Category Archives: Weddings

What’s going to make this holiday special?

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What do you have planned that you’re absolutely excited about during the holiday? Is your sweetie excited about it too? No? Then I asked the wrong question!

What is going to happen this holiday that the two of you will enjoy. Nothing more than cuddling in your bed? Well, maybe your tradi­tion is getting a new set of flannel sheets for your joint holiday present!

Do you really like cookies and milk (or fill in your favorite food­stuff!) then you might want to find your­self the perfect milk glasses and cookie plates. Plates that you only use for the holiday.

It takes neither a lot of money nor a huge amount of effort to plan some­thing sweet that slows you down and lets you enjoy one another.

Tip: plan some­thing simple but sweet as a way to be together. Already over sched­uled? I’m sure there’s some­thing you can fit in. Get up a half hour early and snuggle. Dozing in one another’s arms is great. But then pay careful attention,or (gasp) have a conver­sa­tion about what it was that was fun over the holi­days. Next year. Do more of that. That’s how holiday tradi­tions get started. There’s some­thing that’s about cele­bra­tion that’s going to draw each of you in and not step on any holiday corns. Remember, the season says life is supposed to be quiet and sweet right now.

add your sweetie beloved and youve got a holiday tradition!

add your sweetie beloved and you’ve got a holiday tradition!

Celebrating Holiday Memories

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One trick to creating your own “new family” holiday memo­ries is to revisit was was special and wonderful in your own holiday history. Even the most horrible child­hoods had some great memo­ries, even if sadly they they were at someone else’s house!

The fact is you’ll do better building new memo­ries if you start from real­izing what was the sweet thing at the heart of your memory. I recently heard a woman tell the story of how her parents made a big red ribbon line that she followed around the house until she discov­ered her present… a great big cuddly bear. She got the bear when she was 4 and has him still. Part of what made that partic­ular bear a great gift was the build-​​up… (Hint: build up costs nothing and requires simply a little inven­tive­ness and a bit of humor.) The bear repre­sented companionship.

If you discover the heart of the memo­ries, then the plans you make can grow out of the posi­tive things: Rather than, let’s not spend any money on gifts because we don’t have any: Let’s not spend money on gifts because what we want are gifts from the heart. And we’ll give gift money to someone else. Or, it may be that this is the year to give one another sparkly shiny things because your love is sparkly and shiny. But what­ever it is, spend some time remem­bering and sharing what was best for you about the holidays.

Tip: Create the holi­days you want to have not the holiday everyone thinks you should have. And base your plans on what was wonderful for you when you were a child.

Start to Develop your Holiday Traditions

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Here’s a great way to start figuring out what really matters to you in your life. If you do the work for the holi­days, you’ll have a head­start when you start plan­ning your wedding. What? You didn’t know you get to have your wedding be about your values? Now you do!

Before you start making a lot of holiday plans that you might get stuck in forever, why not figure out what makes each of you and both of you happy about the holidays?

  1. What do you like to do? What are your favorite holiday memo­ries? How can you repeat them?
  2. What do you care about? From cookies, to caroling to volun­teering? What do the holi­days say to you?
  3. Who do you want to spend time with? Are holi­days about friends? family? people in need? You get to choose!
  4. What holiday tradi­tions would you like to estab­lish in your own home? When you’re newly engaged or newly married, it can be easily assumed that you’ll go to other people’s houses. That may not be the only way you want to have the holidays.

Tip: Talking about these things and plan­ning ahead will serve you in very good stead in  the years to come. It will also estab­lish a pattern of discerning what really matters to you which will be great for the wedding and for your life. Why not have your­selves a happy little holiday season?

No, you can’t Twitter at the Altar

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Sarah (thanks my dear!) posted a link on Face­book about a bride and groom twit­tering and face­booking at the altar. There’s a video which I can’t bear to watch which shows a young (too young?) minister/​celebrant/​officiant/​something looking on.

Someone else can address the reli­gious aspects of this. If this is a reli­gious cere­mony, is it respectful? Clergy, please weigh in on this. If you’ve invited the Divine to show up at your wedding, should She/​He have to wait around while you get in touch with people who don’t care because people who do care are at your wedding? I know that there’s a craze in certain tradi­tions for people to twitter during church about church. um, the multi­tasking thing? not paying atten­tion! um, marriage? really, really important!

The groom said he did it to be funny. Not paying atten­tion at your wedding cere­mony to the vows you’re making is not funny, it’s just imma­ture. And there’s that other thing. It’s impo­lite. To your commu­nity, to your cele­brant and to that person who just said she/​he wants to spend the rest of their life with you.

And why do I think that this is a picture of a wedding where the couple are “cutely” tweeting their vows to one another. Do you see anyone at the table who cares?

Tweet, tweet love aint what it used to be

Tweet, tweet love ain’t what it used to be

Tip: Sorry, the Wedding Priestess disagrees. This is not a sweet personal touch in a wedding cere­mony. When tech­nology gets your grandma in the nursing home at your wedding, that’s a good use of the tech. When you take time off to show everyone how cute you are, whether that’s with tech­nology or a piece of string, that’s inappropriate!

No, Really, Carry a Fan, Not a Bouquet at Your Winter Wedding!

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I’d done some research about fans for my column over on Examiner.com (you can find this by scrolling down and checking out the right hand column). I’d started thinking about fans as some­thing to carry at winter weddings when flowers are, shall we say, scarce!

There are lots of fun things to do with fans. Victo­rian women (of the leisure class, which would leave a lot of us without a feather to flutter) had an entire language of fans. It doesn’t seem like a bad idea to exca­vate some of the language of flir­ta­tion to start having more fun in your play life with your partner.

I’d seen some fairly jeweled and orna­mental fans and admired them. But now I’m totally in love. Isn’t this gorgeous? Wouldn’t it have looked fabu­lous against my black velvet wedding dress? How about against your white satin one? Flowers, they’re so summer!

you can find lots of fun ways to use this over at http://handfanpro.com

Tip: Go ahead and play at your wedding. Look your best and have a good time.