More Rituals for Waddings & Pledge Renewals

Below you will find a number of popular rituals that can be incorporated into your Wedding or Vow Renewal Ceremony. Or you might decide you want to create your very own ritual to be passed down through your family!

*Outlander Handfasting

* AYE DO! ORIGINAL RITUAL

The Outlander Handfasting is an original Aye Do! ritual for anyone who is a fan of the fabulous Outlander TV show. If you would like to know more, please get in touch here!

Jumping the Broom

In modern ceremonies, jumping the Broom symbolises jumping into your new life together and usually takes place outdoors and at the end of your Ceremony. This is a fun way to start your life as a married couple and you can ask some of your guests to hold the broom, or one of you can be blindfolded, while the other person guides you in jumping the broom. This demonstrates unity and trust, but also that there can be fun in the relationship.

Ring Warming Ceremony

A ring warming is when you give your guests the opportunity to hold and imbue your wedding rings with a blessing or prayer for your marriage, and is such a special way to involve all of your guests in your ceremony.

Cake & Ale

The Cake & Ale Ceremony stems from centuries ago when food and drink were an integral part of any wedding ceremony, and during the celebrations the happy couple (as well as all the guests) would share a honey mead cake and a cup of ale. In ceremonies today,  the happy couple usually take turns at feeding cake to the other and then washing it down with ale. This is a great ritual for an outdoor wedding.

Love Letters

In the Love Letter ritual, the couple each bring along a sealed love letter and during the ceremony, the letters (usually along with a nice bottle of wine or champagne!) are sealed in a box or bottle to be opened on a future date, usually an anniversary.

Sand Ceremony

The Sand Ceremony is one of the more modern rituals but is extremely popular at Weddings & Vow Renewals. Like most Wedding rituals, the symbology behind the Sand Ceremony is about unity. In a typical Sand Ceremony, a couple will have little bottles filled with sand, and each bottle will be a different colour. Then when it comes to the Sand Ceremony, the couple will each take their own bottle of coloured sand and pour it into a bigger empty bottle. The idea behind this is that once these grains of sand have come together, they can never be undone and will never be the same again…. just like when 2 people come together in marriage.

Unity Candle

A Unity Candle Ceremony is a visually beautiful and poignant way of symbolising unity, and in a traditional Unity Candle ceremony there will be 1 main unlit candle, with a lit candle either side. These lit candles symbolise each person as an individual, and then at some point in the proceedings the couple will be invited to take their individual candles and at the same time light the centre candle to demonstrate coming together as one.

Foot Washing

Foot washing can sound like a bit of strange ritual but if you’ve ever seen the film ‘Lawless’ with Shia LaBeouf you will know how electrically charged such a ritual can be! Foot washing comes from the bible when Jesus would wash the feet of beggars to show humility and selflessness. I have never been asked to incorporate this into a ceremony but it is an option for any couple who want to use it.

Time Capsule

The Time Capsule is a fun but meaningful ritual, where the couple (and family members if appropriate) put items into a time capsule to be opened at a much later date, perhaps a significant anniversary. Items range from love notes, wedding stationary, a newspaper from the day of the ceremony, wedding favours, coins, photographs and anything else that might be of value to you both. This is a really lovely ritual and there are even Time Capsule companies that will organise the whole thing for you!

More Rituals for Baby Ceremonies

The Quaich Ceremony, Handfasting and Clootie Blessing are all popular rituals for a Baby Ceremony but if none of these grab your interest, here are some others that might just do the trick….

Gift Giving

This is a really lovely way of welcoming a new baby, or including children in a Wedding Ceremony or Vow Renewal. Just recently I had a bride & groom who each had children from a previous relationship and so during their ceremony they gave each of the 3 children a watch with a few words about the personality of each of the children, and how special each of them are within the relationship. It was so gorgeous and the guests loved it!

To include it as part of a Baby Ceremony, you could ask guests to bring a small gift and then to come forward and place the gift in a box or jar and to say a few words about why they chose that gift.

Time Capsule

As above, the Time Capsule ritual is a lovely way of bringing meaning and depth to a Baby Ceremony, and allows the parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles and friends to put items into a time capsule to be opened at a much later date, perhaps a special birthday. Items range from notes, letters, gifts, money, a newspaper from the day the baby was born, photographs and anything else that might be of value to you as a family. This is a really lovely ritual and there are even Time Capsule companies that will organise the whole thing for you!