Do You Really Need Ushers at Your Wedding Ceremony?

There are lots of ways to include loved ones (say, close friends and cousins) who may have not made the cut to be in your wedding party. One of those ways is to make them an usher—a job that might not sound incredibly glamorous, but is actually pretty important. Want your ceremony seating done as efficiently and smoothly as possible? Yeah, you'll want some ushers on hand.

In fact, as a rule of thumb, you should look to have one usher to seat every 50 guests. And yes, you can definitely designate both male and female pals to this task.

So, what do the ushers even do?

Not sing "Yeah!" all over again (sorry, we had to). Ushers escort guests to their seats before everything begins, hand out programs, roll out the aisle runner (if you have one) and act as a general guest guide or guard (say, if someone needs to get up and go to the restroom during the ceremony, or if the first two rows are being reserved for certain family members). Again, designating friends and family members as ushers is a great way to include more people in your wedding day fun without overdosing on bridesmaids and groomsmen if you choose to have a smaller number of attendants. Also, if you have teenage cousins who might be a little too young to participate in wedding party festivities, making them ushers is the perfect way to get them involved.

Are they totally necessary?

Unless you're having an extremely intimate affair, we definitely recommend enlisting ushers to help out with the profusion of guests during your ceremony. If you don't have people moderating the seating, it'll turn into a free-for-all which, in turn, will delay things (and when a rogue guest gets up to go to the bathroom during your vows and can't seem to find the exit, you'll probably be more than mildly annoyed).