Creating The Ceremony

Our wedding was far from traditional and full of DIY's but none were more challenging than writing our ceremony.

We opted to have my younger sister officiate, and looked into all the possible ways she could become a wedding officiant online, but where we got married (Nova Scotia), none of those online ordinations are recognized.

Still, we didn't want to give up on her officiating so we hired a Justice of the Peace to perform the legal ceremony the morning of the wedding and then have J-Dar (my sister's well loved nickname) perform the ceremony for our family and friends.

Courtesy of our lovely photographer, Samantha

We wanted to keep the morning legalities as low-key and unauthentic as possible, so not to tarnish the actual wedding for everyone (including us). Jay & I, along with the Best Man & Maid of Honour were the only people there for the ceremony in Jay's hotel room. No photos, no fancy clothes, just us making it legal.

For the real ceremony, since we were having my sister officiate we had to create our own ceremony basically from scratch.

We scoured the internet for ideas but eventually had to revert back to using a good old fashion book to build the ceremony from. This book was the best resource I found, it has information about all kinds of different ceremonies, traditional and more modern so we picked from a variety of ceremony styles and then edited and re-wrote parts to create one perfect for us! 

We opted to include a blessing from our guests, a reading by Jay's sister (Captain Corelli's Mandolin) and to write our own vows. The whole ceremony was about 15 minutes long and much to the dismay of my button bouquet, it was the part of the wedding that people complimented the most.

Courtesy of our lovely photographer, Samantha

Having my sister officiate and his sister do a reading meant so much to Jay and I. It was important to us to have our siblings involved and took the stress out of the day, knowing that the people who knew us best were the ones responsible for getting us hitched! 

For us, writing the ceremony and having my sister officiate was the right choice. I don't begrudge anyone for making a different choice. I understand other couples chose churches, spiritual leaders or non-denominational officiants because the lovely thing about weddings is they are yours, and yours alone. Researching for our wedding allowed me to peek inside so many weddings and it is amazing how personal each one is!

Linking up for Wedding Wednesday with Meredith from Belle In Boots and Mary from a Little Bit Of Class, Little Bit Of Sass!  

Keep Smiling :)