Please read this e-mail (at right). Would you like to get comments like these* after your wedding ceremony? We always would. It's why we perform weddings. Let's talk about what you can do to make your wedding ceremony both beautiful and memorable. (Were the dresses and the flowers beautiful? Of course. But let's be clear: This is not about dresses or flowers. It is about the ceremony itself.) Let's talk about what this couple did.**
They made the ceremony personal: Each wrote out a Declaration expressing their feelings toward each other. (They were afraid they would get too emotional, so they had Chris read their statements. We'd recommend having friends read these, but this worked fine.)
They included family members and friends in the ceremony. At the beginning, when mothers were escorted in, each brought a rose to a table at the front, for use in the Rose Ceremony later. Then, at the conclusion of the Rose Ceremony, the bride and groom placed the roses in the hands of their mothers.
Additionally, each mother had prepared a statement to read. (As it happened, the groom's mother was too nervous and asked the bride's mother to read for her -- which worked just fine.) And several relatives and friends read poems, each standing at their seat.
They let all the guests know how important they were in this ceremony. This was expressed in words throughout the ceremony as well as by involving family and friends in the ceremony itself, as described above. And finally they included a specific request to family and friends for an expression of that commitment:
Minister: "Do you affirm your continuing support and love to Leigh Ann and Steven as they grow in their marriage and do you celebrate with them the decision they have made to choose each other? Please signify by saying, 'We do.'" Families and friends: "We do."
After all, this is why you are inviting those you love: not just to be spectators, but to affirm and confirm the bonds that connect you with them.
Now, shall we talk about your upcoming wedding?
----Original Message Follows----
From: "LeighannXXX" < leighannXXX@gmail.com>
To: "Christopher B. Sanford" <christopherbsanford@msn.com>
Subject: Fwd: We did it!
Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2006 13:24:43 -0400
----Original Message Follows----
From: "Leighann" < leighann@gmail.com>
To: "Christopher B. Sanford" <christopherbsanford@msn.com>
Subject: Fwd: We did it!
Date: Thu, 8 Jun 2006 13:24:43 -0400
Christopher-
We got so many e-mail and verbal compliments like this one. Thank you so
much helping us craft such a gorgeous ceremony. I could never have dreamed
of anything more beautiful.
I will definitely recommend your services.
Thanks again-
Leigh Ann and Steve
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Charlene <charleneXXX@pgnmail.com>
Date: Jun 6, 2006 8:49 AM
Subject: RE: We did it!
To: Leighann<leighann@gmail.com>
Wow - gorgeous!!! I will share this with our friends. :) ["This" was an attached wedding photo.]
I have to tell you again, your wedding ceremony was the most beautiful I have ever seen/heard ...and I have been to a LOT of weddings!
Love,
Me
** -- They said it just right: "helping us craft such a gorgeous ceremony." As guests came up to Chris after the ceremony to thank him, he had to tell them: "It was beautiful because of what Leighann and Steve put into it. I offered a lot of options, I gave them permission to make the ceremony their own, and Leighann and Steve ran with it."
