Heartland Signature Ceremonies
Independent Ohio Wedding Officiant and Ceremony Coordinator
Rituals
Hand Ceremony
These are the hands that will passionately love you and cherish you through the years, for a lifetime of happiness.
These are the hands that will countless times wipe the tears from your eyes: tears of sorrow and tears of joy.
These are the hands that will comfort you in illness, and hold you when fear or grief fill you.
These are the hands that will give you support and celebrate with you in your accomplishments.
Groom, please hold Bride's hands, palms up, where you may see the gift that they are to you.
These are the hands that will hold you tight as you struggle through difficult times.
They are the hands that will comfort you when you are sick or console you when you are grieving.
These are the hands that will passionately love you and cherish you through the years, for a lifetime of happiness.
These are the hands that will give you support as she encourages you to fulfill your dreams.
Together, as a team, everything you wish for can be realized.
And so we ask God ...
Please bless these hands that you see before you this day.
May they always be held by one another.
Give them the strength to hold on during the storms of stress and the darkness of disillusionment.
Keep them tender and gentle as they nurture each other in their wondrous love.
Help these hands to continue building a relationship founded in your grace,
Rich in caring, and devoted in reaching for your perfection.
May Groom and Bride see their four hands as healer, protector,shelter and guide.
We render this prayer in Jesus' name, Amen.
Hand Ceremony
(slightly revised)
I ask you to heed the following quote from Shakespeare, "Now join your hands, and with your hand’s your hearts."
These are the hands of your best friend. They are holding yours on your wedding day as you promise to love each other today, tomorrow and forever.
These are the hands that will work alongside yours as together you build your future.
These are the hands that will passionately love you and cherish you through the years, and with the slightest touch will comfort you like no other.
These are the hands that will hold you when fear or grief wracks your mind.
These are the hands that will give you strength when you need it.
May these hands always reach out with love, tenderness and respect.
May these hands continue to build a loving relationship that lasts a lifetime.
God bless the union of these two hearts, two lives, and two souls.
Officiant: This "Cup of Life" is symbolic of the pledges you have made to one another to share together the fullness of life. As you drink from this cup, you acknowledge to one another that your lives, until this moment separate, have become one. Drink now, and may the cup of your lives be sweet and full to running over."
Officiant hands chalice (goblet) to groom saying, "May you drink your fill from the cup of life and love"
Groom holds chalice(goblet) to bride while she sips then bride takes chalice (goblet) and holds it to groom while he sips.
The chalice is then handed back to the Officiant who sets it on the table.
Officiant: As you have shared this cup of wine, so may you share your lives. May all the sweetness that it holds for you be the sweeter because you taste it together. May you find life’s joys heightened, it’s bitterness sweetened, and all of life enriched
May God’s blessings be upon you.
Wine Ceremony 2
The years of our lives are as a cup of wine, poured out for us to drink. As grapes when they are pressed give forth their juices for the wine, so under the wine press of time, our lives give forth their labor, their honor, their love.
Groom and Bride, often in the days to come you will sit at the same table and break bread together. Drink now, and may the cup of your lives be sweet and full to running over.
As you have shared from this one cup of wine, so may you draw contentment, comfort, and delight from the cup of life. May you find life's joys heightened, its bitterness sweetened, and all things hallowed, by your companionship and love.
Honey Ceremony
Officiant:
Honey is a symbol of the sweetness in life. And so, with this dish of honey, we proclaim this day as a day of great joy and celebration, a sweet day to remember.
Groom dips his pinky finger into the honey and touches the bride's tongue.
Bride dips her pinky finger into the honey and touches the grooms tongue.
Officiant:
As together you now share this honey, so may you now share perfect love and devotion to each other, share your lives together, and thereby may you find life's joys doubly gladdened, it's bitterness sweetened, and all things hallowed by time, companionship and love.
Family Rose Ceremony
*The Rose Gift is usually placed near the beginning of the ceremony, just after the officiant's welcoming statements and introduction to the ceremony.
Officiant: This ceremony is also a celebration of family. It is the blending of two families, separate up to this moment, but united from this day forward -- blending their different traditions, strengthening the family tree. Parents plant so that their children may harvest.
Groom and Bride wish to honor this blending of the families by presenting a rose to their mothers -- to thank their parents for the many selfless sacrifices they have made and for their unconditional love so freely given to their children.
Bride & Groom exchange hugs with her parents and present a rose to her mother.
Bride & Groom exchange hugs with his parents and present a rose to his mother.
