The Dance of Isaiah

The crowning service moves through a fixed sequence recognisable across every Orthodox jurisdiction that keeps it. After betrothal prayers and the exchange of rings, the priest joins the couple's right hands and places the crowns, holding them briefly over each head in turn before setting them down, while the choir sings the same troparion asking the martyrs and the couple alike to keep the faith. Scripture readings follow, from Ephesians on marriage as an image of Christ and the church and from the Gospel account of the wedding at Cana, after which the couple share the common cup.

The service closes with the Dance of Isaiah, three processional circuits around the small table at the centre of the church, the priest leading the couple by their joined and crowned hands while the choir sings the same hymns again, a physical enactment of a lifelong journey begun together rather than a formality tacked onto the end. The crowns themselves, whether stiff formal circlets or, in many parishes, simple flowered wreaths joined by a ribbon, are traditionally kept afterward by the couple as a household object rather than returned to the church, and in some communities are shown again only at the couple's funeral, closing the marriage where the crowning opened it.