Church Ceremony- Readings & Readers

We are getting married in a congregational church, but by a lutheran pastor. We are planning on a reading done by the pastor, and then one to two readings from different readers. (Haven't decided on having just one seperate reader or two!)

Yes... I'm thinking seperate readers...

Ask your pastor/officiant. They usually have a guide of different options as far as readings go. He may be able to suggest what works best as far as how many readings and if different people do them.
I only had one scripture reading that my mom did. My step daughter had a traditional catholic wedding and she had 3 readings, the first I read, the 2nd her sister read and the third was done by the priest. So it depends! But I'd definitely ask your officiant!

Oh, if you are having a church wedding, your pastor may have a set service he does and you may have to have a set # of readings...(like my step daughters wedding, she was told she needed 2 readers for the 2 readings that the priest didn't do)

I've been to several weddings, and never once can remember a reading. If you want one, do one. But keep it minimal. It only adds to the length of the ceremony, which most guests find boring to begin with. Keep the ceremony short and sweet- since that's more time you have to stand up there crying or delaying things.

^ really? Church weddings? I've only ever been to ones with readings!

@Sunny, we are getting married at our Episcopal church and we are having 2 readings and 2 different readers. With the readers/ceremony our Rev. said it will only be about 30 min in total. I think that is pretty average.

I think two readings is pretty typical. If you are having it in a church and either of you are even remotely religious, then guests finding it "boring" shouldn't be an issue because that's just not the point of a religious ceremony (and it's kind of insane to me that anyone could think otherwise). We are having two different people do the two different readings. We are also having two of our cousins read the prayers of the faithful (or the intercessions...it's part of the Catholic mass).

^Exactly. Thanks Rosie!

Yeah 2 readings are typical, but talk to your pastor. I'm sure you can get some ideas there. I'm also with Rosie... if you don't want to sit through the "boring" ceremony, then don't. The people who go want to be there for the most important part of a wedding. Being Catholic, an hour is nothing to me!

We are doing 2 readings and having our Godparents do the readings. There will be 2 people for each reading (4 people total)...

We are also getting married in a Lutheran (ELCA) church. We have three readings: old testament, new testament, and Gospel. We have a different reader for each. I would ask your pastor what he/she suggests. Our church had a rough order of worship for us to follow. That might help, too.

OOH I forgot that we probably need a reading from the old & new testimate & gospel. Wow.

I remember the first (and maybe only) wedding I went to that had some readings. I took it to be the same reason that I'm having them: to give a role to some family members who aren't part of the bridal party.

I was originally planning on three readings but re-assigned one of the family members a different role that I thought was more appropriate because I didn't think that person would like to speak in front of an audience.

I agree with Rosie and the others. For me our marriage is a very spiritual expression and my friends and family would think it absolutely bizarre not to have the standard Old & New Testament readings and are not expecting a terribly short ceremony at that!

My question to you all is which are you picking -- if you get to choose? We don't meet with our officiant until early May so I wont know until then. But I am curious to know what you are using. I do NOT want I Corinthians 1- 13 simply because EVERYONE uses it. What are you using?

We are doing two readings plus the pastor does a reading before his message based on his message. The first reading is 1 John 4:7-16, 19 & Romans 8:35b, 38-39

and the second reading is Colossians 3:12-17. Our pastor is doing a message from Ruth 3....hope that helps! Also when looking at verses I considered Ecclesiastes 4:9-12