Couple's Rose Ceremony
*This Rose Ceremony is usually placed near the end of the ceremony, just before you are pronounced husband and wife.
Officiant: In the elegant language of flowers, red roses are a symbol of love, and the giving of a single red rose is a clear and unmistakable way of saying the words "I love you." For this reason it is fitting that the first gift you exchange as husband and wife be the gift of a single red rose.
Groom takes one of the roses and presents it to the Bride, saying:
[Bride], take this rose as a symbol of my love. It began as a tiny bud and blossomed, just as my love has blossomed and grown for you.
Bride takes the other rose and presents it to the Groom, saying...
[Groom], take this rose as a symbol of my love. Once closed so tightly, it opened to the warmth of the sun, just as my heart has opened to the warmth of your kindness.
Officiant: [Groom] and [Bride], in remembrance of this day, I would ask as a reaffirmation of your love and of the vows you have spoken here today that you give each other a single red rose each year on your anniversary.
In every marriage there are times when it is difficult to find the right words. So, I would also ask that wherever you may make your home, that you choose a special spot. And at those times when words fail, that you leave a red rose at that spot you have both selected -- a rose that will say what matters more than all other words..."I love you."
Sand Ceremony
(appropriate for a lake or beach wedding)
The bride and groom select two different colors of sand and pour the sand from the two separate containers into one central container.
OFFICIANT: We are all made up of millions of molecules, facets, points of view, experiences, desires, hopes and dreams. Our very beings are as vast as a beach that stretches on forever, our makeup as complex and complete as the many tiny particles of sand that when joined together make the beach such a stunning sight. In the modern tradition of the sand ceremony, a couple acknowledges their individuality, and their desire to merge their lives in marriage, by pouring two separate containers of different colored sand into one empty vessel. This symbolically unites the many aspects of their individual selves, and also brings together the families that are united by marriage.
TO THE COUPLE: You come to this day as individuals, whole and complete unto yourselves. Bringing the many tiny aspects that represent the two of you together into one vessel represents a joint venture that is a stronger, fuller, more powerful _expression of your love. These two containers of sand represent the two of you, as well as your families and your ancestors, the source of who you are. These two distinct containers represent your lives up until now.
The couple pours the sand simultaneously (or back and forth), and when they are finished the officiant says: Your newly formed unit is represented by the intertwined pattern of sand you have created together. It represents all that you both are, all that you both bring to your marriage, and all that you will become together. May this union be blessed in all ways.
Unity Candle Ceremony 1
Today you have decided to share the rest of your lives with each other.
This beautiful union is now symbolized by the lighting of the Unity Candle. .
The individual candles represent all that you are and all that you have been until this moment
The life that each of you experienced now, individually, will hereafter be united, for the two shall become one.
Both candles must now come together to create this new light of unity.
Bride and Groom, please light the center candle to symbolize the union of your lives.
Love is like this flame; constantly changing, yet radiant for all to see.
Today, as you have lit this candle, we ask that the brightness of the flame shine throughout your lives together.
May the twinkle of this one light be a testimony to your union.
May this candle burn brightly as a symbol of your love and union to each other.
Unity Candle Ceremony 2
(to be placed after vows and ring exchange)
Bride and Groom, you have sealed marriage covenant with your vows and the exchange of rings.
Remmber tha human love is not a substitute for Divine love but an extension of it.
When people love one another with devotion and freedom
They kindle one another’s divine light.
Promise to always do your best to see that light in each other,
Especially at the times it may be hardest to do
Or when one of you may doubt or forget
The existence of that light within yourself.
Bride and Groom,
These candles before you represent you as individuals.
As you light them and bring them together
Into the Divine light of unity you symbolically enter the sacred trust
To honor the divine in one another
And to recognize the single brighter light
That now goes forth from your joining.
Please step forward now and join your individual lights
Into the light of unity.
May your union be forever blessed.
Unity Candle Ceremony 3
For every human there is a light that rises out of us. When two souls unite their light flows together and forms a single, brighter light. Human light is an extension of spiritual light.
Bride and Groom, when you look at one another see the divine beings that you are, never cease to wonder and be amazed at the power and purpose of love.
In committing to one another you kindle one another’s light and you spark the divine within them. Nurture and tend to that flame in your partner and never forget the existence of light within yourselves.
Bride, take this candle now and light it from the center candle representing the Divine Source. As you do so, symbolically enter the sacred trust to honor the divine in Groom.
