Weddingbee Blog

The writer in each of us just sometimes goes missing. You want to piece together the most beautiful ceremony, but don’t know where to start. Don’t worry: we weren’t creative cats either. We were only able to do it with the help of Judith Johnson’s book, The Wedding Ceremony Planner, which I believe Miss Penguin too has referenced before.

This is how our ceremony was structured:

- Gathering Words
- Charge for the Couple
- Reading 1
- Declaration of Support
- Reading 2
- Vows
- Prelude to Ring Exchange
- Ring Exchange
- Reading 3
- Reading 4
- Final Blessing

(The first reading was a selection from Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms. A bit of an odd choice, I’ll admit, since the man has a rep for being a misogynist, but what can I say? I’m an English professor and I have a soft spot for Papa. Then my sister read Rafael Alberti’s poem “Sabes tanto de mi,” in Spanish. We also asked Mr. P’s stepfather to recite the Seven Blessings, and finally, my brother and his wife read the text of our ketubah. Only the Seven Blessing reading came from the book: I should clarify that we did have to look elsewhere for the other ones).

The book lists other possible readings though, and lots of other options to incorporate, such as opening prayers, remembrances, friendship circles, ways to involve children and many more. It really is invaluable.

I’d love to give away my copy to a happy bride. I made a couple of pencil marks in it, but I have erased them as dutifully as possible (I hope I didn’t miss one!), and the book is asking for a nice home where it can be of help. If you’re interested, just comment below and at the end of the day, I’ll ask Mr. Petunia to randomly pick the winning number!