Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Wedding Day to Remember

While some couples, after putting it off for years, one day simply decide 'Let's get married now!', other couples make a choice for their wedding date after a long deliberation.

Some will choose a date for its convenience - school holidays, or a public holiday which ensures that all their relatives and friends will share their wedding day with them.

Some want to associate their wedding day with something symbolic such as St. Valentine's Day, or a significant date in the life of their immediate family.

And then there are those who believe some days are luckier than others, and indeed, will go so far as to read their horoscope to ensure that the wedding date of their choice squares with their stars.

The most interesting one is that wedding date which is so memorable that you just can't forget it. Last year it was the 10 - 10 - 2010.

This year it will be the 11 - 11 - 2011.

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Monday, June 13, 2011

Renewal of Vows - 30th Wedding Anniversary

Like many events, this renewal of vows ceremony began as Just a Few Friends celebration in the backyard and ended at the local bowls club with a lot of family and friends.

Because the couple had envisaged the ceremony as low-key, they decided not to involve anyone in the ceremony itself.

As a result I decided to oomph it up with a few symbolic rituals which would involve everyone, as opposed to one or two indivduals. The rituals I choose was wishing stones and warming of the wedding rings, and ending the ceremony with a communal blessing which everyone read from the ceremony progam.

Needless to say, everyone embraced these aspects of the ceremony - thoughfully inscribing the wishing stones, thinking carefully over the wedding rings, and loudly blessing the couple at the end of the ceremony.

I'm always impressed how much everyone enjoys being part of a ceremony and find it a pity that so many couples are reluctant to ask guests to participate. 



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Sunday, May 8, 2011

8 Tips for a Wedding Rehearsal

Where and when to have the rehearsal

As we watch the pomp of a royal wedding, we can't help but be impressed at how smoothly everything goes. Of course, those of us interested in weddings, realize that a great wedding day doesn’t just happen. Preparing for a wedding at the Virginia Golf Club, Brisbane recently, we made sure that the wedding day would be perfect by having a wedding rehearsal at the Club itself.

Here are things to consider when you have your wedding rehearsal



1)  In indoor ceremony arrange a rehearsal a week before the wedding if convenient for everyone needing to be present


2)  In an  outdoor eremony, rehearse at the time of day and week as the wedding ceremony


3)   Indoors, make a floor plan of how the venue will actually look on the day of the ceremony


4)     Mark out areas which will be taken up with flower pedestals, wedding arch, potted plants, speaker’s stand, music stand and other large decorations


5)      Place a few chairs to check how close the guests should be seating and where the aisle should be


6)       Place chairs for young attendants who will only take part in the bridal march


7)      Add a special and a favourite toy to identify the seating for the child. Leave extra chairs for carers of the children


8)      Make your entrance and your exit being aware of how much space you’ll have once the venue is completely set up for your wedding day


 Based on '1,000+ Answers to Your Wedding Questions'. Find it on Amazon and Smashwords.






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Saturday, April 23, 2011

Royal Wedding Dress


As The royal couple prepares for their wedding, speculation is rife about 'the dress'. And so it has always been.
 
As the potential monarch of England, Princess Elizabeth was expected to put on a royal show on her wedding day despite the bleak economic outlook of the country which affected her as much as anybody else.

Fortunately, even governments seem to get a little sentimental at the mention of a wedding. To make a bride feel special during this period of recovery, each bride received extra clothing coupons. In the case of Princess Elizabeth, it was extra two hundred coupons.

With the material coupons in his hot little hands, Mr. Norman Hartnell, the designer of the dress, looked around to see where he could purchase that special material to make that special dress.

The bride’s mother begged him to please buy the satin from the famous silk worm farm at Lullingston Castle, right here in England. But powerful figure as she was to everyone else in the country, she could not prevail on Mr. Hartnell.

In his considered opinion the material recommended by the Queen Mother might be good enough for the train, but as far as the rest of the dress was concerned, nothing but a fabric from a Scottish firm would do.

No sooner did he make his decision public, then a nasty rumour began to circulate. It seemed that the material being provided by the Scottish firm had been spun by, ‘enemy silk worms’ that might very well have come from a country that had had been warring with the allies just a few short years before.

