Below is Maia’s description of what went into planning her wedding ceremony to Liz.
My Grandfather was a full-blood Cherokee Medicine Man. Liz is Irish/Scottish. We are both practicing pagans/wiccans. This is how we created the ceremony. I walked down aisle to bagpipes. The whole ceremony was designed around our heritage and beliefs.
Our colors were royals, Emerald, Sapphire, Ruby and Amethyst. Our daughter Sarra was my Maid of Honor. She wore the Sapphire. My Matron of Honor wore the Ruby and our granddaughter (the Flower Girl) wore the Amethyst. To tie this in to the reception, each table was set with a different set of colors, one color per table.
We designed our own ceremony, which we gave to our officite. I HIGHLY recommend that couples be extremely careful with their officiate in making sure s/he completely understand everything. Our lovely lady called portions of our ceremony "seltic padgen" as opposed to "keltik pagan." We also found out during the ceremony that she had no idea how to do a smudging and she almost set me on fire. Both issues were moments of comic relief but I suggest that couples be very clear with their officiate.
Our vows: Liz wrote hers about a week before the wedding, I wrote mine the night before. The last ones are in Irish Gaelic and we did not share the meaning of these with anyone, but you could easily have it translated.
I made our program a tri-fold on antiqued papers, and the ushers handed them out as guests entered. It was a very formal, black tie event. We chose the chapel for a couple of reasons: 1) it only holds 160 and we were expecting about 100 so this made it an intimate ceremony, and 2) the stained glass windows are of Knights, not Saints, so it appeased our pagan ceremony desires. It also had a bell that could be rung. We had our ushers coordinate so that the bell rang 3 times (the pagan rule of 3) while we breathed each other in and kissed.
For the reception: I printed out photos and histories of various Irish castles and we put 1 on each table in acrylic frames. We then seated people to a castle that we felt was appropriate to their personality. The seating cards were skeleton keys. Each guest got a key with their name and on the back was the name of "their" castle. At the table, each place was marked with a bag of chocolate rocks which had their names attached.
I have since become a certified wedding planner specializing in gay/lesbian ceremonies. I did this because I found no resources as I was planning my own (an 18 month process!) and became frustrated. If it would help, let people know that I would love to help them plan their dream ceremony - completely working within their budget. I managed to have a $50,000 wedding for less than $20,000 but it takes time and planning. Some people want simplicity, others want fairy tales. It's all good. :)
Liz and Maia just got back from a two day cruise from SF to Vancouver, two days in Vancouver and Amtrak back to Oakland on the Gay/Lesbian oriented WanderLust Travel based in Oakland—which they highly recommend.
My Grandfather was a full-blood Cherokee Medicine Man. Liz is Irish/Scottish. We are both practicing pagans/wiccans. This is how we created the ceremony. I walked down aisle to bagpipes. The whole ceremony was designed around our heritage and beliefs.
Our colors were royals, Emerald, Sapphire, Ruby and Amethyst. Our daughter Sarra was my Maid of Honor. She wore the Sapphire. My Matron of Honor wore the Ruby and our granddaughter (the Flower Girl) wore the Amethyst. To tie this in to the reception, each table was set with a different set of colors, one color per table.
We designed our own ceremony, which we gave to our officite. I HIGHLY recommend that couples be extremely careful with their officiate in making sure s/he completely understand everything. Our lovely lady called portions of our ceremony "seltic padgen" as opposed to "keltik pagan." We also found out during the ceremony that she had no idea how to do a smudging and she almost set me on fire. Both issues were moments of comic relief but I suggest that couples be very clear with their officiate.
Our vows: Liz wrote hers about a week before the wedding, I wrote mine the night before. The last ones are in Irish Gaelic and we did not share the meaning of these with anyone, but you could easily have it translated.
I made our program a tri-fold on antiqued papers, and the ushers handed them out as guests entered. It was a very formal, black tie event. We chose the chapel for a couple of reasons: 1) it only holds 160 and we were expecting about 100 so this made it an intimate ceremony, and 2) the stained glass windows are of Knights, not Saints, so it appeased our pagan ceremony desires. It also had a bell that could be rung. We had our ushers coordinate so that the bell rang 3 times (the pagan rule of 3) while we breathed each other in and kissed.
For the reception: I printed out photos and histories of various Irish castles and we put 1 on each table in acrylic frames. We then seated people to a castle that we felt was appropriate to their personality. The seating cards were skeleton keys. Each guest got a key with their name and on the back was the name of "their" castle. At the table, each place was marked with a bag of chocolate rocks which had their names attached.
I have since become a certified wedding planner specializing in gay/lesbian ceremonies. I did this because I found no resources as I was planning my own (an 18 month process!) and became frustrated. If it would help, let people know that I would love to help them plan their dream ceremony - completely working within their budget. I managed to have a $50,000 wedding for less than $20,000 but it takes time and planning. Some people want simplicity, others want fairy tales. It's all good. :)
Liz and Maia just got back from a two day cruise from SF to Vancouver, two days in Vancouver and Amtrak back to Oakland on the Gay/Lesbian oriented WanderLust Travel based in Oakland—which they highly recommend.
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