Groom's Responsibilities

For a wedding day to be pulled off without a hitch, or at least not a big one, it’s important for everyone to understand their individual responsibilities. From paying for the festivities to who stands where at the ceremony, tradition and personal situations will likely come into play. The groom’s responsibilities, too, can be quite varied based on these two things, but they should be taken seriously nonetheless.

The groom duties tend to be limited at the ceremony to nothing more than showing up. The rest of the work will fall on friends and family members that have been asked to take part in the event. At the reception, a groom can count on having to dance the first dance and perhaps even going a round on the ballroom floor with his mother and the mother of the bride. Beyond that, the traditions surrounding grooms responsibilities for the wedding are fairly limited. While tradition doesn’t spell out a lot of groom responsibility, more and more couples are taking on extra ones. As weddings get more expensive, couples are choosing to pay for some or even all of the ceremony themselves.

It’s the groom’s parents, however, that find themselves faced with a few responsibilities dictated by tradition. These duties, however, are not always etched in stone. They can be rather flexible, depending on personal choice, traditional and cultural preferences.

The most common responsibilities of parents of the groom involve the portions of the big day they will pay for. It’s tradition for a grooms parents responsibility to include paying for the reception dinner. It might also be responsibility of grooms family members to assist with buying the flowers or even footing the bill entirely.

While the financial responsibilities of grooms parents might be limited compared to what’s expected of the bride’s family, they are still present. Who exactly pays for what and how much is now generally a delicate affair where traditions break for reality so as not to place too big a burden on anyone.

For her part, the duties of mother of the groom might include ensuring her son is taken care of prior to the ceremony and also assisting in lighting his unity candle. She might also be asked to play a bigger role in the reception.

While the groom’s responsibilities and that of his family’s are no longer written in stone, it is a good idea to get both families heavily involved in the big day. Both sets of parents should be given duties and responsibilities in many cases to ensure they are given a place of honor on the big day.