Wedding ceremonies

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Your wedding ceremony, whether it is your first, second or third etc is the start of your celebration to your commitment of joining two lives into one and you want it to be one of the happiest and memorable days of your life.  It is an opportunity to celebrate your union sharing it with family and friends.  My wish is to make the ceremony a memorable one and as expressive you as a couple would like it to be – it can be as unique as you are and in any location of your choice – with the permission of the land or venue owner.

You can be as romantic and creative as you wish and I will be with you guiding you every step of the way to design the ceremony you dream of.  You just have to separate the legal administration from the ceremony and I can then develop the perfect ceremony for you.

It is always exciting for anyone to hear of a couple’s love story and for me to learn of what you want from your wedding ceremony – a moonlit ceremony or at sunrise / sunset.  Including special members of the family – parents, grandparents, children, close friends, pets.  Finding out these details enables me to design a ceremony that reflects who you are and what matters most to you.

You can have your ceremony in a formal venue (with or without a wedding licence), gardens, boats, castles, beaches, mountains, fields, rivers – your imagination is your only limit and of course the owner of the venue.

As well as music, poems and readings you can include symbolic rituals – scattering rose petals, ring warming, hand tying, unity candles – there are many choices and I can help you to make the right choice for you. If you are a couple with children from each of you, you can include them in a unity ritual which helps them to be included in your own union and commitment.

A celebrant led ceremony can also bridge the gap between couples who have religious or cultural differences, helping couples and their families to find a comfortable and honest middle ground, that everyone is happy with.  Some couples and families like to have some spiritual refences as it is particularly important to their beliefs and to honour a family tradition.  A celebrant led ceremony can be as traditional as a church service but with all or some of the religious elements replaced with a more modern relevant approach.

When considering where you want your ceremony to be you may want to note that a Registrar will not marry you outside, unless it is an approved in a licences venue or possibly if you separate your legal ceremony from your celebration as you would with me (may only apply to some local authorities). 

As with all local authority led ceremonies, regardless of where they are being held, there are particular limitations on the time, place and content of wedding ceremonies conducted by Registrars.  Although some Registrars also identify themselves as celebrants, local authority ceremony content will only repeat legal statements about marriage and will not work with you to personalise vows and offer a truly personalised ceremony. 

You may want a traditional wedding, without the religious element, but you may not be a ‘traditional’ couple, I can work with you to design a celebration that matches your special union and commitment to each other and will feel inclusive of all, taking time to plan an all inclusive ceremony that includes the language  and other elelments that are important to you both as individuals and as a couple.