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Our ceremony was really quite traditional and we didn't add anything religious or cultural, but I think what made ours 'ours' were a few readings, recited by selected friends. I think that was a nice touch that our guests also appreciated =)
We had readings recited by our friends, and I wrote our Prayer of the Faithful, so that was probably the most unique thing. Or maybe it was our priest telling all of our guests that our DJ bailed on us......
I guess what will make mine special is that we are using really unusual readings, including one from the Velveteen Rabbit and another from in re Marriages case in California that legalized same sex marriage. We are also having a friend give a speech about us, sort of like a sermon.
Our church does a very traditional 27 minute ceremony. It has been the same 27 minutes for all of my friends. We are adding some readings and maybe a special song. I also want to do the hand ceremony which none of my friends have done yet.
We are having a friend perform the ceremony and we wrote the same vows for us to repeat.
I think everyone's wedding is unique. I have been to many in my life and never have I seen the same ceremony twice even when it was performed by the same pastor.
What I'd like to think will make the day special for us is that our family will be such a big part of it. My Uncle who is a Pastor will officiate. My Aunt and Uncle will provide the music as they are musicians. My Dad and my son will walk me down the aisle. The cultural and religious aspects have to do with biblical readings, a special cord of 3 strands that has been past down for a few generations now and the fact that my Aunt (who is like a Mom to me) will be helping me make my mantilla veil.
I like that everyone post includes something that is unique to them. I think that is what makes the day so special...your own touches of what mean the most to you or make it so that it can not be duplicated.
I'm working on figuring out what wasn't unique about ours! We did not have separate attendants for each of us, but had a maid of honor and dude of honor (my children) there for both of us. We wrote the ceremony ourselves, drawing on both the traditional Jewish ceremony and the Church of England ceremony. We made our own chuppah (wedding canopy). We had all the guests sign the ketubah (wedding contract) as witnesses, instead of just having the usual two. My bride and I walked up the aisle together, instead of having one of us at the front and the other escorted by someone. We had an unusual reading. My ex-husband gave ha-motzi (blessing over bread) in the sukkah (ceremonial booth) behind the synagogue after the ceremony.
FI father is officiating and we are writing our own vows and I'm going to read him a poem.
I might write it but I don't know yet. We are also having a friend play his classical guitar for the processional. We're having about a hundred people but I want that intimate, close feel for the ceremony. Also my eleven year old nephew REALLY wants to be the ring bearer so I'm letting him!
I am an American, living in London, marrying someone Swedish. We'll be using a lot of Swedish traditions. These include lots of vodka shots and an especially fun one - when the groom leaves the room for whatever reason, all the men line up to kiss the bride and vice versa.
I was a voice major in college, so half of my bridal party are classically trained musicians & singers. We have a string trio playing for the ceremony, and I'm in the process of picking some of my fav pieces (mainly French & Germany Romantic period - absolute favorite!!) for my friends to sing. These will all be unique hand-selected pieces - No Canon in D here!!
FI & I are also crazy bluegrass fans, so I'm thinking of surprising him with a banjo/fiddle team at the rehearsal and maybe singing something fun for him. We'll see...
FI is in the military so he will be in uniform along with some of his groomsmen and friends. They also have a tradition of a Guard of Honour so that will feature during Mass. I am trying to personalize the music as much as possible and I am also hoping to incorporate as many loved ones as we can as readers, Eucharistic Ministers, Gift Bearers, etc... I am also hoping to write our own Prayers of the Faithful. I think I'm looking forward to the ceremony more than anything!
We had a traditional fiddler for music, we wrote our own vows, we had a soil ceremony in place of the sand ceremony where we combined soil from our hometowns. We are both biologists and love nature, hence the incorporation of soil. Everyone loved our ceremony, there was a lot of tears throughout the guests and bridal parties.
We are doing a lei exchange ceremony. Other than that, it's pretty traditional.
My eleven year old nephew wrote and composed a song that he'll sing to us during the ceremony (it's a surprise to us but my sister said it's amazing). Our JOP is a childhood friend of mine and my 'first husband'---we had a mock wedding in my parent's backyard when we were four years old. He's also doing an Irish blessing, in honor of my heritage, in Gaelic. My daughter and I have a seceret plan with our ring bearer on presenting the rings (it involves a mini red carpet and two robotic Chihuahas). I'm also letting my husband pick our recessional song and all I know about it is we all need a 'signature dance move'. I'll slightly frightened. Our music is all favorites of ours and not traditional (he chose an instrumental White Snake song for a prelude---surprisingly pretty). And not that unique but my husband had a custom ring made for my daughter, with her birthstone, that he will present to her along with simple vows :o)
We made a point to write a ceremony with our officiant that didn't mention religion or culture at all. We actually talked about how our friends and family are the most important people in our loves because they shaped us to become they people we are to find each other. It was basically an homage to everyone in our lives, and about us as a couple. And it was only 20 mins for it was perfect! :)
I am really thinking our 10:30 a.m. ceremony will be unique lol! but we'll see what my catering quotes come back as because we may have a later ceremony. I think the tasting of the elements is also unique. I am also SERIOUSLY considering the quaker marriage certificate instead of a traditional guestbook. i really want something we can hang in our house instead of a book to put in a closet.