Groom, take this candle now and light it from the center candle representing the Divine Source. As you do so, symbolically enter the sacred trust to honor the divine in Bride
Now bring your flames together, symbolizing the new and greater flames of your marriage, and recognize that just as your union is now made stronger by your strength , you as individuals are also strengthened by the union.
(Candles are then returned to holders)
Unity Candle Ceremony 4
Bride and Groom,
The Unity Candle is a symbol of your union and the divine light that reaches to heaven.
The candles from which you light it represent each of you in the fullness of your individuality,
your experiences, trials, tribulations, happinesses, and joys that make you each who you are
as you stand before one another and before God.
You thus come as individuals who do not lose your identity but rather create
through your commitment and your relationship, this blessed union.
By lighting the unity candle you both allow your individual lights to flow together and join with the Divine,
thereby creating an even brighter light that goes forth from this arrangement....
a Divine light that blesses you with the comfort and realization that through the joining of your lives,
you also share in attaining the goals and dreams that you would not realize, one without the other.
Please step forward now and join your lights, as represented by these individual candles,
together now into the light of unity.
(Couple steps forward and lights the unity candle. They may leave tapers burning or extinguish them.
Taper candles are returned to their holders.)
This candle of unity represents your lives, joined as one...Bride, Groom, ... May you be blessed by this arrangement.
Handfasting
*I've assembled this custom handfasting ritual from various components and my own creative writing. It incorporates the colors that represent the elements and the properties they imbue. It creates a most beautiful and meaningful presentation when incorporated within any spiritually based ceremony.
You have chosen to incorporate the ancient ritual of handfasting into your ceremony today. It is the Celtic tradition of binding two people in love together. It symbolically honors the binding of your lives and your destinies.
As part of this handfasting, it is customary to invoke the energies of the four cardinal directions and their natural elements to create a sacred circle into which you are joined.With full awareness, know that within this circle you are not only declaring your intent to be handfasted and wed before your friends and family, but you speak that intent to your creative higher powers.The promises made today and the ties that are bound here greatly strengthen your union and will cross the years and lives of each soul’s growth.
Do you still seek to enter this ceremony?
Yes
And so it is we come together in the creation of this sacred circle. As we do so we ask the One Living Spirit, the omnipresent God, to guide us in this work, to bless these rites and this union.
Grant Bride and Groom harmony and beauty in their lives and let them ever be mindful of this commitment to one another.
Each of these blessings from the four cardinal directions emphasizes that which will help you build a happy and successful union.
Invocation (includes significance of ribbon colors)
Blessed be this union with the gifts of the East and the element of Air, as represented by the yellow ribbon -
for openness and breath, communication of the heart,
and purity of the mind and body.
From the east you receive the gift of a new beginning
with the rising of each Sun, and the understanding
that each day is a new opportunity for growth.
Blessed be this union with the gifts of the South and the element of fire, as represented by the red ribbon -
for energy, passion, creativity and the warmth of a loving home.
From the fire within you generate light, which you will share
with one another in even the darkest of times.
Blessed be this union with the gifts of the West, and the element of water, as represented by the black ribbon -
for your capacity to feel emotion.
In marriage you offer absolute trust to one another,
and vow to keep your hearts open in sorrow as well as joy.
Blessed be this union with the gifts of the North, the element of earth, as represented by the white ribbon -
which provides sustenance, fertility and security.
The earth will feed and enrich you, and help you to build a stable home
to which you may always return
Bride and Groom, the Infinity Symbol has no beginning or end, it represents infinite possibility, balance and harmony, and love that will go on forever
Please join your right palms, and then your left palms to form the infinity symbol and as you do, join your hearts as well. I bid you now, look in one another’s eyes.
Will you honor and respect one another, and seek to never break that honor?
We will
[first (yellow) cord is draped over the couples' hands]
And so the first binding is made.
Will you share each other's pain and seek to ease it?
We will
[second (black)cord is draped over the hands]
And so the binding is made
Will you share the burdens of each so that your spirits may grow in this union?
We will
[third (white) cord is draped over the couples' hands]
And so the binding is made.
Will you share each other's laughter, and look for the brightness in life and the positive in each other?
We will.
[fourth (red) cord is draped over the couples' hands]
And so the binding is made
Bride and Groom, as your hands are bound together now, so your lives and spirits are joined in a union of love and trust. However, know that the knots of this binding are not formed by these cords but instead by your vow s.
You may drop the cords now, for as always, you hold in your own hands the making or breaking of this union.
(Drop cords into basket)
