The Sweetest Way to Honor Your Grandparents on the Big Day, According to One Wedding Planner
Honoring loved ones during a wedding, whether they are still with us or have passed, is a very meaningful way to commemorate how special these relationships are to us. Some reserve a seat at the ceremony or at a dinner table, display family photos throughout the wedding venue, or have a "generation" dance at the reception so the longest married couple and the newlyweds can share a dance together. However you choose to do it, honoring your grandparents on the wedding day is a sweet way to show them that they are loved and cherished.
But if you ask wedding planner Jessica Rourke how to honor these important relatives on the wedding day, she has one answer—and it's based on what one of her past clients did to honor her own grandmother. To this day, after all the celebration's she's planned, it still stands out as the most special.
Related: Your Guide to Handling Divorced Family Dynamics on Your Wedding Day
"One of my clients honored her grandmother, known as 'Happy' around their small town in South Carolina by having her bake her famous chocolate chip cookies," Rourke says. "Happy was known to drop these off to firefighters, to someone who just moved into the neighborhood, and to family functions. My team designed a custom logo that showcase who they were from. When passing them out to guests at the end of the evening, you could see how many people recognized and loved these cookies from such a special lady!" If you want to borrow the idea and make it your own, you have a lot of options. And you don't need to be super literal about it—did your grandmother have a favorite flower? Display it throughout the day's floral arrangements. Did your grandfather love to unwind with a special bottle of scotch? Have it on offer at the bar.
If your grandparents are still with you and you'd like to create a special time to celebrate them during your wedding, another way to do this is by having them read a meaningful poem, passage, or story during your ceremony. It's also nice to surprise them with a corsage or boutonnière to wear so that they stand out on the wedding day. Your wedding is a significant time in life, so you'll want to make sure all of your key family members are remembered and thought of.
