Coromandel Celebrant

The Joy of United Families

Mon, 12 Aug 2019 07:45:00 +0000

I have been honoured to conduct wedding ceremonies for the most loving couples who have found each other and know that they want to share their lives together.

I like to include the family members in the ceremony, by asking them if they will support the wedding couple in the years ahead, through all the inevitable ups and downs of life. Always there is a happy acclamation of :"YES!"

Readings and Poetry

Tue, 02 Aug 2016 04:55:00 +0000

Why have readings and poetry during a wedding ceremony?

Firstly, its a way of honouring special friends and family by asking them to contribute to your ceremony.

And secondly, it is a way of elevating the your wedding ceremony into a higher realm, out of the ordinaryness of everyday life.

Thirdly, the choice of readings or poems expresses your own values and meanings you wish to add into the ceremony.

The journey of delving into the world's literature to find just the right reading for your unique ceremony is an inspiring process in itself.

Sonnet 69, by Pablo Neruda

Maybe nothingness is to be without your presence,

without you moving, slicing the noon

like a blue flower, without you walking

later through the fog and the cobbles,

without the light you carry in your hand,

golden, which maybe others will not see,

which maybe no one knew was growing

like the red beginnings of a rose.

In short, without your presence: without your coming

suddenly, incitingly, to know my life,

gust of a rosebush, wheat of wind:

since then I am because you are,

since then you are, I am,we are,

and through love I will be, you will be, we'll be.

Your Wedding Vows

Sat, 31 Jan 2015 06:05:00 +0000

There are the traditional vows and modern vows, all variations on the theme of promising and pledging your love to each other.

The traditional:

I _____, take you ______, to be my wedded wife/husband. To have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness or in health, to love and to cherish 'till death do us part. And hereto I pledge you my faithfulness.

or contemporary:

You are my best friend. I love you with all my heart and stand here before all of our friends and family, sharing the happiest day of my life. I want nothing more than to share my future with you – my triumphs and my challenges, my joys and my sorrows. Together, I know we can accomplish the life we both dream of living.

And there are many different ways of how you can express your vows and personalise your wedding ceremony. As long as they are from your heart and true to what you feel and believe.

Usually the couple say the same vows to each other that they have worked out together.

You have to say your full names which is a legal requirement. After the " I _ take you ___" , you can use your nicknames or informal names.

Your wedding vows are the most intimate, important and sacred part of the wedding ceremony.

Diversity

Wed, 21 Jan 2015 11:10:00 +0000

This Summer I have had the absolute privilege of solemnising the marriages of three very different couples. Human love is the most beautiful thing in the world, and such joy and confidence is radiated when two people decide to commit and pledge their lives to each other.

But it is also about celebration of their love with their whanau and their closest friends. During the ceremony, before the vows, at the stage called "The Asking", I ask the assembled gathering to express their support for the couple, " Who here will lovingly support X__ & Y__ as they journey ahead together as partners in life?" and everyone shouts out, "We will!".

It is one of the special moments in the ceremony that binds everyone together with aroha.