Weddings This day is about you, your love, and the commitment you are making to each other. Finding one’s life partner is a gift. How do you want to celebrate this special day? What do you want to say to each other? What tone and feeling do you want the ceremony to have? What ritual actions would poetically symbolize and express your union? These are the questions you are invited to ask here, and the only right answers are whatever would most delight you and make you happy. The truth is, we may have certain legal and social norms, but marriage really takes place in your hearts. A Celebrant ceremony puts the power in your hands to express your union in your personal way - which includes your values, beliefs, and cultural traditions. I work in collaboration with you, and also share my creativity, resources, and experience. On your wedding day, I will officiate the ceremony I composed for you with warmth, humor, and grace. With this kind of well-crafted, dynamically delivered ceremony, you do not have to worry about whether your guests will be bored! They will be totally engaged and captivated, they will recognize you, they may learn things they did not know about you as a couple, they will laugh, they will cry - which is what they are there for! And most important of all you and your partner will have an unforgettable, personal and meaningful experience, which is what a marriage ceremony should be.
For couples wishing to celebrate their cultural heritage with or without religious context You can celebrate your cultural backgrounds by incorporating rituals, blessings, prayers or readings reflective of your heritage in a cultural non-religious way. These can be adapted in a universal context for interfaith, intercultural, interracial marriages so that no one is excluded or offended.
For the couple who wishes a spiritual ceremony without religious dogma The ceremony has all the elements of a spiritual ceremony, we speak of God, there are blessings and prayers but we leave out the dogma. Rituals and symbolism are done in a universal context speaking to all hearts. Should you choose readings from religious text, we choose those which are universal. Or perhaps you prefer readings from poetry or literature? Fortunately there is a copious amount of written material spanning every era, culture and creed for every aspect of your ceremony. Again the core of the ceremony is about yourselves, love, relationship and family...always from the heart.
For the couple who wants a humanist ceremony I often refer to a humanist ceremony as a civil ceremony with heart. We offer humanist ceremonies (without mentioning God). Where there is love there is sanctity. Marriage is sacred.
For 2nd and 3rd marriage ceremonies and marriages involving children To find love once is in itself a miracle, to find it again is a testimony to the human spirit and God's infinite compassion. There are wonderful ways to convey your love. We honor and embrace life's complexities, life's richness. There are wonderful ways to include and honor your children, bringing togetherness and healing.
Genesis 2:18-24 Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, ”This at last isbone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out ofMan.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.
Matthew 19:4-6He answered, ”Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said,’Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”