Hand Fasting

Hand Fasting

September 15th, 2009 @ 9:34 am by Mrs. Frozen Yogurt
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Mr. Fro Yo and I started thinking about what we wanted for the ceremony and went through the logistics of what might be possible at an outdoor wedding. We liked the unity candle, but feared that wind would blow it out, so we moved on. We also liked the sand ceremony, but we would have to bring our own table to the ceremony, and that sounded like a lot of work (yes, apparently I’m that lazy). I researched a little more and found out about hand fasting.

Hand Fasting : wedding ceremony traditions 120 handfast3

Photo from Flickr

I’d never heard of this, but I was intrigued. It’s an ancient Celtic ceremony that is the inspiration behind today’s modern day expression of “tying the knot”.

Hand Fasting : wedding ceremony traditions 217 handfast

(Image courtesy of Natalie Williams Photography)

The officiant or one of the members of your bridal party ties your wrists together, typically with cord, but some couples choose to do it with things that mean something to them (ribbon, etc.). This is to signify that you are bound together through life.

Hand Fasting : wedding ceremony traditions 314 handfast2

(Image courtesy of Natalie Williams Photography)

Some vows I’ve seen that accompany this part of the ceremony are:

These are the hands of your best friend, young and strong and full of love for you, that are holding your hands on your wedding day, as you promise to love and care for each other today, tomorrow and forever.

And

These are the hands that will give you strength when you need it, that will hold and comfort you when fear or grief confront you. These are the hands that will wipe away tears from your eyes, both tears of sorrow and – much more common I am certain – tears of joy.

So what do you think? Would you all be interested in seeing that? Has anyone seen this before?

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36 Responses to “Hand Fasting”

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Member

FlipFlopBride (message) 1,437 posts, Bumble bee

I love the idea of handfasting, but I have yet to see it at a wedding in my circle of friends. I think it’s a beautiful tradition, and I like the readings that you mentioned. Very sweet.

9/15/09 @ 9:38 am (reply)

Member

lcneiny (message) 183 posts, Blushing bee

Miss Lab posted about this topic on Sunday and I bookmarked it! http://www.weddingbee.com/2009/09/13/official-business/

I love the idea, the symbolism as well as the beautiful words that go along with it. I saw one ceremony that used it, however it was an outdoor wedding with no microphone so I couldn’t hear what they were saying, just saw what they were doing

9/15/09 @ 9:41 am (reply)

Guest

meg

we’re doing the “blessing of the hands” using the same reading but just holding hands and not actually fastening them together with anything.

9/15/09 @ 10:00 am (reply)

Member

Mrs. Starfish (message) 286 posts, Helper bee

I love it! I had just heard of it on here and think it is a different way to symbolize your unity!

9/15/09 @ 10:06 am (reply)

Member

thefuturemrsjewell (message) 1,829 posts, Buzzing bee

i really like this idea, i’m definitely going to have to bookmark it for when we start to put together our ceremony.

9/15/09 @ 10:07 am (reply)

Bee

Miss Frozen Yogurt (message) 2,685 posts, Sugar bee

I thought it was really sweet, and I like that you can pick a cord or some sort of material that means something to you.

9/15/09 @ 10:10 am (reply)

Member

pvaulter718 (message) 2,116 posts, Buzzing bee

I hadn’t heard of that, but I really like the idea! And you’re right that the unity candle and sand are both a little more complicated for an outdoor ceremony. We were trying to keep ours as simple and non-intrusive on the landscape as possible, I wish I had heard of this sooner!

9/15/09 @ 10:13 am (reply)

Guest

Sheri

My husband and I did an all-out 18th century Scottish wedding with a handfasting. We really liked the idea of the community blessing our marriage, so we asked the 6 people in our wedding party to come up with something to say that ended with a question for us. After answering the question, they tied a cord around our hands.

What they were going to say was a complete surprise to us and it turned out to be one of the most touching parts of our ceremony =)

9/15/09 @ 10:17 am (reply)

Guest

dckatiebug

Miss Hummingbird and Miss Cookie both used a similar ceremony

http://www.weddingbee.com/2008/06/10/a-hummingbird-handfasting/

http://www.weddingbee.com/2008/11/05/love-made-simple-ceremony/

9/15/09 @ 10:18 am (reply)

10.

Member

alohababy28 (message) 466 posts, Helper bee

I just saw it on an episode of “Amazing Wedding Cakes” at a Renaissance fair wedding. I guess that’s what I think of when I see it. I agree with Meg. I like the blessing, but I’d prefer (for myself) to do it just holding hands. The feminist side of me balks at the “bondage” impression of it.

9/15/09 @ 10:21 am (reply)

11.

Member

bethanyleigh (message) 57 posts, Worker bee

I’ve never seen hand fasting done before, but I like the idea. I think we’re going the unity candle route.

9/15/09 @ 10:46 am (reply)

12.

Hostess

Jessie516 (message) 5,480 posts, Bee Keeper

I’ve only read about this, but I think it would be a really nice addition to the ceremony.

9/15/09 @ 10:58 am (reply)

13.

Bee

Mrs. Taffy (message) 3,104 posts, Sugar bee

We used that reading!

9/15/09 @ 11:00 am (reply)

14.

Member

krissycake (message) 4,160 posts, Honey bee

lovely! i really like it =)

9/15/09 @ 11:02 am (reply)

15.

Member

Carrot Cake (message) 159 posts, Blushing bee

I am doing it!!! Mr. CC and I are having an outdoor ceremony and had the same issues! When we decided to do the hand fasting, we were all concerned that the family would think we were totally off the wall… but fortunately our officiant worked with us and we now have the most beautiful handfasting ceremony I could have imagined. So glad to see others doing this!!!

9/15/09 @ 11:16 am (reply)

16.

Bee

Miss Frozen Yogurt (message) 2,685 posts, Sugar bee

@Carrot Cake: I thought the same thing! But, I also thought it might be something our guests haven’t seen before and would be interesting for them.

9/15/09 @ 12:13 pm (reply)

17.

Guest

Dimplez78

We did this at our ceremony because my husband is half Irish and it was nice and symbolic and definitely something most of our guests had never seen before. We used this particuar ceremony although I would read through and maybe edit the words a little bit because there is a section that says ‘May this knot remain tied for as long as your love shall last” but then the knot comes off less than a minute later.

http://www.yourspecialdayweddings.net/id74.html

9/15/09 @ 12:22 pm (reply)

18.

Member

abrideagain (message) 532 posts, Busy bee

We’re planning on doing this at our October wedding…but finding the material to do it with has definitely been harder than I had thought that it would be!

9/15/09 @ 12:24 pm (reply)

19.