Patriotic anger reached such heights that for a while it seemed that the wedding might have to be postponed altogether. But rising to the occasion, Mr. Hartnell was able to reassure the nation that the material had, indeed, been spun with the help of friendly little silk worms of Nationalist China, and not an enemy country at all.

On the wedding day the bride arrived looking like all brides are meant to look, radiant and happy. As for the dress, like so many royal dresses, it ended in a museum.

And, it seems, despite Mr. Hartnell’s ingenuity as a designer, the Bride’s Mother did know best. Like all good housekeepers, she knew a good fabric when she saw it. Mr. Hartnell’s dress might have looked well on the day, but it didn’t keep half as well as it would have, had he bowed to her wishes and stayed with her choice of fabrics.
Based on 'Wedding Your Way' found at Amazon and Smashwords.





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Friday, April 22, 2011

Wedding Cakes


For many people a wedding is a time for self-expression, not to say, showing off. In particular, the wedding cake tends to be the medium through which they tell their stories.

Policemen have been known to cover their wedding cakes with badges and other symbols of their activity. Cricketers’ cakes are full of bats and balls. And as for royalty, it’s almost like a photo album.

When the then Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip married in 1947, their wedding cake was covered with plaques of her many castles as well as indications of the couple’s lifestyle.

The cake itself was 9 feet tall and weighed 500 pounds, and turned out less expensive than it could have been.

It seems that an inspired group of Australian Girl Guides send a most unusual gift to the couple, in the guise of all the ingredients necessary for the wedding cake.

In all, the ingredients that went into the three-tiered cake included fifty-seven pounds of different types of flour, over one hundred pounds of dried fruit, over one hundred pounds of different types of sugars, twelve dozen eggs, thirty pounds of butter, an awful lot of nuts and spices, and one bottle of the best brandy Australia produces.

That the queen was delighted with this wedding gift was not to be wondered at. This was 1947 and everything was inclined to be a little bit scarce.

After the wedding, the queen showed her own appreciation to the Girl Guides, by sending them one of the layers of the cake.

The other layer was used to cut up at the wedding itself, while the third tier was kept for the christening of Prince Charles.

While most of us have believed that the number of layers of cakes at the wedding are more or less dependent on how many guests are to be fed, it appears that there is yet another symbol associated with the wedding cake. According to the most recent authority, the bottom layer of the cake represents the couple as a newly created family. The top layer represents the two individuals as a couple. And the layer, or layers in between, represents the children to come.

 Based on the book. 'Wedding Your Way', found on Amazon and Smashwords.






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Saturday, April 16, 2011

Naming Ceremony for Siblings

Conducted a naming ceremony for two siblings, couple of years apart in age.

Four Godparents chosen included relatives and very good friends, and were chosen to be Godparents for both children. The challenge was to differentiate the two ceremonies in some way to make them memorable.

Consequently we had two ceremonies joined by a general introduction and a general conclusion, with two individual ceremonies in between.

Each ceremony ended with a symbolic ritual. In the first case we had the Godparents tossing rose petals at the child. In the second ceremony, the celebrant included a water ritual.

In both cases, children from the gathering were asked to come up and assist in the rituals. As almost all naming ceremonies include a large proportion of children, this was a very active and popular part of the ceremony.

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Saturday, March 19, 2011

Second Naming Ceremony in the Family

Conducted a naming ceremony yesterday. Yes, it rained, as it has most Saturdays recently. But as the ceremony took place at a home, we had shelter on a patio while the family and friends stood inside facing us.

The nice thing for me was the fact that it was a ceremony for a sibling whose ceremony I performed several years ago. So I knew many of the family members by name at least.

The challenge in a second ceremony for the same family is to make sure that it doesn't become a duplicate of the first. In particular, making sure that the certificates that I provide for the Godparents, Grandparents, and siblings, are not the same as the ones I created last time.

I must have learned a few things since conducting the Naming Ceremony for the first child, because there were comments from the participants that they hadn't done that last time.  I consider that a plus.

I do make changes in my ceremonies as I find some things work better than others. Certain elements appeal to some people and are less important, or even not important at all, to others. Most importantly, the people involved in  a ceremony vary from those who really enjoy taking a leading role in the ceremony to those who are more retiring.

The art is in taking into consideration all these things and still create a ceremony that is meaningful and memorable for those present.

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