And Now, a Pagan Handfasting!

Another day, another one-of-a-kind ceremony. Yesterday was the Pagan Handfasting Ceremony for a couple who had gotten legally married the year before in another part of the country and who wanted to do it up in style in their hometown on their one-year anniversary.
The bride is very practiced in the ways of ceremony – a veritable mistress/master. So for her day, she selected a smorgasbord of rituals – everything from her guests calling in the directions (a standard Pagan ritual), to a six-cord handfasting (for those of you who are unfamiliar, the couple is – temporarily – bound together with cords, as the origin of the phrase “tying the knot”), to personalized vows for the exchange of rings, to drinking out of a chalice as part of the wedding ceremony.
Because the couple was so grounded in their beliefs and true to themselves, it was remarkable for me to be with them in the intimate space of the inner circle (the outer circle was about 75 guests) as they recited their vows. What love and honesty. And again, they did it their own way, which is the only way to do it, in my way of thinking. Not a guest among them will forget the day, which also later included Sacred Circle Dancing and Fire Pit Jumping, followed by an al fresco meal in the nearby apple orchard. A day to remember!

A Beautiful Wedding

The wedding I officiated yesterday was AMAZING. The ceremony consisted only of the couple, the blended family of their 5 children and 2 witnesses, all on a gorgeous summer morning overlooking their rolling farmland in the Gatineau Hills. Honestly, you couldn’t ask for a more perfect setting in which to get married.
It was a simple ceremony, incorporating her Earth-Honouring spirituality, his Chinese background and their new family unit. We had music they chose, one of the older kids helped me with the opening and when it was time, the couple read vows they had hand-picked and had me edit to fit their beliefs. It was so intimate and so special. After the couple’s vows, each of them then took vows for each of their new step-children and gave them a necklace as a token of their new parenthood. The ceremony ended with them dancing as a family to a song they all loved and then going off to a family picnic.
The best thing for me was that the whole ceremony was exactly true to who they are – all the words, all the actions, the setting, everything fitted the very fibre of the participants. Nothing contrived and everything authentic and wonderous. How fun this is!