What 💒 means
A wedding: one being planned, happening or celebrated. The glyph shows a small white church with a steeple and two or three pink hearts floating above it. On most keyboards it is simply called “wedding”, and that is how people use it: a date with 💒 is a wedding date, a photo with 💒 is a wedding photo, and 💒 after a name means that person is getting married.
The chapel is not a comment on anyone’s faith. The emoji comes from the Japanese mobile emoji sets of the 2000s, and in Japan most couples marry in a chapel-style ceremony at a hotel or wedding hall whatever their religion, so a little chapel with hearts is the standard picture of a wedding there. That is why the emoji works for any wedding, church, registry office, garden or beach. If the religious side matters to you, say it in words; the picture alone will not carry it.
What does it mean when someone sends 💒?
They are getting married, or cheering for someone who is. From the couple it is an announcement or a countdown; from a guest it means “congratulations” or “can’t wait for your day”.
Between friends it also turns up as a tease. Posting 💒 under a couple’s photo means “so when’s the wedding?”, and sending 💒 to someone who just did something adorable means “marry me”. Both are jokes, and both can misfire if the people in question are not there yet.
Warm, festive and reserved for weddings; not a casual love emoji.
Sent to a couple who are not engaged, it reads as pressure about marriage and can land badly.
What it means when someone sends it to you
4 readingsDon't confuse it with
2Combination ideas
3Worth knowing
- The chapel with hearts was already in the emoji sets of all three big Japanese phone carriers before it entered Unicode, which is why it looks so much like a Japanese hotel wedding chapel.
- Unicode files 💒 among buildings, next to houses and offices, even though almost nobody uses it to mean the building.
Questions people ask
3Does 💒 mean church?
No. It means a wedding. For a church as a building or a church service, use ⛪, the plain church without hearts.
Can I use 💒 for a wedding that isn’t in a church?
Yes. 💒 is the general wedding emoji and people use it for civil, outdoor and non-religious weddings all the time. The chapel is just the picture, not a statement about the venue.
Is 💒 a good reply to engagement news?
Yes, especially with 🥂 or ❤️. It says you are happy for them and looking forward to the big day.
How to type 💒
:wedding:the common shortcode; support varies by platform.💒Codes and encoding1 code points
A visible symbol can contain several code points. JS .length counts UTF-16 units; UTF-8 counts bytes.