A page boy is a young male attendant at a wedding or cotillion. This type of wedding attendant is less common than it used to be, but is still a way of including young relatives or the children of relatives and friends in a wedding. A page is often seen at British royal weddings. There may be many pages for effect at cotillions.

Traditionally, page boys carry the bride's train, especially if she is wearing a dress with a long train. Because of the difficulty of managing the train, page boys are generally no younger than age seven, with older boys being preferred for more complicated duties.

In a formal wedding, the ring bearer is a special page who carries the wedding rings for the bridal party. This is almost always symbolic, with the ring bearer carrying a large white satin pillow on which imitation rings are sewn, while the real wedding bands are kept in the safekeeping of the best man. If the real rings are used, they are tacked on with thread to prevent their accidental loss.
The ringbearer as a separate role is a relatively modern innovation. In a white wedding ceremony, the best man carries the rings.

Ring bearers are often nephews or young brothers (although they can also be nieces or sisters) and are generally in the same age range as flower girls, which is to say that they are no younger than about 5 nor older than 10. If the couple have had children prior to marriage, their own child(ren) may serve as ring bearer.

Before i tell you what google says, in Eaglepoint, any of our pastors can conduct the ceremony but we are not licensed to do marriage signing.

In the United States, Canada and many other countries around the world, a celebrant is a person who performs religious or secular celebrancy services for weddings, funerals, child namings, coming of age ceremonies, and other rituals.

Some Celebrants are ordained clergy, while others are Officiants empowered by the Humanist Association of Canada (HAC), the American Humanist Association (AHA), or the Society for Humanistic Judaism. (SHJ). In Australia, where Celebrants are commonly hired, they may be certified by any one of a number of Celebrancy training programs, while in the UK, most belong to one of a number of Humanist organizations, including the British Humanist Association and the Humanist Society of Scotland.

Celebrants may perform alternative and nontraditional ceremonies in places, and under circumstances where mainstream religious clergy will not. Some Celebrants perform same-sex weddings and commitment ceremonies. Celebrants, also called Officiants, often perform ceremonies in parks, on beaches, on mountains, on boats, on hiking trails, in hotels, in banquet halls, in private homes, and many other places.

Laws in each state of the United States vary about who has the ability to perform wedding ceremonies, but Celebrants or Officiants are usually categorized as "clergy" and have the same rights and responsibilities as ordained clergy. In Canada and in the US States of Massachusetts and California, the only places in North America where same-sex marriages are legalized, Celebrants and Officiants perform many LGBT weddings.

In Scotland, since a June 2005 ruling by the Registrar General, humanist weddings are now legal, providing that they are conducted by an Authorized Celebrant of the Humanist Society of Scotland making Scotland one of only three countries in the world where this is the case. (The other two are the USA and Norway.)

Celebrants differ from Chaplains in that Celebrants serve the unaffiliated public at large, while Chaplains are usually employed by an institution such as a hospital or other health care facility, the military, etc.

In Australia, Celebrants have a slightly different role, as regulated by local and national laws. See Celebrant (Australia) for more information.

In the United States, Celebrants are professional ceremony officiants who believe in the power and effectiveness of ceremony and ritual to serve basic needs of society and the individual. They collaborate with their clients to create and perform personalized ceremonies that reflect the client’s beliefs, philosophy of life, and personality; not the Celebrant’s. See Celebrant (United States) for more information.

Here are some tips :

• Choose a date prior to the wedding.
• Decide on whether it should be a surprise for the bride or otherwise.
• Set a budget and determine who pays for what.
• Make a guest list. Do ensure that those on the list are also to be invited to the wedding to avoid any awkwardness later.
• Select a location. Some possible venues could be a home of one of the bridesmaids, a spa, a nice, quiet restaurant, a hotel suite etc.
• Give invitees advanced notice to keep the day free.
• Plan the event around a theme but keep it simple.
• Keep track of gifts and the givers during the shower.

When participating in these celebrations, it is important to be mindful that :

• Such parties should be fun, lighthearted but not crass.
• As a lead up to such a milestone as marriage, these parties are a rite of passage as well and should therefore be meaningful.
• Embarrassing the bride or groom should be frowned upon.
• Do not hold hen or stag nights on the eve of the wedding – everyone including the bride and groom will never recover in time
  

Shoes, Honking Horns and the Loud Send Off

Shoes represented the transfer of property from the Father to the Groom.
The honking of horns of the tying of cans had it’s roots in the notion that loud noises would scare off evil spirits. Originally it was to protect the innocent young maiden when traveling. Ringing of bells or setting off firecrackers are still other ways of this tradition is still being carried out. The ringing of bells however is done more often as an announcement of the marriage than is a superstitious act to ward off evil spirits.

The kiss was used to bind a legal agreement.
It originated with the Romans and was adopted much later by Christians.
It symbolizes a couples union and signifies the commitment they have made to one another.

The bride tosses her bouquet over her shoulder to the assembled unmarried women; the woman who catches it, superstition has it, will be the next to marry. In some social groups, the process is repeated for unmarried men with the groom tossing the bride's garter for the same purpose. These practices are falling into less favor in the 21st century.

Originally the bouquet was given by the bride to one of her friends for good luck or protection. It has come to signify the transfer of luck in marriage or luck in being the next to marry. It is tossed on the departure of the bride and groom at the end of the wedding celebration. It marks the transition from being a single woman to being part of couple. The woman who catches the bouquet will be the next to marry.

The first wedding bouquets carried were not of blossoms but of herbs. The aroma of the herbs were though to ward off evil spirits. Later meanings became associated with the meanings of the different herbs. Rosemary signified remembrance. Other herbs such as dill were included to evoke lust and were meant to be eaten by the bride. Flowers were added. Like the herbs each flower had a special meaning or significance. Here are a few flowers and their general meanings.

Today a bride will often choose the flowers for her bouquet based on the traditional meaning of the flower.