The Ultimate Wedding Lingo Guide

Congratulations, you’re engaged!

Now it’s time to get prepared for all those meetings with planners, florists, venue coordinators, and more. It’s a great idea to learn a bit of the lingo before you get started, so I’ve created a list of wedding terms to help you feel better prepared when you walk into your next wedding planning meeting!

Here’s a quick guide to all the words you need to know to help you eat, drink, and be married!

E N G A G E M E N T

Engagement Photos — These are used as a way to document the couple’s engagement and are often personalized in a way that showcases a couple’s love story!

Fiancé — The person to whom you are engaged. This can also refer to a man who is engaged to be married, which takes from the French version of this term.

Fiancée — A woman who is engaged to be married.

Wedding Hashtag — Personalized wedding hashtags are used so that guests can follow updates from the wedding as well as post their photos and well-wishes from the event on social media in a way that the couple can easily find it.

Wedding Registry — A service offered by a store or organization where a couple lists their gift preferences for their family and friends to use. Couples typically choose 2-4 places to register for wedding gifts!

Wedding Website — A personal wedding website is a website that engaged couples use to communicate with guests for their wedding. These can range from free services to highly customized designs for a fee. Couples use these to tell their love story, share wedding details, gift registry information, and more.

W E D D I N G P L A N N I N G

Shot List — This refers to the list of desired photos you would like the photographer or videographer to capture at your wedding events. You will want to think through what types of images are most important to you.

Full Planning — This refers to wedding planning and coordination packages for couples who want a full-time professional to oversee every aspect of their wedding planning and wedding day. This includes things such as vendor management, scheduling, marriage license, tracking RSVPs, creating the planning timeline, and overseeing the big day itself, etc.

Partial Planning — This typically involves month-of wedding coordination along with some additional planning services with a set number of hours dedicated to the client. This can be helpful for couples who want to be very hands-on but need professional coordination as the day gets closer.

Wedding Coordinator — While most Wedding Planners offer coordination services, a wedding coordinator maintains contact with vendors and serves as a liaison for the couple. Many wedding coordinators offer month-of, week-of, and day-of services.

Rain Plan — A rain plan is just what it sounds like. It is the backup plan in case of rain and inclement weather.

Room Flip — This refers to when a room is completely transformed between the stages of a wedding or event. The most common room flip example is having your guests leave the ceremony for a cocktail hour only to come back to the same room for the reception. This is done to help economize for space and budget as well as to limit the inconvenience of needing multiple locations.

W E D D I N G P A R T Y

Best Man — Considered the principal groomsman. Often the role is filled by the most important person to the groom.

Groomsman — These are members of the groom’s party and officially attend to the groom at a wedding.

Ring Bearer — This is a carryover from a more traditional style wedding and the role was typically filled by a young boy who carried a ring tied to a pillow down the aisle. Today, traditionally, the best man keeps the rings with him until the groom needs them. This role is often filled by the couple’s pets or young relatives.

Maid of Honor — This is the title for an unmarried woman acting as the principal bridesmaid at a wedding. This role is typically filled by a sister or best friend of the bride.

Matron of Honor — Similar to the bridesmaid, this role is given to the married woman acting as a principal bridesmaid. Some brides have both a maid and matron of honor while some opt for one or the other.

Bridesmaid — These are members of the bride’s party and are typically close friends or family members of the bride.

Flower Girl — The flower girl is traditionally filled by a young girl that walks down the aisle just ahead of the maid of honor, after the bridesmaids. She scatters flower petals along the aisle before the bride. This role has changed in recent years to include grandmothers and male friends or relatives who act as flower attendants.

Attendants — This is anyone that plays a role in the wedding including the best man, bridesmaids, ushers, flower girls, etc. These people are called this because they have roles and responsibilities to “attend” to during the wedding.

Usher — An usher is typically a male relative or friend of the couple that shows guests to their seats for the ceremony as well as answer general questions.

W E D D I N G D E C O R

Centerpiece — These are decorative pieces for display in the middle of a dining or serving table. 

Tablescape — This is a term for the artistic arrangement of decor and flowers on any given table. 

Charger — This is a large decorative base setting that the dinnerware is placed on during formal dinners. 

Place Setting — This is a complete set of dishes and cutlery provided for a single guest at the reception — or during a meal. 

Candelabra — This is a large, branched candle holder that can be placed on tabletops or large candelabras can be used in altar decorations and more. 

Taper Candle — A taper candle is one that narrows slightly from a wider base to a “tapered” top. They fit most standard candle holders and have a traditional burn time of one hour per inch.

Tealight Candle  — These are tiny candles in a thin metal or sometimes plastic cup. They are an inexpensive and attractive candle option. 

W E D D I N G F L O W E R S

Boutonniére (or Boutineer) — This is a single flower or small bud that is worn, typically by a man, in the buttonhole of his lapel. 

Corsage — A small bouquet of flowers worn, typically by a woman, on her dress or around the wrist. At weddings, these are often worn by the mothers of the bride and groom as well as grandmothers and other females that play a prominent role in the events of the day. 

Bouquet — This is often referring to the bridal bouquet, which is the flower arrangement carried by the bride as she walks down the aisle. The maid of honor holds this for her during the ceremony and returns it for the recessional. 

Nosegay — This refers to a small bunch of flowers that are often particularly sweetly-scented. Other terms for this type of bouquet are posy and tussie-mussie. 

Garland — This is a band or chain of flowers, leaves, or other types of foliage. This can refer also to wreaths worn on the head, but typically this refers to the festive florals draped in loops throughout the event space or as runners on tables. 

Pomander — As it relates to weddings, a pomander is typically a decorative ball of flowers used in wedding decor. 

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Until next time…

xoxo-