Rituals And Symbolic Elements
Let your personality and love story shine through by involving friends, family and even pets into your ceremony. Symbolic elements can be tweaked to create your own spin for a completely unique ceremony. They can be shaped around other elements such as vows and readings, there really are no rules!
Below are some examples of rituals and elements you could add and the meanings behind them.
It is a meaningful way to involve all your guests in the ceremony and makes your wedding rings so much more significant, knowing that you are wearing everyone’s blessings on your finger!
The rings are passed from guest to guest during the ceremony (in a box, case or tied to a cushion), receiving well wishes and blessings along the way. They are then returned to the bride and the groom who exchange them as a symbol of their love.
Place a bottle of champagne in a personalised wooden wine box, with a letter to each other, to be opened on your 5-year anniversary or if you fall on challenging times prior.
This can be part of your anniversary celebration and a reminder of your journey and love for each other.
As the Marriage certificate will be signed and witnessed your appointment to sign the legal documents. This emanates that for your guests, and can be again witnessed, by best man, maid of honour, family etc.
This also gives opportunity for photographs by guests as support and witness to their signing.
To symbolise your union, this can be any alcoholic (or non-alcoholic) drink. You are symbolically adding your own unique strengths that you bring to this marriage.
It also requires the assistance of your guests by counting down from 3, 2, 1, Cheers!
The origins are unclear, potentially Native American or Hawaiian weddings. This ritual is a symbolic element that is very easy to personalise, involving as few or as many people as desired, resulting in a beautiful colourful keepsake.
It can be as simple as 2 different coloured sands blending into one, or more family members/friends pour their own colours in, showing each person involved and joined in the union.
These variations can have further variations, instead of coloured sand, it could be their local sand or from a special place. With an endless choice of vessel, this again can be personal to you. Kits are widely available or items can be personally sourced.
Based on a traditional corn or straw broom (generally made from fibres now), the origins, meanings and how they have been interpreted differ substantially. The earliest accounts of jumping or stepping over a broom to signify marriage, date back to the 1700s in Wales, using a ‘Besom’, which is a type of broomstick. This was as their beliefs meant they were not married in the eyes of the church.
In the US, the origins were linked to slavery, as they couldn’t legally marry. They jumped the broom to declare their commitment to each another
In the UK it has Pagan origins and is said to be comparable to crossing the threshold, yet other views are that it symbolically is sweeping away single life and jumping into your future, or defying evil and witchcraft.
So it’s down to individual interpretation. It can be fun as well as meaningful, but I found commonly jumping the broom demonstrates the couple’s union. This could be same broom together holding hands or lay a broom for each other. These can be decorated in limitless ways.
A Wine Ceremony or also known as Wine Blending are both unities that can be interpreted differently and personalised for each couple. The cup is sometimes referred to as a cup of love where the couple both sip from a glass of wine, or blending 2 wines, red/white or just favourite/meaningful wines and then toasting, generally 3 times (so sipping is advised!).
It is not limited to wine, any drink can be used; cocktails are becoming very popular.
This symbolic unity engagement ritual is originally associated with Pagan ceremonies and is a Celtic tradition that dates back over 2000 years. A couple would be bound together by a druid priest to symbolise a betrothal through a year long engagement, after which the couple could choose to continue or not.
It is where the phrase ‘Tying the knot’ came from!
Couples can use materials and colours that are either traditional or meaningful and significant to them.
There are traditional meanings associated with colours, for example White – Purity, Red – Love & Passion, Green – Fertility, Brown – Nurturing & Gold – Wisdom.
Although now the association seems generally more fluid, it reads that couples simply choose different colours to their preference, or that have symbolic meaning to them, to match the wedding theme colours or it could just however be the colours of their favourite Team!
It is an opportunity to involve specific people in your ceremony, for example parents, or if they have children/step-children, making them part of the unity. Friends who have been particularly supportive or pivotal in their journey.
They can also choose a colour of traditional or personal symbolic meaning.
The origins of Unity Candles are ‘unclear’, it does not appear in the bible, however is used in the Christian faith. It became popular in American weddings in the early 70’s, but was apparently brought to the forefront by appearing in a 1981 episode of an American Soap called General Hospital!
This is another form of symbolising the joining of a couple, with some say, the flame representing passion for the other.
Mazel tov! – Is the first thing that comes to mind when the groom stamps on a wrapped/bagged glass at a Jewish wedding. However, the true meaning represents commemoration of the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and what was faced by Jewish people over the past 2,000 years.
Again, there are other meanings/interpretations that it is not about material goods, breaking down barriers or that it is the last time the groom gets to put his food down!