How have you honored deceased family at your wedding/reception?

So sorry to hear of your loss! I can relate. I lost my dad December 2017. So planning has been tough and ive been thinking of ways to honor him day of.
I personally will not be doing a save the seat with a photo of him on it. I think that would be tough. Espeically my mom and immediate family having to sit there and see his photo and empty seat. I want him to be honored, i dont the wedding to feel like another funeral.
I plan on having his photo on our memory table with others we are honoring.
I also plan on having a photo of him with us during family photos. My brother will be walking me down and doing the father daughter dance with me. I plan on having a small announcement honoring my dad before the dance. Also might put his wedding band in my boquet wrap. I would love to hear your feed back or what you end up doing

We are remembering our best friend and his father who were both Fireman and passed suddenly a couple years apart along with FHs uncle who we were both close too.

We are having an outdoor ceremony and an indoor reception. At the ceremony we plan on reserving a seat with a little sign for everyone watching from heaven and at the reception we will have a table somewhere with a little sign saying "in honor of those watching from heaven...we love you" and we will have pictures of all of them and the BMs bouquets will go there along with some candles.

Also I am planning on having "bouquet charms" made of them to sneak into FHs suit jacket with a little note from "us".

View Quoted Comment To clarify, I won’t be doing both the chair and the picture together. Those were two different options that I have heard of. I was going to do a table of those being remembered but we decided to just honor my dad as he is the most recently deceased and closest family member.

I love your wedding band idea! And holding his photo in pictures. Sounds lovely and thoughtful.

View Quoted Comment The charms for your FH is so sweet! I’m sure he will really appreciate it.

I'm so sorry for your loss. We are honoring our grandparents who have passed by putting pictures of them on a table. Possibly also including love letters they wrote to each other. Not sure if you'd like this idea but my cousin lost her father a few months before her wedding and she had a picture of him wrapped around her bouquet so she still had him as she walked down the aisle. I can't remember what they printed the picture on but it might have been fabric. She then placed her bouquet on a special table dedicated to him and other lost family members. I remember she slightly unwrapped the picture so you could see his face more clearly and it was very touching.

We arent doing outward memorials for anybody. We wanted our wedding to be happy and no have potentially painful reminders of lost loved ones.
I will however, have a bouquet charm for my late aunt and grandparents. It was important to me to have them and nobody else has to know.

Hi Kristina. So so sorry for your loss. I lost my dad three years ago so I can relate. I definitely wanted to honor him at our wedding as well. For the ceremony, I had a charm attached to my bouquet with a photo of my dad. At the reception, we had a live band that dedicated a song to my dad. My dad & I always listened to AC/DC together & hearing the songs always take me back to spending time with my dad. I wanted to remember him in a way that brought me joy so when the band started perfoming the AC/DC song, it was all happy tears & memories.

Sorry for your loss, I lost my sweet dad almost 5 years ago and knowing he won’t be there to walk me down the aisle, etc has been very hard. I don’t think there is anything uncomfortable or morbid about displaying subtle remembrances, in fact, for me, it wouldn’t feel right at all to proceed through the day without any mention of my father, since he is part of the reason why I am there getting married in the first place, and he brought so many people joy, I don’t think people will he focused on sadness. I plan on doing the bouquet charm with his picture, having my big brother walk me down the aisle, having our officiant make mention of him at the start of the ceremony, and bringing a nice framed photo of him with me when I get ready so the photographer can get some pictures of me holding the photo in my dress, etc. And I’ll probably do a mother-daughter dance, but only since FH wants to do one with his mom, or else I’d say no special dances at all bc that part does make me sad.

Pinterest has a lot of great ideas.. We are doing something for all of our grandparents. I got floating picture frames and put black and white photos of each in it and have their names at the bottom. I am going to have the frames in the first row at the ceremony with a wreath behind it.

Kristina, so sorry for your loss.. I can empathize. Tony and I are an older couple, and being older means we’ve lost plenty of loved ones along the way


For one, the middle stone in my engagement ring is from my Mom’s collection of jewelry, and that means a lot to have her a part of Tony and I’s journey

During our ceremony we are having a memorial candle lighting right after we light the unity csndle

The minister will recite something along the following:

Lord, we thank you for this special day in the life of Jean and Tony as they celebrate holy wedlock. On this day more than ever we remember those who have formed, shaped, and equipped Jean and Tony for this day, the first day of their lives in holy matrimony - -their mom and dads, aunties, cousins, mentors, grandmothers and grandfathers

We’re foing something along these lines for memorial candle lighting during ceremony

We will have a photo of my parents from their wedding day (my dad passed away 15 years ago) on our guest book / favors table with a small sign / message. Since everybody will pass by this table, everybody will be able to see the photo, which is important to me, since many of our guests never even met my dad.

On the fireplace mantle I’ll have a gold candle with a little card and pictures. My great grandparents, grandmother, uncle, and fiancé’s grandfather.

I'm sorry for your loss! My dad passed away 9 years ago and I'm planning to have a part of his old shirt sewn into my dress as my "something blue". Similar to this:

In the foyer of the church, we had photos of them displayed in ornate frames. At the ceremony, we did a video of their life (DOB, education, military service, work, etc.) We also pre-recorded family member's telling stories about them.

We will be remembering my grandfather, best friend and my FH grandmother. I will have my grandfather's wedding ring hanging on my bouquet. My FH will have a broach of his grandmother's pinned on his boutonniere (he doesn't know yet). I haven't figured out my friend yet. We are also doing a memory table where a picture of each of them will be along with a brief description of their relationship. Jay, my best friend, was going to be one of my FH's groomsmen because they were also close so that is going to be dearly missed. I think the important thing is to have what works for you and to not make it so big that it feels like a funeral vs a wedding.

I also like the empty seat idea, however in our particular situation we would have way too many empty seats . My fiance and I have 1 parent and no grand parents between us. Additionally by best friend and a close first cousin have passed away in the last 2 years. We plan to have a tiny memorial table to recognize all who have passed and I will have a charm on my bouquet with my dad's picture so that I have a piece of him with me when I walk down the aisle.