That is how the traditional ceremony is intoned:
We gather together here to join this man and this woman in the bonds of holy matrimony…
So how do you plan a wedding where you can truly join with the couple as they celebrate binding their lives together? Let’s plan a theme wedding that involves celebrating the couple and how their guests can do that.
Invitations
For starters, the invitations can be printed up from a computer. Choose a picture of the couple together or two pictures of each of them. The invitation may offer a small tale about how they met and what drew them to each other. Imagine that the invitation is the blurb on the back of a book, it is an invitation that should make you want to see what happens in the next chapter.
Engagement Party
The engagement party should invite members from both families to share stories of knowing the couple. Moms can tell tales of when they were young. Fathers can share what it was like to watch them grow from children to adults. Siblings can share funny memories and current observations. Friends can talk of knowing them separately and together – it’s amazing how much we think of the people we know and what we know of them.
The Wedding Ceremony
The ceremony should allow the family and friends to stand in a loose circle or arrayed along with the couple. They can do the readings, the singing and even promise to join in helping the man and woman to meet the challenges of life together. They may even be a part of the exchanging of vows – promising to love, protect and cherish the couple as a unit as they have as individuals.
The Reception
The reception should be a real party, celebrating the marriage and the union of family and friends in the cause of the marriage. Toasts may reflect the engagement party in celebrating the couple. One nice way to do so is to stand in a circle during a toasting with the couple in the center, one by one, each guest is allowed to say a few words in toast – whether it is a story, a memory or just a honorarium of the couple.
This type of wedding offers the unique experience of really involving everyone you know from the minister to the family to the friends. They share your happiness, your joy and the beginning of the next chapter of your lives while committing to be a part of that chapter and all the ones to follow.