WEDDING BLESSINGS

A Beautiful Start to Married Life

What better way to start your married life than to have your wedding blessed by God, surrounded by your family and friends in a ceremony that reflects your beliefs, with words and music that make your heart sing!

An Interfaith wedding blessing enables you to have a ceremony that is entirely personal to you and is full of moments that encapsulate your love for one another.

It’s really a wedding ceremony that you’ve designed yourself. (You come up with the ideas and I create it for you.) We call it a blessing simply because of the legalities. In Scotland Interfaith Ministers are allowed to marry people and so they don’t use the word ‘blessing’ but the ceremonies are the same.

What will the Ceremony Look Like?

Although every wedding blessing is unique, this is the structure most couples use:

• Vow taking
• Exchange of rings
• Address
• Readings/poetry
• Prayers and blessings

If you are your partner are of different faiths I can incorporate elements from both; if you’d like a ceremony that’s more spiritual than religious in content that’s not a problem; if you’re not sure exactly what you believe, the ceremony doesn’t have to be either overtly religious or spiritual; if you’ve been married before then we can ensure the wording is entirely appropriate to your circumstances.

We’ll work together to make sure the ceremony is exactly right for you. It’s a beautiful process.

Your Vows

The vow taking lies at the heart of any wedding ceremony.

You create these over a period of time, so you’re able to reflect on exactly what you want to say. This process alone can be a very profound experience and really helpful in opening a discussion with your partner on what you wish to commit to.

You can, of course, choose to speak vows that someone else has written but even so it’s important to choose ones that resonate with you.

How is the Ceremony Created?

We’ll take as much time as is necessary to create your wedding blessing so you can be sure you’ll end up with exactly what you want.

• We’ll meet a number of times so that I can understand what you believe in, the style of ceremony you’re looking for, your taste in words and music, and of course what you love about one another.
• I’ll guide you in writing your vows or finding ones that are right for you and if you need ideas for poetry and music I’ve books you can borrow.
• I’ll write prayers, blessings and an address appropriate to your beliefs and then provide you with drafts of the ceremony until you’re entirely happy.
• Then finally we’ll have a rehearsal before the day itself.

Some Practicalities

If you live in England you will need to have a civil ceremony in addition to the wedding blessing for your marriage to be legally binding. The civil ceremony can be paired down to an absolute minimum though and take just a few minutes.

If you’d like a wedding blessing these are the options available to you:

• Have the blessing in a registered venue in place of the civil ceremony and sign the register at the register office another time – in the morning or on the day or week before.
• Have the blessing in a non-registered venue - you’re free to choose anywhere you want, indoors or out and sign the register another time.
• If you're using a registered venue you may be able to have both the civil ceremony and wedding blessing there with one following the other but you need to check this out with both the venue and the Registrar.

Listen to me Speaking

Love - 1 Corinthians Ch 13 (Click here to listen)

Receive a Sample Ceremony?

If you’d like me to send you a sample ceremony so you can get an idea of what an Interfaith wedding blessing looks like just give me a ring or e-mail me.