In the catholic church, colors are used to symbolize the seasons and mood of the church ceremonies. Generally, red is used for commemoration of martyrs and ordination of priests, purple for sorrowful messes of repentance while white is used to symbolize celebration and joy, and as such is worn during Easter, baptism, and wedding ceremonies.
A wedding day is a momentary day in the life of a couple. Although priests officiate a lot of weddings in their career, they still feel an immense commitment to each wedding as it signifies the creation of a new family. For this reason, officiating a marriage ceremony is performed meticulously. The priest dutifully guides the newly-wed into a new life of unity, love, loyalty, trust and forgiveness through the sermons and readings during the matrimonial mass.
Therefore, the fact that a wedding ceremony is so symbolic, the liturgical vestments used for wedding ceremonies are always white to symbolize joy and purity of the union of the two souls. Furthermore, everything should be perfect for the couple’s special day including the decorations of the church hall and the vestments to be worn by the priest and altar servers. The priest should dress appropriately according to the tradition of the church and emphasize the essence of the occasion at the same time. The complete traditional wedding vestment for a catholic priest consists of a cassock, a liturgical stole, a cincture, and the chasuble (the outer garment).
The cassock worn by a catholic priest is always white. The cassock is worn on the sultan; other vestments such as the Alb are worn over the cassock by the priest when performing his pastoral duties.
The cassock worn by a priest varies with the liturgical service he is to officiate. A cassock is symbolic for the thirty-three buttons on the front with a button representing each year Jesus spent on earth. Quite often, ornamental buttons are used in the place of actual buttons. The cassock is often fastened with a cincture to secure the stole on it. Traditionally, the cassock should go down to the ankle of the priest covering the full length of his body.
A liturgical stole is usually worn by priests while officiating weddings and other pastoral activities to symbolize the bonds and fetters with which Jesus was bound during his Passion. The stole is usually embroidered with a cross. Often, a purple stole is worn for priestly duties, however, a white stole is always worn while celebrating a wedding ceremony. The traditional length of a liturgical stole is nine feet while its width can extend to about four inches.
The cross ornament is usually at the center and placed at the back of the neck while the ends are meant to hang down in front and secure using a cincture. It is advantageous to select a stole made from textile materials with attractively decorated embroidery for a wedding.
Chasubles are liturgical vestments worn traditionally over the Alb and all other vestments. This element of priestly clothing is usually the same color as the color representing the mood of the ceremony he is officiating now. During a matrimonial celebration, the gothic chasuble is always white, however a cream or gold colored chasuble is also acceptable to be worn for weddings.
White colored chasubles symbolize glory, light, triumph, joy, innocence and purity and cream or gold colored chasubles symbolize joy. These colors of chasubles are used for wedding ceremonies due to the moods they represent. Further into perfecting wedding vestments, gothic chasubles can be sewn from various kinds of fabric materials, however, one of the most suitable textile materials that can be used for sewing chasubles is the Brocade.
The brocade material always has an elegant look which gives the appearance of the priest a festive aura. In addition to its attractiveness, chasubles sewn with brocades can be easily embroidered to showcase important liturgical symbols. The embroidery may have such symbols as chalices, crosses, lambs, and other liturgy-related vessels. Gothic chasubles of the best quality can be found online at Ackermann liturgical vestments.
Ackermann liturgical vestments is a catholic Polish vestments shop. We have an online store where you can find highly curated collections of catholic vestments. We manufacture both traditional and contemporary designs of catholic vestments, sewn using premium quality textile materials in all liturgical colors. We offer the best designs of Liturgical stoles, chasubles, dalmatics, copes, and a lot more for catholic clergymen.
Our collections of Gothic chasubles and stoles for weddings are embroidered with neatly stitched attractive liturgical ornaments that represent the joining of two hearts in holy matrimony. Furthermore, we accommodate custom embroidery upon request. Besides vestments, we also offer embroidered altar tablecloths and altar linens. Visit our website for more information on our products and services.