Unity Ceremony--

RhiannonBecks

Hi ladies, I am wondering what you all have done/plan to do for a unity ceremony? I know there are several different things to do, and some based on your religion/beliefs. My fiancé nor myself are very religious. We do have our beliefs and will be incorporating some of that into our ceremony, but I would say our ceremony overall would be considered Non-denominational.

Have you ever heard of the well wishes or love story unity ceremony? Just wondering if anyone has had the experience of this and how it went? I like the idea of both of us writing a letter to each other that wouldn't read until at least our 1st anniversary, but not exactly sure how to execute the idea!

Any thoughts? Thanks Ladies!

brisingr86

Church wedding was important to me so my fiance and I are doing the traditional RC ceremony. I haven't heard of the ones you mention, but I think you have the right idea of make it what you believe. My cousin was raised (sort of) Catholic and her husband Hindu; they had been married legally earlier, so their ceremony was kind of designed by them. They had one of our great aunts as the officiant (didn't need to be legal since they were already legally married, it was just a ceremony), they each picked readings from their faith traditions, and then had their own vows. A friend of mine did a handfasting ceremony and the meanings of the different colors of ribbon were read as they were bound (her husband's dad is a judge so he was the officiant). You probably could write the letters and then exchange them at some point during the ceremony? It's a cool idea, maybe even do like message in a bottle like a time capsule thing, or you both put your letters into a vessel that you seal together and either entrust to someone to keep for you until your anniversary or just that you'll hold on to. I'm sure whatever you design will be special because it will be inherently YOU as a couple.

samlovesthesnow

We're having a humanist ceremony with traditional Scottish elements, which will include vows that we've written, exchange of rings and a handfasting ceremony. Other ceremonies that I've hear of:
Lighting a unity candle using a candle each from the bride and groom
Pouring two liquids together to make a compound that emits light (Japanese)
Jumping over a broomstick together (Pagan)
I haven't heard of the others that you mention but I think all of these kind of things are beautifully romantic!

MsMarlaJean

I have always liked the idea of a unity ceremony, but haven't heard of or thought of one that would suit us and since we are wanting a really short ceremony I'm beginning to think of not doing more than the exchange of rings and vows.

Still I would love to hear about more I like some of these ideas...

RhiannonBecks

@MsMarlaJean after I posted this I actually started to question that myself. We are doing a mixture of things that may be considered traditional, but a lot of elements really are just a celebration of our love! We also want to keep the ceremony short, my fiancé said if we can do it under 10 and move on to the party he'd be happy...not sure if that will happen, LOL, but were thinking 20 and under, so maybe a unity ceremony isn't even needed. Thanks for the input ladies!

MsMarlaJean

@Rhiannon0816 yes, we are wanting to do under 20 minutes also (preferably about 15) so I'm like you and I'm thinking short and sweet!
My Dad has passed, so I don't really want a processional just a gathering altogether at the same time and departing at the same time (we're hopefully doing it in the round which should make this easier) so it would be something like this:

A welcome,
a blessing/reading,
What marriage means to us, involving those in attendance
our vows
ring exchange
pronouncement
closing remarks (ie.join us for the reception elsewhere).

Fitforevermore

I need to get on with this!! we're doing the legal stuff here, but in Italy we are in charge of sorting the ceremony and my partner's cousin is the celebrant so we need to write everything......