Reemerging after the Ceremony

A word about the day of the ceremony: You need to be ready (as in hair and make-up—not wearing your dress) when you go to the temple. You aren't asked to come an hour early to give you time to get ready at the temple. Give yourself plenty of time to get ready at home. I mean a lot of time. You don’t want to feel rushed and pushed. If it takes you a half hour normally, (and if it does, good job you!) give yourself at least an hour. You should change into your dress at the temple, but other than that you need to be ready.

Don’t keep your guests waiting for an extended period of time at the temple before or after the ceremony. One bride recently told me, she took so long to appear after the ceremony that the temple workers began to fear something had happened to her and so had many guests in an uproar of fear by the time they tracked her down. Don’t plan to ready yourself again after the ceremony (except to change if need be). People will be waiting for you. Just quickly put away the sacred clothing, change your dress, and come straight out.  I have literally waited over an hour for the bride to re-emerge after the ceremony, and she looked exactly the same as when I had just seen her. You look beautiful! Now, get out there.

Temple Guests

Question

Since you are an LDS wedding planner I have a question that is uniquely LDS. How do you move forward with a temple wedding if there are close family members that will be unable to come to the temple? How do you have a temple ceremony without hurting close family members, like parents, that want to be there for the actual ceremony?

~Liz

Answer

Temple weddings can be a confusing and sensitive subject for people who are unable to attend. Here is a link to an article on lds.org to better help with this situation. 

You need to talk with them and help them understand how important the temple is to you. You can invite the intimate members of your family who cannot attend the ceremony to come later to the temple to see the bridal couple emerge and to be in the pictures. The temple has a small waiting room where guests not attending the ceremony may wait. Also, most temples will allow the sealer to accompany the couple out to the waiting room to answer any questions and help the family understand.

One other choice is that throughout the nation it is becoming more common to hold a ring ceremony at your reception site in between the sealing ceremony and reception. This is a way to involve those members of your family. It is simple and should not be another wedding ceremony. Someone should speak about the temple and talk about eternal marriage and then the couple may have a simple exchanging of rings. However, this should never overshadow the actual temple ceremony.