If you want a different wedding, you have to start with a different celebrant.
I’m a young celebrant and almost everyone that sits across from me as we meet for a coffee, usually on a Sunday afternoon, tells me that they want a different wedding.
They’ve been dreaming of their dress, and the first dance.
The dream venue was secured and a ceremony venue has been chosen, but the dread of the wedding ceremony set in and all of a sudden eloping became a viable option.
Luckily for them, there is a new order of celebrants slowly rising.
We’ve become celebrants because we went to terrible weddings where you’d sooner fall asleep than celebrate love, the mysterious love that two close friends have engaged in.
Marriage in Australia is according to the law, the union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others entered into voluntarily for life.
Just then you’ve completed 50% of what is necessary in a wedding ceremony, the other 50% is where you both confess with your lips that you want to marry the other, they’re usually called your vows.
Everything else that happens should celebrate your relationship, the beginning of your marriage, the construction of your family and the mystery of your unconditional love for one another.
Here’s ten ways you can customise your wedding ceremony so it reflects you, the two people actually being married.
These tips don’t aim to create a new tradition, but to expand your line of thinking in regards to your ceremony, and encourage you to do something wild that reflects your marriage!
- Drop the bridal party, and proclaim everyone at the wedding, your bridal party.
- Write a love letter to each other, and make it your vows
- Or don’t write your own vows, and have your celebrant write something for you.
- Move your guests to a different location. Have them stand around you in a circle, or perhaps in a U shape.
- Exchange rings Beyonce style: Do you like it? Well put a ring on it!
- Give the groom an entrance song as well and have him arrive just before the bride to just as much fanfare.
- Hold a surprise wedding, invite everyone to a party of another sort, then surprise them with a celebrant and a wedding ring.
- Sing your vows, if singing is your thing.
- Hold your ‘ceremony’ inside your reception, perhaps after the main meal.
- Have your wedding day and time on any other day than Saturday at 3pm. You’d be surprised how many venues and other suppliers are available.