Uniquely
Personal (Bespoke) Wedding Ceremonies
A bespoke Wedding Ceremony is a uniquely personal richly
symbolic ceremony that is created to your personal
specifications in much the same way as a couture wedding
gown is created. It requires a great deal of skill,
detailed preparation, staging, and rehearsal to ensure
that the ceremony flows smoothly on the day and that the
visual record of the ceremony (both still photographs
and videos) is magical.
A bespoke ceremony involves your guests and builds the
emotions to the kiss after the declaration of marriage.
Each ceremony is different because I custom-create the
ceremony to reflect your personalities, your style, your
wishes and your circumstances, and because it includes
elements that add richness and meaning that is relevant
to the two of you and your story.
A bespoke ceremony can include rituals that offer an
opportunity to give visual expression to an important
part of the ceremony.
Rituals are
symbolic ceremonial elements that incorporate acts highlighting some aspect of your
intention for your future. Such rituals may
add cultural and or symbolic touches meaningful in the
context of your individual or shared heritage and
are often referred to as “ceremonies”, as in
“ring ceremony”. As with the rest of the
ceremony I develop each ritual to reflect
it's meaning for you and to ensure it is a fabulous
part of your ceremony, an integral part of the whole.
I do not use standard wording copied from websites or
other celebrants, so the ritual does not include
unfortunate stereotyping or make assumptions about
what is proper for your relationship.
The exchange of
rings is the most common ritual used in marriage
ceremonies, but there are many other romantic rituals,
using flowers, pebbles, candles, ribbons, wine and
other symbols including
Many cultures have symbolic rituals which
are a feature of their wedding ceremonies. If you
have a particular cultural heritage such rituals can be
included in your civil ceremony.
A bespoke ceremony may also include a reading or two
of your choice. While readings are a mechanism by
which more people can actively participate in your
ceremony and can bring a change of pace, inject the
words of an "expert", or express many-faceted
sentiments and ideas very succinctly (particularly true
of poetry), they can also be used as fillers to
save the celebrant the effort of writing. I advise
limiting the number and length of readings because they
can feel like an interruption to the ceremony. The
number of readings should be limited as there is the
potential to destroy the personal nature of the
ceremony.