The Wedding Ceremony
There’s nothing quite like marrying the person of your dreams, but when you get to do it twice, it’s truly amazing. We got married twice, a small intimate ceremony with 5 guests and then a big wedding celebration with all our fabulous friends and family.
Performing the legal marriage requirements in advance of our celebrations worked perfectly and gave us more flexibility and control of our wedding day. This actually happens a lot more than people realise, and is a requirement for getting married overseas.
The Perfect Registry Office Wedding
Our first (official, masked) wedding took place at a registry office, not just any registry office, the one that my parents got married at over 40 years earlier. The other extra special touch was that we were married by my husband’s mum (my mother-in-law) who is a registrar. This was such a sentimental day and having just 5 guests (Covid restrictions) helped me to cope with that my dad (who had passed away a couple of years earlier) wasn’t there to be part of my special day. When we walked out of the registry office and a feather landed on my mum’s dress, we knew he was there celebrating with us.
The Venue Wedding Ceremony
We were thrilled to get the opportunity to say our wedding vows again (minus the legal part) which was fabulously performed once again by my mother-in-law.
This time we also included a reading by our wonderful friend (and matchmaker) who read The Apache Wedding Blessing.
Music For Your Wedding Ceremony
I’m sure, if you’re like us, you’ve got your songs. The songs that bring back all those wonderful memories from your early days of dating, your weekends away, holidays, functions and those special moments.
Guest Arrival Music
For our guests arrival music, we asked my talented nieces to play their flutes. As accomplished flutists, they prepared their own playlist suitable for our wedding ceremony. Sadly, the pingdemic had other plans when one of my nieces was unable to attend, but we were still able to enjoy their musical accomplishments courtesy of a recording.
Bridal Entrance Music
An instrumental version of The Beatles ‘Something’ was the piece chosen for the Bridal march. The song means a lot to us and reminds us of so many happy memories.
Ceremony Exit Music
Love is in the Air was chosen for our walk out song as it’s an uplifting song that just makes you want to smile. We followed this with The Keeper by the Blossoms, a firm favourite with our Manchester backgrounds.
MY WEDDING WISDOM
THE WEDDING CEREMONY HINTS AND TIPS
Reserve Seats
It’s a good idea to reserve seats for your wedding party / immediate family, as these are often the people who enter the room / building last. Assign the task to the Best Man or one of your Ushers.
Have A Walk Through
It can be really advantageous to have a quick walk through with the younger members of your wedding party. This worked perfectly for us as they were familiar with the music and also didn’t race down the aisle!
Include Family and Friends
Ask Family and Friends if they would like to be part of the wedding. This could be through a reading or performing a piece of music.
Make A Note Of Songs
If you hear a song that you like, make a note of it / Shazam it, so that you’ve got a good point of reference for when it comes to selecting songs for your wedding day.