Before the Wedding – The Magic of Your Day
You’re getting married! You’re about to create a major signpost on the map of your life. Perhaps you’ve known each other for years and friendship paved the way for your commitment. Perhaps you met by chance and what followed was a whirlwind romance. However destiny brought you together, your love story has the power to change the world.
It’s the stories of couples falling in love that led me to my work as an officiant. When my first romance novel was published, I never dreamed I would someday bring “Happily Ever After” to life. And yet it feels only natural to incorporate a love story into a wedding ceremony. After all, your love story is the heart of your ceremony! Your story not only affirms the unique quality of your relationship, it provides a prelude for the vows you will make to each other. And it just might provide a gentle blueprint for those guests who want to be married but aren’t. Now that’s a wedding gift you can give to them!
“I had so many guests come up to my husband and I afterwards and tell us that they had never been to a wedding like ours. It was so heartfelt and people got to hear our love story. Zita beautifully and eloquently spoke about how we met and included different wedding rituals that were important to us. Friends of ours that have been together for 37 years came up to me after the wedding and said Zita has made them consider getting married!” (Angela and John)
In a handfasting ritual, the couple literally ties the knot.
Let me write your love story and weave it into a ceremony that will engage your guests. If you’re open to creative ideas, there’s a whole world of possibilities beyond “Dearly Beloved.” You might include a ritual based on the magical properties of trees or herbs, or the meaning in seashells, cultural myths and fairy tales, a passage from Shakespeare or Dr. Seuss, a poem about dogs, song lyrics about the moon. You might incorporate a ribbon or a rope, a wine glass or a beer stein, sea glass or dragons.
“The ceremony was something I just thought we had to get through until the partying, but Zita made it very special and romantic.” (Jessie and Chris)
In the end, ceremony doesn’t have to be religious to be spiritual. It doesn’t have to be traditional to be meaningful. It doesn’t have to be long to be memorable. But the memories you make that day do need to last a lifetime. I’d be honored to help you do just that.
Legally Married Before the Wedding Celebration
For a variety of reasons, some couples elope or meet with an officiant or JP at a town hall and get married with plans for a wedding ceremony in the future. If that’s your situation, think of your wedding as having two parts: the legalities and the celebration. A good officiant will work with you to craft the celebration so that it doesn’t lose a bit of the traditional wedding day enchantment and joy.
After the Wedding – The Magic of Your Life
Newlyweds Doug & Mikolaj celebrate their first Christmas
You want the magic of your wedding day to be part of every day. I’m not talking about the experiences created by your flowers, music, food and all the other elements that combined to create those hours of enchantment. I’m talking about the inner magic that transformed you as you journeyed through one of life’s greatest rites of passage. Ritual can deepen that magic.
There are rituals you can do on a daily basis, rituals to incorporate in holiday traditions, rituals to help, to heal, to celebrate, to mourn. I’ve had years of experience as a ritualist and have designed rituals for individuals, couples, families, and groups of 500. I created a ritual for an artist dedicating her new studio, a ritual for an interfaith celebration of the winter holidays, and a ritual for a young family traumatized by the Boston Marathon bombing. Rituals connect us to the ancient, the universal, and the deeply personal.
You’ll find information about my ritual work in two places here on the website. The blog Ritual Writer came first. In early 2018, I launched Ritual Recipes – a podcast that offers both simple and ceremonial rituals to mark the moments and the milestones of life. The podcast has its own page here on the website. You can listen to the show on Apple Podcasts (iTunes). For Android users, here’s the link to the show on Stitcher.
To talk about how I can create a wedding ceremony around your love story, or if you want to know more about Ritual Recipes, please call me at 860-402-4231 or email me at Zita@MoonRiverRituals.com
