Ceremony Enhancements
Discover more about our extensive range of professional services. If you still can’t find what you’re looking for, please feel free to get in touch with us – we will be more than happy to help.
A choice of one of the following special enhancements. to your wedding day.
(These are priced depending on the items required, some are free of charge depending on the package)
Tying the Knot Ceremony
This was a means to get married, but the knot tying ceremony is symbolic: as pressure is applied to the knot it strengthens, just like marriage. Some even believe the rope/ribbons will break before the knot comes undone.
It’s an ancient wedding tradition that can help to make your ceremony feel more meaningful and personal. Your guests probably won’t have seen it before and it gets a great response of awe and wonder as you tie your knot, it makes a great series of photographs too. Don’t worry it’s not complicated and we practise it together.
Once the knot is tied, it’s a lasting keepsake of your wedding day and can be displayed in your home. Most people choose coloured ribbons or cords as the colours have various meanings or they just choose colours to match their wedding theme colours.
Handfasting Ceremony
This is from an ancient Celtic origin is a slightly different to ‘Tying the Knot’ ceremony
The very word Hand fasting got its origin in the wedding custom of tying the bride and groom’s wrists together. A cord or a binding tied in a knot around their hand while the ritual takes place. This is where the term “tie the knot” came from when referring to getting engaged or married today.
Handfasting at one time was the only way that couples could be engaged and/or get married because the church let the civil government of the period take care of these matters.
In the British Isles, Handfasting was the old pagan ritual of marriage and it remained legal in Scotland all the way up to 1939.
One custom is that while facing each other, the couple placed their right hands together and then their left hands together to form an infinity symbol while a cord is tied around their hands in a knot.
Many couples feel the traditional marriage service is too restrictive or just doesn’t reflect who they are as a couple. Handfasting is a way to very visibly acknowledge your connection and add a truly intimate element into your wedding day. Others like to acknowledge an ancient tradition that has been performed by couples as far as anyone can remember.
Hand Blessing Ceremony
A beautiful unity ceremony, usually this is in a wedding ceremony right after the couple exchanges rings. It flows beautifully as the celebrant says “while you are holding hands, take a moment to appreciate the gift you are to each other…” Some wedding officiants will do the hand ceremony before the exchanging of rings.
The two of you hold hands and appreciate how you will change over the life of your marriage through the actions you take with your hands. Examples from the ceremony include
Celebrant: [Bride], please hold [Groom’s] hands palm up, so you may see the gift that they are to you. These are the hands of your best friend, young and strong and vibrant with love, that are holding yours on your wedding day, as he promises to love you and cherish you through the years for a lifetime of happiness.
Several other sayings follow and then after these vows the groom does the same with the bride’s hand.
Mothers Rose Ceremony
This is a great way of honouring the Bride & Groom’s mothers or other family members during a wedding ceremony.
This signifies the bride and groom showing gratitude for the love bestowed upon them, this is done by asking their mothers to come forward so the couple can thank them and give their respective mothers a rose.
Ring Warming/Blessing
Before the vows are said and the rings exchanged, the wedding officiant will ask various selected members of the wedding party to participate in a ring warming.
The rings are tied together with a short ribbon and the warming is an opportunity to send the bride and groom good luck and love through a silent wish to the rings when passed to them.
The participants are advised as follows “As you hold them in your hands, pause for a moment, and make your wishes for the couple and for their future before you pass them on to the next person".
These rings will not only be a gift from one to another but will be given with the love, support and wisdom of their family and friends.”
Unity Candle Ceremony
Lighting a Unity Candle during a wedding ceremony is a special way to symbolise two lives joining together as one. Children can be involved; ceremonial candles and stands are available and can be kept as a memento.
“Bride and Groom, the two separate candles symbolise your separate lives, separate families and separate sets of friends, in other words, your lives before today. Lighting the centre candle represents your two lives are now being joined together as one.”
There’s a great deal of flexibility within this ceremony, usually you would light the candles after exchanging vows but parents can be involved and children too, they can have their own mini-candle.
Your unity candle can be personalised with scripture, vows, or a photo from your wedding, so it becomes a beautiful year-round keepsake. Many couples choose to relight the candles each year on their anniversary.
Sand Mixing Ceremony
This unique way to symbolise two lives becoming one is also a great way to incorporate children or family into the wedding ceremony. It’s symbolic and meaningful, easily customised, and the couple are left with a unique keepsake of the day.
It is an unexpectedly lovely moment for your guests to witness – remember, they will most likely be expecting just the usual vows, ring exchange and a kiss.
