Including Rituals in Your Wedding Ceremony

R I T U A L S 💞
If you’re looking for unique ways to personalise your wedding ceremony, a ritual can be a wonderful way to do this, and easily incorporated into your ceremony. There are many ideas out there, and choosing which one will depend on what you would like the ritual to signify. Here are a few, with links to my website stories if you want to explore further:
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SAND UNITY CEREMONY- this is a wonderful way to involve children of all ages as it is visual and easily created. Each person pours sand into a central vessel, creating a beautiful pattern, and signifying the union of family, or the couple.
https://wendyhendrycelebrant.com/2017/02/04/a-family-centred-ceremony/
Ideas on how to create one – https://wendyhendrycelebrant.com/…/…/07/sand-unity-ceremony/

RIVER STONE CEREMONY – this ritual inspired by Celtic traditions, is said to be used by early settlers and convicts in Australia, where instead of exchanging rings, as they were far too expensive, the couple would cast a stone into the river as a symbol of the wedding promises made, ever strong and steady as the river of the water ebbs and flows around them.
https://wendyhendrycelebrant.com/…/07/22/river-stone-cerem…/

HANDFASTING – ‘Handfasting’ is the ancient word for a wedding and was traditionally recognized as a binding contract of marriage between a couple before weddings became a legal function of the government or the church. Today, it is more of a symbolic ceremony to honour a couple’s desire for commitment to each other, and to acknowledge that their lives and their destinies are now bound together.
https://wendyhendrycelebrant.com/…/31/handfasting-elopement/
https://wendyhendrycelebrant.com/…/…/donnelly-river-wedding/

WINE BOX & LOVE LETTER CEREMONY – a good bottle of wine is selected by the couple and placed in a box along with a sealed letter written by each of the couple.  The letter describes why they love their partner, and reasons they have chosen to marry them.  During the ceremony the box is sealed, either with wax, or with nails, with the box to be opened on their fifth wedding anniversary (or other chosen timeframe).  If the couple comes across hard times in their marriage they can choose to open the box earlier, share the wine and read the letters, remembering why they chose each other as life partners and with the view of beginning a conversation of healing.  There are variations on the words used, but the symbolism remains similar.  It is like a plan for the future, recognizing that life and love isn’t always smooth sailing.

If you want a few more ideas you can go to my Wedding Ceremony Rituals page – https://wendyhendrycelebrant.com/…/ceremony-rituals-symbol…/

Or chat to me about the many more ideas that are available.
Happy planning!
Wendy x