The common cup is a small cup of blessed wine that the bride and groom share during the Orthodox wedding ceremony. It’s not Holy Communion. It’s a separate blessing, given right after the crowning, to show that these two people now share one life together.
You’ll see it happen during the Rite of Crowning, which is the heart of the service. The priest has already placed the crowns on the couple’s heads and led everyone in the Lord’s Prayer. Then he offers them the cup. Each takes three sips. First the groom, then the bride, then the groom again. They’re drinking from the same cup, and that’s the point.
What It Means
The common cup says something simple but profound: you’re sharing everything now. Joys and sorrows. Good days and hard ones. Your money, your home, your struggles, your celebrations. All of it belongs to both of you. That’s what marriage is in the Orthodox Church. Not a contract between two individuals who happen to live together, but a genuine union where two become one flesh under God.
The cup also connects the couple to Christ’s first miracle at the wedding in Cana of Galilee. Jesus turned water into wine at that wedding feast, and the Church has always seen that as God’s blessing on marriage itself. When the newly married couple drinks the blessed wine, they’re remembering that Christ is present at their wedding too. He’s blessing their union just as he blessed that couple in Cana two thousand years ago.
Some people get confused and think the common cup is Communion. It’s not. The wine is blessed, but it’s not the Eucharist. You don’t need to have fasted or prepared the way you would for receiving the Body and Blood of Christ. This is a different kind of blessing, specific to the marriage service. If the couple wants to receive Communion on their wedding day (and many do), they’ll do that at the Divine Liturgy before the wedding ceremony begins.
The Bigger Picture
The common cup comes near the end of a service that’s already rich with symbolism. The couple has been betrothed with rings. They’ve been crowned as king and queen of their new household. They’ve heard Scripture readings about marriage and listened to prayers asking God to unite them. And now they drink together from one cup.
After the cup, the priest leads them in the Dance of Isaiah, a procession around the Gospel book or the center of the church. It’s joyful. Everyone’s watching these newly crowned people take their first steps as husband and wife. But before that procession, there’s this quiet moment with the cup. Just the two of them, drinking the same wine, beginning to understand what they’ve just promised.
I’ve watched couples at St. Michael share that cup, and you can see it register on their faces. This is real. We’re doing this. Sometimes the groom’s hand shakes a little when he takes his first sip. Sometimes the bride smiles. It’s one of those moments in the service that cuts through all the nerves and the planning and the relatives in the pews, and you remember why you’re standing there in the first place.
If you’re preparing for an Orthodox wedding, don’t overlook the common cup when you’re thinking about what the service means. The crowns get all the attention, and they should. But the cup is just as important. It’s where the theology of shared life becomes something you can taste.
