Ceremony structure/order of events

This is a great question.
I did not know the order either. We have yet to wait for our officiant to confirm his availability. Thanks for bringing this question up. This is on my list of questions to ask him.

Real life weddings do have the signing before the kiss as that is the final thing after announcing your now mr. and mrs. Movies do show the signing though its not real neither do they show the ring vows since I'd imagine jewelry stores don't do ring rentals for movies for the cost.

View quoted message Thanks for responding! Haha I know I asked my officiant and he responded with “I’ve never been asked that before” which I’m actually pretty surprised. Hoping to just do it in private immediate afterwards.

View quoted message I responded to your post this morning! We had this planned out exactly! Ours was super strict about the legalities and kept emphasizing it must be IMMEDIATE if we insist on this. Like yup, thanks!

View quoted message Right! Glad to know it's not just me haha

Omg I just posted about this! I really want to sign the papers after the ceremony is over but apparently no one else has done this? Lol I asked my officiant and he didn’t seem to enthusiastic about it. At least I’m not the only one who thinks it totally disrupts the mood of the ceremony.

View quoted message Lol I guess it's just something that most people don't take note of. Who knows maybe you can ask to do first kiss after signing....

Most of the time the signing of the papers is after the kiss but before you walk down the aIsle. You can also talk to your officant and ask him or her what is correct or if they have a certain way of doing things

A lot of people sign the documents during another ceremonial act, like a sand pouring, time capsule, or other unity ceremony to keep it flow for the audience. That's how they're able to just walk off after being pronounced as a newly wedded couple and kiss.

If you're not doing any unity ceremony, you'll need to pivot to the signing somehow.

If you want to hide the signing for whatever reason, you can ask the officiant to do a signing before or after the ceremony outside of people's view but they'd essentially be conducting a legal ceremony (they have to go through the whole schpiel with you in order for it to be legal) and then another show ceremony. Some might charge extra for that.

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To be fair, on TV/movies they never show anyone sign anything. They're somehow just legally married when the priest/internet guy says "I pronounce you Chuck and Larry" lol

View quoted message Fair enough! They all did it just before the ceremony. Our officiant told us it wasn't legal (not sure how so many others did it then....) so our only option with her was to do it immediately after our exit - our plan was to go into the side room and sign quickly with our witnesses.

View quoted message We don't have an officient yet, I'm just trying to get my head wrapped around things. How did you (or your friends) do the signing without anyone watching, or I guess where in the timeline did they place that?

We insisted on doing the signing without our guests watching, the way many of our friends have done (in the end had a small legal ceremony anyway as our date ended up during the second Ontario lockdown) but we have also been to weddings when it is immediately after exchanging the vows and rings, right before the declaration, or whatever it's called, and first kiss. Your officiant should be the one putting things in order and confirming it with you though!

At my MOH wedding they had their first kiss, then signed documents then the officiant announced them as Mr. & Mrs. *insert last name* then they walked down the aisle

I honestly can't remember what order we did things in and my wedding was only 6 months ago hahaha. I don't think people pay tons of attention to the order of the ceremony unless it's something really weird out of place. Your officiant should be able to give you an outline of the ceremony and what order things happen in or if there are things that are commonly switched up.

Every wedding I've been to it's been signing after first kiss but on TV and movies they don't. I think its pretty standard I'm not positive though