Wedding Fridays | Our Officiant & Ceremony Thoughts
Craig and I have booked another vendor for our wedding this October! We met with Pastor Kris Weiss last week over coffee to discuss his officiant services. Kris Weiss was actually the officiant for my friend, Jen’s wedding and did such a good job. I really enjoyed their ceremony and thought that it was very personal and sweet.
Craig and I don’t belong to a church and really don’t go to church regularly so it was helpful to have a good referral on a great pastor. When we meet with him, he had an outline of the ceremony as well as talked about his now going on 22 years marriage and four children. He was very nice and listened when I mentioned that I didn’t want the typical 1 Corinthians 13: 4-8 wedding ceremony. It is a very nice bible passage but just not very Craig and I, not that we aren’t patient and kind to one another. ;) Since we aren’t very religious (sorry to my catholic grandma, love you!) and we aren’t very lovey dovey either, I more want the ceremony to be about our commitment to one another and our vow to work on our marriage every day for the rest of our lives. To be honest, my parents divorced when I was 7 years old and I have never been sold on the “love will keep us together” and “all you need is love” mantra. (Although I do love me some Beatles!) I want our ceremony to reflect this feeling and I also think that it needs to be taken serious. As much as I want to have one of our vows be, “through NY Giants wins and NY Giants losses” and we are a fun, jokes a lot couple, I still believe that marriage is a serious commitment. Have fun at the reception but truly mean and live the words you say or repeat at your wedding ceremony. I found this quote below and it actually hits it dead on about how I feel, although the beginning might be a bit odd for a wedding ceremony, I love this quote.
I am thinking of having Craig’s brother read this reading during our wedding ceremony instead of one of the bible passages that Pastor Kris Weiss had in his ceremony outline. I would actually like to replace both bible passages with readings from classical literature that fit this “theme.” Soon after getting engaged, my stepmom asked me what our theme for our wedding ceremony would be (leave it to the English major). ;) I though it strange at first but the more I thought about it the more a theme started to develop for our wedding ceremony. There is still lots to be decided and thought about our wedding ceremony but this is the direction I am headed right now and Craig really agrees with me too. We decide to book Pastor Kris Weiss and are excited to have him be an important part of our wedding day. Question for you: did you have a “theme” for your wedding ceremony? What was it? I love comments!
image credits: Sweet Life Photo | Janine Rae Design
3 Responses to “Wedding Fridays | Our Officiant & Ceremony Thoughts”
Jason and my theme was purely personal. It was all about us and our journey. My uncle (the pastor) had a lot of bible verses. Too many even for me. But the little stories or him babysitting me when I was a baby, mine and Jason’s camping trip disaster, living two houses away, how we got engaged, and even our premarital classes were all brought up. It made the ceremony unique to us. It wasn’t a ceremony that anyone could have.
My advice is to have it be unique to you guys. Tell those little stories about the two of you. Mention habits that you guys have. I love that you would bring in funny things like the Giants. I like how completely honest you are being with yourself about marriage. It is HARD WORK. It isn’t ‘love will keep us alive’ all the time. It’s ‘I hate that he does that’ or ‘how can I change that.’ Of course there are those many wonderful things that you love, but it is a struggle. Daily.
I found that during our ceremony I was so concentrated on repeating what the pastor said that I didn’t really know what I was saying. It wasn’t until the video that I realized what we said to one another.
My most important ceremony advice. . . pay the extra to have a VIDEOGRAPHER. Best thing we did. Even if it is a family member or friend. Get the video.
Hope it helps.
I don’t know that Adam and I ever had a theme to our ceremony. We have a wedding theme overall, but no “exact” ceremony theme. I believe when we were thinking about our ceremony we just wanted something simple, traditional, and timeless. We stuck with the typical verses stated in weddings, aka corinthians. However, we did do the Ecclestiasis *I don’t even know if I spelled either of those right haha* verse. I had never heard that verse until we sat down with our pastor, but when I read it I loved it!
I think it’s cool that you and Craig want to have a theme. I especially think it’s cool that you are wanting to use that quote. There is so much truth behind it. It is very deep, meaningful, and special to you guys-which makes it that much more awesome.
I think that no matter what you two choose as a theme (or even if you don’t designate one) your ceremony will be very special and emotional. I will cry. just so you know. haha.
Thanks Amanda. That is good advice. I do want our ceremony to be personal to Craig and I and I think you are right that if it means having a joke about the Giants that would be great. I really do want a videographer because I agree that the day will fly by and I won’t remember the details. Hope we can fit one in with our budget!