This was a wedding I’ve been looking forward to for what seems like forever! Eliza and Chris were so excited, and had a great vision for their wedding ceremony, right from the beginning, and I was so glad they found me and let me act as their guides in creating a beautiful ceremony.
They eventually decided to have their ceremony in Central Park, with just their immediate family and, oh, you know, a few dozen random onlookers who joined us to watch, too. We took advantage of the intimate setting to include a ring warming, passing the rings through all of the guests, to warm them, bless them, and imbue them with happy thoughts for a good marriage. We also took a popular reading (“The Blessing of the Hands”) and incorporated it into the handfasting and the ring vows.
The weather was perfect, and I could tell that the bride and groom were so happy to share this moment with those closest to them and finally be married! I am so, so glad that they found me, and that I got to be a part of their wedding. Love and congratulations, Eliza & Chris!!
Photos by Oh, Darling! Photography. Check out more of the day on their blog!
See more reviews of Eclectic Unions – Custom Wedding Ceremonies by Celebrant Jessie Blum on Project Wedding.
Stephanie & John were my first wedding of 2010! They got married on January 2, at the Molly Pitcher Inn, in Red Bank, New Jersey. Their whole wedding was set up so it felt like a holiday celebration that two people just happened to get married in the middle of. Many of the guests, including the bride, wore red, which is a color that is considered good luck in the bride’s Chinese culture.
Stephanie & John’s romance is one that spanned continents… when they met, she was in New York on business, but was living in London. Over the next few years, as their relationship deepened and continued, they would meet up in Europe or the States to vacation and travel together!
We had guests from all over joining us.. including the bride’s parents, who Skyped in from Hong Kong! I think Stephanie told me that it was three in the morning there! It was so nice to be able to have the bride’s parents, via webcam, as well as many other important family members. In lieu of a bridal party, the couple had important people stand up with them: John’s son and daughter, and Stephanie’s brother and sister-in-law. It was a very casual ceremony – no processional, we just took our places at the front when cocktail hour had ended, and gathered the guests around us. The ceremony ended with the maitr’d presenting the couple with champagne for a toast!
It was a lovely way to start the year. Thanks, Stephanie and John, for letting me be a part of it!
I love hearing from my brides and grooms, and couldn’t stop smiling after receiving this email from Maryann, a recent bride of mine. I’ll have a blog post on her wedding soon (it was a personal, sweet ceremony, with original vows, three readings, a handfasting, and a time capsule ceremony!), but I wanted to share this wonderful email that she sent me after she and her husband returned from their honeymoon!
Hi Jessie!
We just got back to Indiana last night and I have been dying to email you to thank you a million times over for creating such a beautiful ceremony. It was perfect! The day seems like a blur but the one thing I remember perfectly is the ceremony because it was so meaningful. Thank you for the time you put into crafting it to fit our needs and wishes. I’ve received so many complements from our guests on the beauty, uniqueness, and intimacy of the ceremony. I’ve even had friends (married ones at that!) write to ask me for the readings and hand fasting ritual explanation because they thought they were so beautiful.
The King making an appearance at Maryann & Cas’ reception!! Photo by Kamila Harris Photography
I hired an Elvis Impersonator as a surprise for Cas who had wanted to get married by Elvis in Vegas – and yet in reflecting on the wedding he and our guests all seem to forget the guy in the sparkly suit with swiveling hips and go straight for commenting on the ceremony. (related to this… I made Cas play the “what was your favorite part of our wedding” over the honeymoon and he put you and the slider bar from the cocktail hour at number one – this is perhaps that highest compliment he could give!)
I can’t thank you enough for making the most important part of our wedding be the part that always comes to mind when I think back to our day. I was such a nervous mess on Friday night and you just put me at ease. As you saw in my “wedding homework” that’s one of the traits I love most in Cas and while I have an incredibly loving group of friends and family that feeling of peace is not what Italians necessarily do best 
But you definitely possess that and it made walking in to that beautiful atrium so much less intimidating to know it was you and Cas down at the other end waiting for me. You made me feel so comfortable – it was like having a trusted friend there with us all the while (…which was especially needed when burst out “I DO” 3 sentences too early! LOL Cas and I have no stopped laughing at that. Thank you for handling it like a pro and a friend – you allowed us to laugh and let it broke the nervous tension without feeling like it interrupted the ceremony).
lots of love,
maryann
I put Maryann and Cas’ keepsake ceremony in the mail today… I hope you like it!! I always say it, but the most amazing people find me and ask me to be their wedding Celebrant. I feel so lucky that I get to do this, thank you for letting me be such an important part of your wedding!
Metehan contacted me a little less than two weeks before his wedding. He and his fiance, Seher, were looking for an officiant who was familiar with Turkish weddings, and Google had led them to me (via Nicole & Sinan’s wedding, in October). Together, we created a sweet, simple ceremony. And I got to do something I had never done during a wedding ceremony before – I sat down! In Turkish weddings, the officiant, bride, groom, and witnesses sit at a lavishly decorated table at the front of the room during the ceremony!
I included this reading from Rumi that the bride and groom choose, and I think it set the tone for not only the ceremony, but their relationship, their romance, and the love that they share with each other:
From the beginning of my life I have been looking for your face, but today I have seen it. Today I have seen the charm, the beauty, the unfathomable grace of the face that I was looking for. Today I have found you, and those who laughed and scorned me yesterday are sorry that they were not looking as I did. I am bewildered by the magnificence of your beauty, and wish to see you with a hundred eyes.
My heart has burned with passion and has searched forever for this wondrous beauty that I now behold. I am ashamed to call this love human, and afraid of God to call it divine. Your fragrant breath, like the morning breeze, has come to the stillness of the garden. You have breathed new life into me. I have become your sunshine, and also your shadow. My soul is screaming in ecstasy. Every fiber of my being is in love with you. Your effulgence has lit a fire in my heart, and you have made radiant for me the earth and sky. My arrow of love has arrived at the target. I am in the house of mercy, and my heart is a place of prayer.
It was a snowy Saturday evening in December, but, thankfully, the weather held out until after the ceremony. It did make for some beautiful photos!
Metehan and Seher, thank you again for letting me be a part of your civil wedding, and I hope your ceremony in Turkey is wonderful!
See more reviews of Eclectic Unions – Custom Wedding Ceremonies by Celebrant Jessie Blum on Project Wedding.
Heather and Ed planned an intimate wedding in their home in TWO WEEKS. TWO WEEKS!
Their ceremony was personal and sweet, infused with a few traditions to represent their cultures and backgrounds. To honor their Italian heritage, they hung a bow on their front door, to show they were “tying the knot.” It also is good luck in Italian culture to get married on a Sunday, and we broke a glass at the end (usually, it’s a plate or a vase, but the glass was easier and safer to do!). To honor their Irish background, they had a handfasting ceremony, and had a friend read the traditional Irish Blessing at the end of the ceremony.
I loved that they included these Irish wedding traditions and Italian wedding traditions as a way to really personalize their ceremony.
We laughed a lot! Heather and Ed were full of laughter and humor and giggles and we kept that in the ceremony. You can see how we’re laughing in almost every single picture!
I am so glad I got to be part of their special day. Congrats again, Heather & Ed!!
A few happy tears!
Breaking the glass together!
Heather and Ed are “high five people” so of course they high fived after the kiss!
