Roles for the groom’s parents

When receiving guests in a line to greet the bride and groom after the wedding ceremony, the groom’s mother always receives guests either near the bride’s mother or else continuing the line beyond the bridesmaids, and it is proper for every guest to shake hands with her too, whether they know her or not, but it is not necessary to say anything. The groom’s father is a guest and it is not necessary for strangers to speak to him, unless he stands beside his wife and, as it were, “receives,” but there is no impropriety in anyone telling him how well they know and like his son or his new daughter-in-law.

At  the bride’s table the  groom’s father always sits on the right of the bride’s mother, and the groom’s mother has the place of honour on the host’s right. The other places at the table are occupied by distinguished guests who may or may not include the clergyman who performed the ceremony. If a bishop or dean performed the ceremony, he is always included at this table and is placed at the left of the hostess, and his wife, if present, sits at the bride’s father’s left. Otherwise only especially close friends of the bride’s parents are invited to this table.

At a house wedding the bride’s mother stands at the door of the living room — or wherever the ceremony is to be — and receives people as they arrive. But the groom’s mother merely takes her place near the altar with the rest of the immediate family. The groom’s mother goes down the aisle on the arm of the head usher and takes her place in the first pew on the right; the groom’s father follows alone, and takes his place beside her.