Orthodox Wedding Gifts: The Wedding Icons, Crosses and More

The most traditional Orthodox wedding gift is a pair of icons: Christ and the Mother of God. They are carried at the wedding, then become the first icons of the couple’s home, where they will pray together for the rest of their lives. After the icons come a cross for each spouse, a cross for the wall, and the start of their icon corner. Here is what to choose, and why.

The wedding icons: Christ and the Mother of God

In Russian practice, two icons are prepared for the wedding: one of the Saviour and one of the Mother of God, with which the bride and groom are signed with the Cross during the service. As the Russian Orthodox site Azbuka Very explains, the parents bring them; if the parents are not taking part, the bride and groom bring them themselves.

The same source says that in the past these icons were taken from the parents’ own homes and handed down from parents to children as a household holy thing. Today they are usually given to the newlyweds as the first icons of their home iconostasis, the icon corner.

That is why a pair of icons is the classic gift from the parents or godparents of the bride and groom. It is also a lovely gift from a friend, as long as you check with the family first, since the parents may already have chosen theirs.

Our wedding pairs

• Christ Pantocrator & Our Lady of Kazan Folding Diptych, $69. Christ the Almighty with the open Gospel, beside the Kazan icon of the Mother of God. Printed icons under glass in a pine frame with velvet covers, closing like a book.
• Christ (Zvenigorod Saviour) & Vladimir Mother of God Folding Diptych, $69. The gentle Zvenigorod Saviour, attributed to St Andrei Rublev, and the Vladimir Mother of God, the Child’s cheek pressed to hers.
• Mother of God & Christ wooden icon, 14×9 cm, $34. A small pair on one wooden panel, for a couple with a modest budget or a small apartment.

Read about Christ Pantocrator, the Kazan icon and the Vladimir icon.

What happens at an Orthodox wedding

Knowing the service helps you choose a gift that means something to the couple.

The betrothal and the rings

The service begins with the betrothal. The priest places the rings on the couple’s fingers three times, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Then the sponsor (the koumbaros or koumbara in Greek families) exchanges them three more times.

The crowning and the stefana

At the heart of the service the priest places crowns on the couple’s heads. In Greek weddings the crowns, the stefana, are joined by a white ribbon. A Greek Orthodox parish in the Metropolis of Denver explains that the ribbon shows the couple joined in relationship to one another, and that the sponsor exchanges the crowns three times as a witness to their union.

The Church prays, “O Lord our God, crown them with glory and honor.” Fr John Jillions of the OCA notes that the crowns also point back to the martyrs, crowned by God for their witness to Christ, and the service sings a hymn to the holy martyrs. Fr Vladimir Berzonsky writes that the crowns are taken off at the end of the service but “stored up” for the couple in God’s kingdom.

The common cup and the procession

After the Epistle and the Gospel of the wedding at Cana, the couple drink from one cup of wine. The Annunciation Cathedral in Atlanta explains that this is not Holy Communion but “the drinking of the one cup of life,” shared joys and sorrows, and a remembrance of Christ’s first miracle at Cana. Then the priest leads the couple three times around the table, in honor of the Holy Trinity, while hymns are sung.

We don’t sell stefana or wedding candles; the couple’s parish and family usually arrange those. Our gifts are for the home the couple will build after the crowns come off.

Orthodox wedding gifts by person

From the parents or godparents

• The wedding pair above, $69. Add Consecration, where a diptych’s page offers it, and it arrives consecrated, ready for the service and the corner.
• Icon Corner Set, Complete, $349. The Icon Corner Set with a second patron saint, so each spouse has their own. Its diptychs come consecrated by our priest before they left the workshop, each with its number on a signed certificate, with a vial of holy water and gift presentation.

From a friend or relative

• Icon Corner Set, $199. The Zvenigorod Saviour and Vladimir Mother of God diptych, a patron saint diptych by name, an 8 in wooden wall crucifix, a prayer rope and a short guide to setting up the corner. See our icon corner guide.
• Holy Trinity (Rublev) & Christ (Zvenigorod Saviour) Folding Diptych, $69. Rublev’s three angels at Abraham’s table, the icon of hospitality, for a couple about to welcome guests to their own table.
• Save and Protect wooden wall cross, 8 in, $49. “Save and protect” in Slavonic, for over the door of their first home.

For each spouse

• Their patron saints. Find each one’s saint with our patron saint finder. The Patron Saint & Cross, $99, gives the saint and the Guardian Angel in a red-velvet diptych with a stainless three-bar crucifix.
• Matching crosses. Two plain three-bar crucifixes on 60 cm chains, $49 each, or the Family Cross Set, $69: three stainless crucifixes in the finishes you choose.

Saints for married life

Sts Peter and Fevronia of Murom are honored in Russia as the model of Christian marriage. Prince Peter married Fevronia, a beekeeper’s daughter who had healed him of leprosy. When the nobles would not accept a princess of humble birth, the couple were driven out, until the people of Murom begged them to return. In old age they became monastics. They died on the same day and hour, and were laid in one coffin. Their feast is 25 June (8 July on the Old Calendar). Read their story on their saint page and find more in saints for marriage and family.

Orthodox wedding gifts by budget

Free shipping on orders of $99 or more, to all 50 states, DC and APO/FPO addresses.

Consecration and timing

Add Consecration ($49): our Orthodox priest consecrates the gift with holy water and the prayers of the Church, with a signed certificate and a vial of holy water. Folding diptychs, where a diptych’s page offers it, are consecrated one by one before they leave the workshop, filmed with their number on a card, and ship in the normal time. Crosses and icons are consecrated before they ship, commemorating the names you give; those orders ship in 3–8 business days. Consecrated items are final sale.

Finally, a gift no one else will think of: through our prayer services, our priest reads the couple’s names at the Divine Liturgy.