At the beginning of the wedding ceremony, it’s typical for the VIPs to walk down the aisle and arrange themselves at the altar. Usually, the wedding party will stand at the altar with the couple (except for the flower girl and ring bearer, because it’s hard for the littlies to stand for such a long time). The question is: where should everybody stand? If you’re wondering how to line up your wedding party, then keep on reading!
For heterosexual couples, the bride will stand on the left side and the grooms will stand on the right side (except in Jewish weddings, where it’s the other way around). The bridesmaids will line up behind the bride on the left and the groomsmen will do the same on the right.
Featured image credit: Golden Moments Wedding Photography & Film
Related: How To Have A Mixed Gender Wedding Party
Here’s how to line up your wedding party
The good news is that there are no rules! You can choose to line up your wedding party at the altar in any order that you wish. Being in the wedding party and standing with the couple at the altar is an incredible honour, so don’t overthink where you place people!
If you aren’t sure how to do it, here are some options:
Order them by height
Those of us who like things to be ordered and organised will appreciate this option because it always looks good. Line up your wedding party by shortest to tallest or tallest to shortest. Added bonus: since height is arbitrary you are less likely to hurt somebody’s feelings!
Order them by relationship to the couple
The tricky thing with this one is that it can be incredibly difficult to rank your friendships. You could start with your Maid of Honour and Best Man and then siblings, cousins, best friends and whoever else you’ve got up there with you. Whatever you do, don’t announce that this is how you’ve ordered everybody. Nobody wants to know that they are your fifth closest friend.
Order them by the colour of their attire
This works really well for mismatched wedding party looks. Just arrange everybody in a way that makes sense based on the colour of their outfits. You could alternate light and dark colours, arrange everybody from lightest to darkest or darkest to lightest, etc.
Order them randomly
Ultimately… who cares?! One option is to mix it up entirely and line everybody up in a random way. Line them up by birthday or in alphabetical order, or simply let them figure it out themselves.
