One of the most important tasks of preparing for marriage is praying! This is the moment to transition from praying for your soon-to-be spouse to praying *with* them! Consider choosing a specific prayer for your season of engagement. This builds and strengthens a habit that will continue into your married life. The prayer could be a litany, daily rosary, consecrating your relationship to Mary, or asking for the intercession of a particular saint.

Choose a prayer for engagement

In addition to pots and pans, think about what items you may want to have in your home that helps you live out the liturgical seasons. An advent wreath, nativity set, crucifix, holy water font, etc. are great ideas to consider for your wedding registry. These are perfect for bridal showers and wedding gifts. I wish this advice had been given to us! It’s so easy to get swept up in details of the wedding day, but this is a practical way of preparing for sharing your faith in marriage.

Register for your future home

You may be able to host Eucharistic Adoration and confession before the wedding rehearsal with the approval of your parish priest. It is an opportunity to invite your wedding party and family to pray beside you before the wedding events officially begin. On the wedding day, you could also make a special stop in our church’s adoration chapel after the nuptial mass for a few minutes alone together and chance to offer prayers of thanksgiving.

Add adoration to your wedding weekend timeline

Invite your wedding party and family members to pray a novena with you leading up to the wedding day. Our favorite novenas is a “Happy and Faithful Marriage” from the writings of St. Josemaria Escriva. If adding *one more thing* leading up to your wedding is overwhelming, consider starting it on your wedding day instead.

Pray a wedding novena

A simple way to display your faith through the wedding details is to wrap your rosary around your bouquet. This could be the one you use daily, a family heirloom, or it may be a new gift from the groom(hint hint). We’ve also seen a beautiful alternative to this where the bride attached a miraculous medal to the bouquet’s wrap.

Wrap a rosary around your bouquet

Set aside time to pray with your wedding party. Hearing the prayers for your marriage and receiving affirmations from the friends most important to you as a couple is powerful and beautiful. This commonly happens either in the getting ready suite or in those final 30 minutes of waiting out of sight before the wedding mass begins.

Invite wedding party to pray over you

We loved seeing one of our brides sew a brand new scapular into the seams of her wedding dress so that she could carry on this tradition even on her wedding day! It was so unique and is a fun idea to consider.

Sew scapular into your wedding dress

We’ve seen couples organize their tables based on saints instead of numbers. Each place card then had the guest’s name and corresponding saint’s name on it (St. Therese Table, St. Michael Table, etc). This is a unique way to support Catholic artists and use their 4x6 or 5x7 prints for table assignments instead of traditional numbers.

Use saints instead of table numbers

Several weddings we attended gave prayer cards as wedding favors. Not only do the guests get a beautiful icon to take with them, but they are also invited in to continue praying for your marriage past the wedding day. The ones we’ve seen most often include either an image of the Holy Family, a patron saint, the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Immaculate Heart of Mary, or Chaste Heart of St. Joseph.

Prayer cards as wedding favors

One of our brides added the “Auspice Maria” symbol to the back of her invitation suite. It was subtle yet beautifully incorporated their petition to put their marriage “Under the protection of Mary.” As photographers, we were also able to use this as a background when styling their wedding rings during the getting ready pictures to further showcase the symbolism of their marriage in Christ.

Invitation Suite Design

Ask your celebrant on this one, but many priests will allow you to bring and place a special crucifix on the altar to be blessed during your nuptial mass. You can then take this crucifix home and hang it on the wall as another tangible symbol of your vows. Alternatively, some couples hold a crucifix in their hands while saying their vows as a symbol of Christ’s presence in their marriage.

Bless a crucifix during mass

One of our favorite trends is for the groom to give the groomsmen a pair of saint socks from Sock Religious. Whether its St. Joseph, Mary, or another patron saint, it adds a fun details for the guys on the wedding day! 

Wedding party gifts