It’s taken me far too long to realise that there was a very important element missing from this blog – the voices of the couples themselves. Graeme and Charlotte’s was the very first wedding I conducted this year, in the mists and fogs of January and it was a lovely tale of two kids who’d gone to the same school but never met until they were introduced years later by a mutual friend. They not only sent me these great photos, but they were kind enough to look back on the whole process and allow me to share their story here.
“Graeme and I knew we wanted our wedding to be both personal, and enjoyable for our guests. We have both been to a Humanist wedding before and knew that it was what we wanted for our wedding. We just had to find a celebrant! I saw Tim on the website and we arranged to meet him one Saturday morning. We felt comfortable with him straight away. We came away with ‘homework’ from our first meeting. The task was to write down 10 reasons why we wanted to marry each other, which brought out our (usually deeply hidden) soppy sides, and it was actually a fun thing to do after a glass of wine one night.”
“I then sent Tim a very long email telling him mine and Graeme’s life stories and we were able to create the ceremony together. Tim suggested lots of poem, readings and vows and we cherry picked our favourite bits and pieces. Tim incorporated a shortened version of our life stories into the introduction of the ceremony.”
“When at last the big day came, I felt happy knowing that we had created our own vows and ceremony and it eased my nerves a little knowing what we were going to say and how much the words meant to us both. During the ceremony it was lovely to be facing our guests, as we could see their reactions and also have a peek at their wedding outfits! Tim had a lovely, calm manner throughout the service and even kept our guests entertained beforehand whilst I was stuck in heavy traffic!”
“Before the wedding a lot of our friends and families thought that Humanism was all about tree hugging hippies, but afterwards many said was what a great ceremony it was, as it was so personal. We also appreciated being able to acknowledge our friends and family during the service and having them contribute by reciting a blessing to us.”
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