Warm the Rings with Love
October 18, 2010
October 10, 2010 was a big day. I performed four weddings that took me from Ventura to Oxnard to Malibu to Culver City.
Style Unveiled invited me to write about my experience performing a ring warming that I did at the Smog Shoppe that day.
Below is a copy of my post. I invite you to read the full blog post at Style Unveiled: Ceremony Idea! ~ Warm the Rings with Love.
You are planning your wedding and want to include a unique feature during the ceremony. What do you choose: a unity candle, blending of the sand, rose ceremony? How about a Ring Warming ceremony. Never heard of it? Most people haven’t. Incorporating non-traditional elements into your ceremony can not only make it even more memorable for you and your guests, but also keep everyone’s attention.
Before you say your vows and exchange your rings, the wedding officiant will ask everyone, including your wedding party to participate in a ring warming. Your officiant will explain to everyone that the ring warming is an opportunity to send the bride and groom good luck and love through a silent wish to the rings when passed to them.
It is a great idea to have one or two people in your wedding party help out with the process of moving the rings from row to row of your guests. Make sure to have the rings in a box or tied together as you don’t want them to get lost.
At the end of the ring warming, your rings are brought back up to the best man or maid of honor until the exchange of rings. If you have less than forty guests, it is possible to do this in less than ten minutes with music playing in the background. (15 seconds per person)
If you have a lot of guests, you may want to consider continuing with the ceremony while your rings are moving. This can be a time for you and the groom to talk to each other and watch the guests. It is a lot of fun and will definitely make your guests talk about your wedding the next day.
The Wedding Rehearsal
June 25, 2010
Before any words are spoken, the wedding party must take part in the processional. Everyone is lined up and the music starts. The wedding is about to begin. You are cued to start walking. Are you prepared? What happens next depends on if a rehearsal took place.
A wedding rehearsal is a great way to ensure the wedding party knows what to expect. The entire rehearsal can be done in a matter of 30 minutes or less. It is a matter of having everyones attention and practicing the processional and recessional.
I have found that by putting everyone in their places at the altar first, they will have a better idea how to get there during the processional. So we start by doing the recessional followed by the processional.
I quickly did a search on Google for ‘wedding rehearsal’ and the like, and I found there was not a single document that had a visual of the typical layout of a wedding ceremony and basic information on the processional and recessional together.
A visual is a great tool for knowing where everyone is supposed to be and having information on the processional and recessional is vital to making the ceremony spectacular.
Since I couldn’t find a tool, I designed one and I hope that you find this useful for you as well. It’s free and available to download by clicking here.