We are doing a rose ceremony at the beginning of our ceremony to honor our parents. Normally a rose ceremony is done to honor the bride and groom's mothers, but I am tweaking the whole shibang to honor our parents since our fathers are very important to us as well!
I have also decided to do a rice toss as we recess back down the aisle so that should be fun!
I also love our ceremony location. We will be getting married in a big maple tree grove. I'm in love with the space and now I have to hope that it doesn't rain.
I am not sure how unique our ceremony will be, but I feel good about it because we are incorporating a lot of elements that we love and shows who we are as people and as a couple.
We are doing unity candle and we are having religious/romantic songs sung. :)
We're encore bride and groom and we're having our children in the ceremony as it will not only marry us, but our families too!
Also the church holds special meaning to T's family as it is where his parents were married 50 years ago this summer and where we'll marry to. It is also the very church where he was christened as a baby. Lots of family memories there.
Awesome uniqueness abounds here at Weddingbee!
We are having our immediate family serve in the wedding, since none of them are in the wedding party. My brothers are reading, FSIL & her family are bringing up the gifts, our fathers are giving out communion, we are giving a rose to Mary (Catholic tradition) and we are currently on the search for an old hymn to sing as our recessional. I want the whole place singing on the way out!
I'm Scottish/Irish, so we are incorporating a handfasting ceremony instead of a unity candle. Handfasting was the traditional method of marriage in the British Isles back in the day.
We incorporated my Hawaiian and Polish cultures with his Irish/Scottish and German backgrounds for a very unique ceremony. We also took out most of the religious contexts (since he was raised Pentacostal and I was raised Catholic).
Most people commented that ours was the first wedding where they had heard the word "lover" in the vows. They thought that was cool of us to have added it.
Looking back though I'll have to say ours was a strange/unique wedding. We had a handfasting AND the Hawaiian ti leaf ceremony. Yeah, we went there, LOL.
I don't mean to sound like I'm being contrary, but part of me feels that the hyper-personalization of our culture has put too much pressure on couples to have a "unique" wedding, and especially a unique ceremony. See the JK Wedding Entrance video for an example of this going overboard. I love that the concept of the wedding ceremony is one of the few standing traditions that we value in American culture - think about it, other than a funeral, what else brings together loved ones from miles away? I guess I'm being annoyingly counter-counter-culture by esteeming what is traditional about our ceremony, which will include the same beautiful Baroque music that my parents had at their wedding and a Christian service with the glorious hymns we love (that even our grandmothers will recognize the words and the melody to), and the vows that have meant so much to so many people in love for so many generations. I mean yeah, it was cute when Jennifer Aniston vowed to always make Brad Pitt's favorite smoothie or whatever it was at their wedding, but I also think there's value in our common cultural understanding of the meaning of marriage as founded on people swearing the same intentions from one generation to another. Sorry, I'm just a sentimentalist dork in some ways! And even having said all that, I haven't nixed the idea of adding a personalized statement of intent to our traditional vows - since of course there are also parts of me that love personalization and the opportunity to mix in an element of who we are as a couple.
ours was a pretty traditional non religious ceremony.. no readings or anything, the reverend did a lot of talking (yeah, we had a reverend w/ a non religious ceremony we put together, maybe that is unique?). We did include a piece about equal rights, though..
Adapted from Mrs. cherry Pie's on weddingbee, actually:
And as we remember those who are not with us,
We also recognize those
Who are still denied the civil right of wedded union
And forbidden the social and legal benefits of marriage
We have come a long way toward treating all men and women as equals,
And yet, we acknowledge that we have farther still to go
And more we can do to respect the choice to love, and be loved
As you look out over the sea,
Please take a moment of silence for those we have recognized.
[Moment of silence]
I agree with LittlestBirds... I'm just not that concerned with making things unique. We're customizing our ceremony with our JP but we won't be doing anything too outside the box. I don't think the ceremony has to be unique to be meaningful. I find a lot of meaning in the traditional vows.
We're not having attendants, and instead having a lots of short readings & involving our friends that way!
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Are you incorporating any special religious or cultural elements? Or something else really cool?