Many of the couples that we work with come from different religious and ethnic traditions and we love to blend their backgrounds into their weddings. I can best illustrate this by describing the wedding of Rosa and Jonathan.
Rosa's mother is Mexican and Catholic. Rosa's father is Hawaiian and had a Protestant Christian upbringing. Jonathan comes from a Jewish family.
After discussion and some research we decided to honor and include the traditions of the families in three places. After the couple made their vows, we used the Mexican Catholic tradition of the Lazo (a braided rope) to encircle them and to symbolize their new unity together. After the rings were exchanged, we included the Jewish custom of breaking the glass by the groom. Finally, we asked Rosa's father to honor the couple with a traditional Hawaiian blessing as the wedding was completed.
Their wedding ceremony was a great success. The parents and grandparents were especially delighted and grateful that their children wanted to include these marvelous traditions. By mixing religious and ethnic symbols we were able to give real depth of feeling and honor to this wedding ceremony.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Friday, June 29, 2007
Jennifer and Jared
On their wedding day, the bride and groom are showered with good wishes, usually in the form of toasts at the reception and sentiments written in cards. In April 2007, for the ceremony of Jared and Jennifer Ashlock, I asked if I could request some heartfelt and/or light hearted blessings from some family and friends. I e-mailed and called the list of people the bride and groom gave me and got back lovely blessings that I kept private until I read them to Jared and Jen at the ceremony. They were delighted. Because their ceremony was non-religious, these blessings took the place of a prayer, blessing the union. They further personalized an already very personal wedding ceremony. These personal blessings and well wishes could also be read at the ceremony by a family member. This is one example of how customized a Celebrant wedding ceremony can be.
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