Ushers have many important roles in wedding ceremonies and are essential to any wedding planning with 20 or more guests attending.  Ushers perform at least four essential functions in a wedding ceremony:

1.  Most importantly, ushers escort VIP parents and grandparents to their seats.  Even if a mother or grandmother is with her husband, she would be escorted by an usher to her seat and her husband follows her.  You should not use your ushers to escort all female guests to their seats unless you are having a small wedding.  Ushering takes time.

2.  If you have an aisle runner, ushers deploy the aisle runner just before a bride walks down the aisle to accentuate her entrance.

3.  Most important of all, ushers tend to unforeseen problems that come up during a ceremony and which require immediate attention such as someone or something creating noise.

4.  Ushers assist in exiting your guests at the ceremony end by directing them to your reception line in an orderly fashion.

Although it may be a nice touch, ushers do not need to be in tux for the ceremony.  Ushers should be at your rehearsal session to learn about the many duties required of them.

A wedding ceremony is predominately a female event.  The bride's entrance, not the groom, makes the beginning grand.  And her appearance in an ornate and fully plumed wedding dress easily eclipses that of her more modestly dressed groom.  The shining of females and the attention given them in a wedding ceremony starts from the very beginning, at the seating of parents and grandparents.