Celtic Wedding Traditions????

Question

I am planning on getting married in 2010 and I want to have a Celtic Ceremony, now I have heard that a true Celtic wedding might incorporate any or all of the nine parts of a ceremony. These include the following:

1. Casting and consecration of the circle

2. Presentation of the Bride and Groom

3. Statement of the Bard concerning marriage

4. Declarations of the Bride and Groom

5. Exchange of rings

6. Binding (or 'fasting') of hands

7. Passing of light

8. Thanksgiving and Oath

9. Blessing and opening of the circle

Now I want to find out details on how to do all these things, I know about hand-fasting but the rest I have really no clue, any help would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

Some friends recently did a celtic style wedding ...  one thing they did was a bell ...  hard to explain ... but this site has some lists and explanations ...

http://www.celticcolours.com/weddingtrad...

Answer 2

This is a great book that shows many of these things, though it is written from a Pagan standpoint:

Handfasting and Wedding Rituals

http://www.amazon.com/Handfasting-Weddin...

My husband and I just got married and used some of the ideas from it. Many of the ideas are easier researched under Pagan sites because many Pagans still use a lot of the traditions.

We also had our wedding in the round - meaning in a circle, not the walking down the aisle thing.

If your e-mail is open, I'll send you our ceremony. Maybe it will help give you some ideas.

EDIT:  Your e-mail isn't open. If you write me, I will send you our ceremony and our program.

We used music by Aine Minogue and walked in to Loreena McKinnett's Never-Ending Road. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fv2kmFZTD...

(the words were in our program because she can be difficult to understand)

We ended and "opened" the circle by drumming and having everyone walk around singing. We provided little percussion instruments (drums and bells and such we got from Oriental Trading Company) on everyone's seat. And everyone actually did it! (We were SO surprised!) Then my husband and I jumped the broom.

We tied our handfasting ribbons in a bow around our broom, and are going to hang it on our living room wall.

The order of things above are a little out of order for what would be practical in a ceremony today. If you have your wedding in the round, it is easy to "cast" a circle, even without anyone knowing it. We had a friend go around it first with fabric and dance around to "cleanse" the space. Not many people quite got it, even though it was in the program.

The pastor and my husband walked around, and the pastor cast the circle. We had flowers on the floor (in little vases) in each of the four directions, corresponding colors to direction.

Then the pastor usually makes an opening remark or statement about marriage. This is pretty much traditional anywhere. Just look under "opening remarks."

Then we did our "Declarations," also known as vows. We had a short repeating part where the pastor said something, then my hubby repeated, then the same with me. Then we also had very short written vows that we each wrote.

Then we exchanged rings. We didn't do the "Passing of Light," but that's basically like the Unity Candle.

Then we did the handfasting, and the pastor sang a short blessing over us. Then she presented us as "bride and groom". I liked this better than "man and wife" or anything else. Then the pastor started the drumming, and we lead everyone out of the center (where we had the ceremony) and around the circle.

It was so much fun!