It makes the ceremony unique for the couple. Not only is it a visual symbolisation of the bride and groom joining together in marriage, but if other family members are involved, it’s a beautiful representation of two families coming together. The sand-filled vase becomes a beautiful and meaningful keepsake.
The Loving Cup Ceremony
The Loving Cup or a Quaich ceremony is a Scottish tradition.
The cup is often a beautiful silver/pewter two handled traditional cup. It’s often referred to as the love cup as the bride and groom each take a handle to take a drink. Often the groom’s father or another important member of the bridal party is chosen to fill up the cup.
The Quaich contains within it a whisky that is sweet (or it can be any drink you prefer), it is symbolic of happiness, joy, hope, peace, love and delight.
This same whisky also has some bitter properties that are symbolic of life’s trials and tribulations, and “Loves Journey”.
The Quaich can be engraved and kept a treasured keepsake.
The Wine Ceremony
This is very similar to the Loving Cup or Quaich ceremony.
The bride and groom pour wine from two glasses into one and then drink from the single glass of wine. This symbolizes drinking from the cup of life and sharing all of its experiences together, both bitter and sweet.
The glass contains within it a wine that is sweet and is symbolic of happiness, joy, hope, peace, love and delight.
This same wine also has some bitter properties that are symbolic of life’s trials and tribulations, and “Loves Journey”.
The glass can be engraved and kept a treasured keepsake.
Jumping the Broom
Jumping the broom is a phrase and custom where the couple jumps over a broom. The tradition of Jumping the Broom symbolises sweeping away the old and welcoming the new–a symbol of a new beginning.
The Bride and Groom are sweeping together in a circle to signify the sweeping away of their former single lives, their past problems and their previous cares. The broom represents a threshold between past and present, and jumping the broom symbolizes the crossing of this threshold into a new relationship as husband and wife.
The broom can be kept a treasured keepsake.
Love letters and Wine Box
A Love Letter and Wine Box ceremony will serve as a lasting reminder of the commitments made by the couple to each other.
Heartfelt letters, encapsulating thoughts and feelings are locked away in a wine box to be revealed several years into the marriage. This box contains a bottle of wine, two glasses, and a love letter from each to the other.
The letters describe the good qualities they find in one another, the reasons they fell in love, and their reasons for choosing to marry. The letters are sealed in individual envelopes and they do not see what the other has written.
The idea behind this is that should the Bride and Groom ever find their marriage facing hardships, they will open the box, sit and drink the wine together, then read the letters they wrote to one another to be reminded of the reasons why they are together.
The hope is, however, that they will never have a reason to open the box, if they are to open it, it is to share and enjoy on their 5th year wedding anniversary, replenish and open on their 10th anniversary, and so on.
Bubbles
Bubbles are a fun way of ending the wedding ceremony.
This takes place just before the bride and groom walk back down the aisle as husband and wife.
Bubble Blessing – All of the gathering are given bottles of bubbles and are asked to momentarily believe in magic, they then wish all of their blessings on to the couple.
They should then be asked to take a deep breath and blow their bubbles out into the Universe and ask that the marriage be blessed and sacred for eternity, whilst sending their wishes, blessings and prayers to the couple.
The Breaking of Glass
(Adapted Version)
The breaking of glass at the end of a wedding ceremony reminds us of the fragility of life, the uniqueness of the moment, the shattering of the old and the beginning of the new. It can also symbolise the breaking down of the barriers and help create a world based on love, unity, peace, & understanding.
The breaking of the glass is permanent; so, too, marriage should last a as long as time–as long as it would take to reassemble the broken pieces of glass.
The best man will place the incandescent lightbulb (adapted) before the groom in a small bag or wrapped in a piece of material and when the Celebrant declares the bride and groom to be “husband and wife” and says “congratulations, you may kiss your bride!” the groom then smashes the incandescent lightbulb (adapted) with the heel of his foot and kisses the bride.
Applauding and shouts of “Mazel Tov!” are appropriate in Jewish ceremonies at this point.
(Adapted, means usually it a bottle but that maybe cause harm)
There are many other ways to give a ceremony the wow factor, some couples now have owls or birds of prey to deliver the rings during the ceremony, others include their dogs or pets within the ceremony, and often the couple themselves have special ideas some of which may involve family rituals.
There are Others
There are many other ways to give a ceremony the wow factor.
Some couples now have owls or doves, some have a bird of prey to deliver the rings during the ceremony, others include their dogs or pets within the ceremony, and often the couple themselves have special ideas some of which may involve family rituals.
If there is something different you would like then by all means ask and if it can be done depending on the venue then it will be.
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