Weddingbee Blog

Being from the South, this post is probably one of the most nerve wracking to write. I was raised a Christian. My parents weren’t strict about church, but I chose to go and ended up accepting Christ as my savior when I was in middle school. As I grew in my faith, I started questioning more and more about religion, and eventually quit going to church. I now find myself more in a Unitarian camp. My fiance, on the other hand, is atheist. So when looking into ceremony wording and readings, it was important to us to have things that aren’t overtly religious but still mean a lot to us. We’ve managed to take a lot of the ceremony from a Buddhist ceremony.

Besides the traditional exchanging of rings, we wanted to have another sort of unity ceremony. We considered three.

The candle ceremony was the first. This was the most familiar to us and therefore at the top of our list. But after talking to Suzy (our fairy godmother), candles are a no-go at our venue because it is outdoors. She said that too many times in the past the candles wouldn’t light or went out, and it just creates an awkward moment that she chooses to avoid by advising brides against it. But this was the only unity ceremony either of us had ever seen in person, and I’ve never been one to shy away from shopping for new candles.

Image via Jared Wilson Photography

Next was the wine ceremony. After reading about this ceremony, I thought it was just way too sweet and perfect for us. We aren’t huge wine drinkers, but takin’ shots of whiskey probably ain’t wedding appropriate. Our wedding is in north Georgia wine country, though, and going to wine festivals and tastings is a fun pastime when we go visit my parents’ cabin. We could easily incorporate one of the local vineyards into our wedding.

Image via Three Sisters

One tradition that spoke to us was jumping the broom. Jumping the broom symbolizes entrance into a new life and adventure as husband and wife. Our concern with this ceremony was that in the South it has strong roots in African American slave culture. Seeing as both of us are white, we were worried the ceremony would be offensive. We are very open and socially liberal, and the last thing we wanted was for our marriage to come off as crass.

Image via Crave Online / Photo by Drew B Photography

We made a decision but, like everything else, decided to sit on it for a while to make sure it stuck and that it continued to feel right. Which one do you think we chose?