The Blessed Mother has likely played a large role in your Catholic love story. She has faithfully interceded for you as you’ve come to the point of engagement and now planning your Catholic Wedding Day. Naturally, you’ll want to do whatever you can to honor her in some way.
We’ve been privy to a lot of Catholic Wedding Days at this point and have therefore seen a lot of unique ways to honor the Blessed Mother. So let us help you decide on the specific way YOU will shine the light on Mary and her goodness on your sacrament day.
1) The Classic Flower Offering
If you’ve attending a Catholic Wedding, you’ve likely seen this done before. The couple will take a moment after communion and before the final blessing to offer flowers to Mary. The statue is often located on a side altar and the couple typically stands or kneels as the “Ave Maria” is sung. However, there are all kinds of way to make it extra special. You could:
- have your moms bring the bouquet of flowers forward for you to offer your spiritual mother instead of picking them up from a table
- invite the important children in your life such as nieces and nephew to bring forward a flower each until you have a full bouquet
- have the musicians play the “Salve Regina”, “Immaculate Mary”, or “Hail, Holy Queen”
- invite the entire congregation to say a Hail Mary with you as you kneel in front of the statue of the Blessed Mother (if permitted by your celebrant)
2) Miraculous Medals
Whether you give them as favors to every guest, attach one to your bouquet, or pin one to your suit lapel, including the Miraculous Medal on your Catholic Wedding Day is a great way to remember Mary and her prayers for you. Give one to each member of your bridal party or even wear one around your neck or wrist (The Little Catholic Company makes some beautiful options!)
3) Blue Details
The color blue, of course, draws our attention to Mary as it’s her color. Bridesmaids dressed are an obvious choice, but other ideas could include having your mothers and grandmothers wear blue, subtle blue floral details, or hints of blue on your invitations and signage. You can have blue tablescapes at your reception – think floral tablecloths, blue napkins, mini Blessed Mother statues as your centerpieces, and more. Some bride’s opt to wear the classic blue miraculous medal ring for a pop of color, a blue rosary, and others choose blue shoes. Even if blue isn’t your main wedding color, there are a lot of little ways you can add it to your day as an homage to Mary! Bonus perk: there’s of course the old tradition of something old, new, borrowed, and blue so whatever you decide to honor the Blessed Mother with can double as your something blue!
4) Marian Consecration
Something very special that you can do as a couple to honor Mary on your Catholic Wedding Day is complete a Marian Consecration as a couple and finish the consecration on the nearest Marian Feast Day before your wedding. At your wedding, you can be sure to have your consecration chains photographed and could even gift them to each other to wear on your wedding day and make it a special moment putting them on together. If you’ve already consecrated yourselves to Mary, you could renew your consecration on your wedding day at some point and possibly discuss with your priest how you may be able to include that prayer in your Mass.
5) Unique Gifts
Gifting Marian items to your bridal party is a great way to draw everyone’s attention to the blessed mother. Here is a list of some our favorites that we’ve seen:
BONUS: Thank You Cards!
An additional way to bring Mary into your sacrament day (even though it’s technically after your day) is to choose Marian Thank You Cards to send to your guests to say thank you for attending your Catholic Wedding Day and for praying for you along the way, not to mention any generous gift they may have given you!
