I'm faced with the dilemma of who will walk me down the aisle. My father and I are long estranged and he will not be invited to my wedding, and my grandfather passed away years ago. Who is a reasonable alternative in place of the “father of the bride” to walk the bride down the aisle? Is it totally taboo and crazy to make that important walk alone?
I plan to have a fairly unconventional non-religious wedding, but there are some customs (like having someone “give away” the bride) that I feel are hard to let go of.
-Jessica
We've addressed how to tell your dad someone else is walking you down the aisle before (lots of great comments on that post!), but never really touched on the options for who else could walk with you.
Here are just a few of the people who have walked offbeat brides down the aisle, with amazing photos to show you how it's done.
Tip: to see more information about a given photo, just click it!
Bride's mother
We also have this post about a bride with lesbian mothers trying to figure out how they can both walk her down the aisle.
Bride's children
We've featured numerous weddings where brides were given away by their sons and daughters. Repeat after me: Awwwww.
Bride's siblings
Sometimes this is a a brother, sometimes a sister, and sometimes multiple siblings with one on either side. Here's a great shot of a bride being “given away” by her brother:
Bride's grandfather
We featured one bride who had her grandfather AND father walk her down the aisle:
Both the bride's parents
This is customary in many Jewish weddings, but is something I'm seeing more often in non-Jewish weddings too.
Walking down the aisle together
Personally, my favorite solution is walking down the aisle with the groom. For me, Andreas and I walking down the aisle together was a way of showing that we were already in this together. I've heard rumors of it being a custom in both Irish and Thai weddings, as well.
Walk alone
We've also featured brides who chose to walk down the aisle unaccompanied.
The moral of the story here? Basically, we've seen it all.
You can walk down the aisle alone, with one other person of your choice (family member or friend), or flanked by two other people (parents! siblings! children!).
As with all things wedding, this is totally up to you.
The goal here is that you feel supported and confident.
I'd love to hear from those of you who went for a non-dad aisle-walking option: who walked you, or did you walk alone?