

If everyone is expected to sing a hymn, having the words in the order of service makes sense. The same goes for prayers or responses that guests are expected to join in with.

Readings are different. You might print the full reading, or simply include its title and the name of the person reading it.

A lot comes down to space.

Three full hymns, several readings and prayers can quickly turn what looked like a simple folded programme into a small booklet. That’s not a problem, but it’s useful to know before you start squeezing the text down just to make everything fit.

If the page is starting to look crowded, giving the content more room will almost always look better than making everything smaller.

What About a Civil Ceremony?

Civil ceremonies are often a little simpler when it comes to the printed programme.

You might only need:

Arrival of the guests

Entrance music

Welcome

Reading

Marriage declarations

Exchange of vows

Exchange of rings

Signing of the register

Closing words

Recessional music

That could comfortably work on a folded order of service rather than a multi-page booklet.

You can still make it personal. A thank-you message, a short note about the wedding party or a few words for someone who can’t be there can all work nicely.

Just try not to add things purely because there’s an empty bit of space. A little breathing room usually makes wedding stationery look better, not unfinished.

Card, Folded Programme or Booklet?

This is where having the content finished first really helps.

If you only need the basic running order, a printed card may be plenty. A folded programme gives you a little more space without becoming bulky.

For church weddings with hymn lyrics, prayers and several readings, a wedding order of service booklet is often easier to work with because you don’t have to cram everything onto two panels.

There’s no prize for fitting your ceremony onto the smallest possible format.

Choose the format that gives the content enough room to be comfortable to read.

Making It Feel Like Part of Your Wedding

Your order of service is practical, but it doesn’t have to look purely functional.

If you’ve already designed your invitations, save the dates or menus, you’ve got a good starting point. Carrying across the same fonts, colours or illustrations helps everything feel like it belongs together.

Some couples keep the cover very simple with just their names, wedding date and venue. Others add flowers, photographs or artwork that ties in with the rest of the day.

Both work.

The important bit is that the useful information inside stays easy to follow. Guests will probably be reading it while listening to the ceremony, so clarity matters more than trying to fill every part of the page.

A Quick Check Before You Send It to Print

This is worth doing properly.

Check the names, wedding date, venue, readings, hymn titles and the names of anybody taking part. Then check the running order again.

If you’ve been staring at the artwork for days, give it to somebody else to proofread too. It’s very easy to read what you think you typed rather than what is actually on the page.

For a church wedding, it’s also worth getting the final version approved by whoever is conducting the service if they’ve asked to see it.

Catching a mistake on screen is much easier than spotting it after a box of printed programmes has arrived.

Keep It Useful, Then Make It Yours

A wedding order of service doesn’t need to follow a complicated formula.

Start with the real running order of your ceremony, add anything your guests need in order to take part and then build the design around that.

Once you know how much content you have, choosing between a card, folded programme or booklet becomes much easier too.

If your artwork is ready, you can take a look at our full range of wedding order of service printing options, or get in touch if you have something a little different in mind.