▷ 🥇 6 Meaningful Ideas for the Secular Wedding Ceremony

Photo: McKinnon Photography

Even if your wedding is not taking place in a place of worship, it can be quite difficult to create secular wedding ceremony ideas with meaningful rituals. This is important if you and your spouse were raised in different faith traditions, and therefore want to avoid bringing either of them to your wedding. Or, conversely, if one or both of you were not raised in a particular faith, so you are uncomfortable with religion or the rituals of religious ceremonies for your wedding. Whatever the reason for wanting to create a secular wedding ceremony, there are many ways to fill your non-religious wedding with heartfelt activities to symbolize your union.

Here are 6 significant secular wedding ceremony ideas to consider.

Readings from the love ceremony

Choosing a poem, song, or excerpt from a movie or novel is a good way to incorporate important words into your wedding ceremony, beyond vows. Wedding ceremony readings can also allow you to honor important people in your life, as you can choose a close friend or family member who is not at your wedding party to participate in the ceremony by performing the ceremony. reading. Your reading can be as traditional or non-traditional as all of you are as a couple, so don’t limit yourself to a text that feels more appropriate for a wedding. Dig into your well of inspiration for your favorite lines that symbolize your relationship and what love and marriage mean to you and your partner.

Sand dumping

Intended to symbolize the eternal wedding of lovebirds, this age-old wedding ceremony ritual involves filling two vases with sand. Some couples will specifically use sand from their home country or state of residence, and most couples will be sure that each vase contains sand of different colors. During the ceremony, the couple pour sand from each vase into a larger vase. Once poured, the two types of sand mix and create a unique pattern that makes the sand indistinguishable from each other.

Plant a tree (or a bottle of liquor)

Trees offer tons of symbolism for a secular wedding ceremony. It is a living organism that grows both deep in the earth and high in the sky. It is something that is only as healthy as its base, and while it can grow big and strong, it can be cut relatively easily. If you and your partner are nature lovers, consider planting a ceremonial tree as one of your non-religious wedding ideas. A variation of tree planting is to take a page from classic southern weddings and bury a bottle of bourbon. It is one of the wedding traditions with dark origins, but the intention is to ensure sunny weather on your wedding day. One month before getting married, plant an unopened bottle of your favorite beverage at the ceremony site. Once the ceremony is over, you are free to dig up the bourbon and drink! Of course, you are free to adapt these traditions to suit you and your chosen wedding style. Plant a bush or group of flowers instead of a tree; Stock a bottle of vodka instead of bourbon.

Ring heating

Most wedding ceremonies, be it a non-religious or religious wedding ceremony, do not involve the guests much. Considered of Celtic origin, ring warming is one of the few rituals that includes everyone present and is a great way to personalize your ceremony. Whether passing the ring to the wedding guests using a unifying ribbon or thread or encouraging the guests to “warm up” their rings as they enter the ceremony space, the ring warming asks the wedding guests to place a silent blessing, an intention or a wish for well-being on your wedding rings.

Wine box ceremony

Wine lovers rejoice because this non-religious wedding idea allows you to celebrate your love for your partner. Y your love for wine. The concept includes each partner writing a love letter to the other. The contents are fully customizable, so you can write about why you chose to marry this person, or about your hopes for your future together, or about anything else. Then work together to create a decorative box that fits your favorite bottle of wine. Some couples choose to have a special family member or friend create the box or buy it in a meaningful place. It’s up to you, but you can definitely use each part of this ceremony as an opportunity to share. Next, you will select a bottle of wine (or sparkling wine, or prosecco, or champagne – it’s your choice!) To keep in the box. Alert the person officiating at your ceremony that you want to include this ritual in your wedding, and your officiant will probably want to say a few words before placing both the bottle and your love letters in the box. Lastly, the box will be sealed and will not be opened until its fifth anniversary.

Unity candle lighting

While the lighting of unity candles is popular for weddings, even at a religious ceremony, it has no inherent ties to a particular faith. It is a fairly simple ritual that is said to symbolize new marriages. Choose three candles – one to symbolize you, one to symbolize your partner, and one to symbolize your new marriage. Often times the last candle is larger than the other two, but it is not a rule. Before the ceremony, each group of parents will light one of the smaller candles. During the ceremony, your officiant will prepare a script that talks about the meaning of two people coming together to create a partnership. When asked, each of you will light the largest candle using the flames of your smaller candles.