Creating a Creative Wedding

Creating a Creative Wedding

by | Sep 13, 2018 | Blog

So many people assume that a wedding can’t be creative. It’s either got to be a full religious service or a register office ceremony. Or so they think.

Provided you ensure the legal formalities are complied with, you can have a creative ceremony.

What do I mean by “creative”? That’s a huge question.

For example, you need to consider whether you plan to hold the ceremony indoors or out. How conventional do you want it? What about a wacky venue? On the seashore, at an aquarium, in a hot-air balloon. You get the picture …

Wide-ranging

To speak fairly generally, you can hold a fairly traditional ceremony that, to all intents and purposes, looks like the wedding my grandparents would have expected (except that it might not be held in a religious edifice).

You may opt for a pagan ceremony or some pagan elements. A handfasting will invoke nature blessings and can be most exciting.

Then there are various gradations of religiosity. You could have a few prayers and blessings, some originating from other liturgies or cultures, and of course it might be a humanist-type wedding, with no religious words at all.

A Civil Celebrant-led wedding can cover any degree of religiousness, but your choices don’t end there. There’s the tone and language to be used (by which I mean formal or informal), there’s the music to be decided, what readings or poems will be used, and, indeed, whether you want friends or family participating.

Perhaps the element that differentiates weddings the most is the choice of ritual. That could be another blog in itself! However, maybe this will give you an idea what I am driving at.

Depending on personal beliefs and preferences, you can include rituals from your own or other religions. An East European ritual, for example, involves the couple being presented (usually by a mother) with a loaf of bread. They both bite into it simultaneously, and the person who gets the greater piece will supposedly become the head of the household!

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One of my favourite rituals normally comes at the end of the ceremony, is pagan, and can bring a smile to everyone’s face. (But it has slave origins, so not everyone will go for it.) It’s called “jumping the broom” because the couple have to jump together over a besom. This symbolises sweeping out the old and bringing in the new, as they start their life together.

For further suggestions, feel free to contact me!

More Creative Ceremonies

by | Jul 21, 2015 | Blog

People tend to enjoy creative ceremonies, even if they are sometimes a little suspicious of the unorthodox. Such rituals can help to differentiate the service from any other wedding and they can be meaningful, beautiful, spiritual and special.

I’d like to suggest four such ceremonies. As well as the rituals themselves, success depends on the explanation the civil celebrant offers in each case and also his/her manner and words.

1. Loving Cup

The couple can either combine white and red wine into one glass or goblet (or quaich) and drink from the resultant blush or simply drink the same beverage from the same glass. Of course, it doesn’t have to be wine.

Naturally, this represents the new unity of the couple

 

2. Unity Sand or Unity Candle

Another way of representing the two lives becoming one is a Unity ceremony.

The couple pour sand of different colour together into a container, so the colours merge. If the couple have young children, they could also be involved here, and their participation will symbolise unification of the families.

The Unity Candle works similarly. The couple light a taper each and then, together, the main candle. The mothers – or even children – could take part in this too..

3. Love Letter

Before the wedding, the couple write love letters to each other, which they will seal in an envelope.

During the wedding, they place their favourite drink or memorabilia along with the letters in a wine box. They seal the box and vow not to open it until the anniversary of their choice.

There is one exception: if their relationship becomes strained, then they can unseal the chest, consume the drink and read the letters. This should remind them why they fell in love and chose to be together in the first place.

4. First kiss, last kiss

Who gave each child their first kiss on earth? Their mother. Now the mothers can be invited up to give their child their last kiss as single people and thereby bless the union.

Your civil celebrant will have ideas for other ceremonies, but these four should give you a flavour of how your service can stand out. When people look back on your wedding, they will remember an unusual and beautiful ritual more than anything.

So will you.