What is a secular wedding ceremony like?
How does it work and what does it include?
These are the most common questions asked when I meet bridal couples for the first time.
In this blogpost, I will try to briefly answer these questions.
A wedding ceremony speech is always clearly structured because the structure is the most important element in a good speech.
Announcement
I always begin the wedding ceremony with an announcement.
The wedding guests are already there and have taken a seat, but the couple, or at least the bride, is not there yet.
(Sometimes the couple decides to enter together,
sometimes the groom is already there and the bride comes in with her father or another relative.)
Next, I introduce myself and politely remind the wedding guests to switch off their cell phones
or to silence them so that there are no unpleasant interruptions during the ceremony.
There are some newlyweds who do not want pictures to be taken by guests during the ceremony,
since the photographer is already taking care of this task and all pictures are available for everyone later.
But this depends and every couple handles it differently.
In addition, if there is any other information that needs to be given to the guest, I will announce it as well.
Then the bride or the bride and groom come in.
The speech
Now, the real part of the speech begins.
I structure the speech into three parts: introduction, main body and final part.
In the introduction, I greet the guests and the newlyweds
and use beautiful famous quotes,
metaphors, sayings or quotes taken from previous conversations with the couple.
The main part includes anecdotes, humour, the background of the bride and the groom,
how they met,
what defines them as a couple
and the proposal (if there was one)-
and of course some meaningful words about marriage and love.
Sometimes I use a certain topic (for example, a common hobby) as a common thread for the speech.
The structure here is not always the same. It all depends on the bride and groom and how I can link the different topics together.
The last part of the speech is the part with the marriage vows, the ring exchange and the rituals.
Some couples don’t do a ritual,
others may not exchange rings because it may have already taken place at an earlier time.
Everything I do is based on the wishes of the newlyweds.
This is the classical ceremony structure.
Sometimes the witnesses or parents may want to say something, too.
Their contribution can also be included into the main part or in the last part, depending on the content and how it fits in.
A secular wedding ceremony has no protocols, you can include whatever you would like.
To sum up, I give a short announcement, then the bride or couple comes in,
then I start with the introduction:
greetings, metaphors, romantic sayings –
the main part: the background of the bride and the groom, the couple’s story, anecdotes, and what marriage and love is about, marriage proposal-
The last part is the part with the vows, rituals and ring exchange.
If you have any questions,
please don’t hesitate to write to me, to call me, or leave me a comment and I would be more than happy to answer all your questions.