What to print on the cover, in the order of liturgical ceremony, on the wedding party page, and in the back cover closing note, with specimens you can copy and adapt, for a nuptial Mass or a marriage service without one.
Four things, in this order: what is being celebrated, who is being married, when, and where. Everything else belongs inside.
This is the page guests actually read during the ceremony. It should be a list of what happens, in sequence, with details next to each item.
Two conventions make the difference between a program guests follow and one they fold up. We designed our templates so that guests can follow the service or Mass as it happens, hence the music scores. Print the readings or music selections against the moment they happen, not in a separate list at the back or in the middle; a guest wondering what the choir is singing or what the minister is reading will not turn the page to find out.
The full order of both forms, side by side, is set out in the liturgical guide.
Two lists, kept apart. The ministers page is formal and uses titles; the wedding party page is warm and uses roles.
A Catholic nuptial Mass usually has guests who are not Catholic. Adding "Standing, Sitting, Kneeling" instructions to the booklet is what stops them guessing. We have those stated wherever it is needed.
Two short blocks, and the tone of the whole booklet turns on them.
A wedding with a Mass is a Nuptial Mass; one without is the Marriage Service (Latin Mass) and the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony or a Wedding Ceremony (Novus Ordo).
Naming a late parent among the living reads as an error to everyone who knows. Put them in the memorial and ask for prayers.
The order of liturgical ceremony is a list. Set as prose, it cannot be followed by someone who has just looked up from the aisle.
Print each music selection against the moment it happens or the page number, if a supplementary hymn book is available in the pews. A separate credits page answers a question nobody is asking.
Each folded sheet makes four pages. Anything else gets padded with blanks by the printer, usually in the wrong place. The total number of pages in all our templates are in multiples of four to address this problem
It's important to get the names of people written correctly. Have someone from each family check the names for spelling. Name typos can be an error that survives into the photographs.
When the wording is settled, the printing guide covers the rest: imposition, paper stock, and the printer settings that decide whether the fold lands where it should.
Every template ships with this wording set correctly. You replace the names and the details; the conventions and layout are already handled.
Free to design and preview. $5.99 when you download the print-ready PDF.
All 44 readings the Church offers for a Catholic wedding; Old Testament, psalms, New Testament, acclamations and Gospels; with the rules for choosing them.
Read the guide →How a booklet for the 1962 Nuptial Mass differs from a Novus Ordo one: the ceremony before Mass, the fixed Propers and facing Latin and English.
Read the guide →The order of service in both forms of the Roman Rite, movement by movement, and what a wedding program should list for each.
Read the guide →