Focus on the Ceremony

Crossposted from The Wedding Chicks blog I wrote

As a DIY bride,  I have been crafting up a storm and making things for our wedding left and right, as you can see below. A huge part of us will be in the wedding, but now with a month left, we’re finally focusing on the ceremony with full attention, which at the end of the day is the most important part, isn’t it?. As a non-denominational/Buddhist-leaning couple, we chose a good friend to officiate for us. But that also means that the ceremony is entirely up to us.  From scratch.

So how do you start?

I started with some personal vows I scribbled seven months ago after a couple of margaritas. With minimal cleanup, they are actually really quite good. And when my fiance re-read them today, I got an e-mail in my inbox from him that was so sweet, it made me tear up!

So if you like margaritas, you can always go that route!

I’ve scoured tons of books and web sites about traditional (and non-traditional) ceremonies and vows and ceremony structure. To be honest, I started by reading the original Offbeat Bride’s very own ceremony. The Offbeat Bride site has a lot of articles and help with ceremonies. This article is also helpful from Weddingbee.

I have borrowed, copy, and pasted the heck out of a google doc! I like the google doc because it’s easily shared between computers and my fiance and our officiant.

Seeing the structure, then piecing in the parts of vows and ceremonies we like and rewriting and tweaking to reflect ourselves is the process that’s working for us. We have a month to polish them up!