NJ Wedding Ceremonies, NJ Civil Unions, NJ Commitment Ceremonies, Wedding Vow Renwals

New Jersey Wedding Ceremonies

We perform all types of ceremonies including weddings, civil unions, vow renewals, second marriages, and anniversaries, both formal and informal.

Some of the locations we have performed include:

• Ship board ceremonies on the Cornucopia Princess circling NYC
• Beach ceremonies, both morning and sunset, from Sandy Hook to Long Beach Island and beyond
• Ceremonies in the park
• Medieval Times ceremonies
• In-home and backyard ceremonies
• Vacation home ceremonies
• Ceremonies in hospitals when ailing parents or grandparents cannot attend the actual ceremony
• And, of course, chapels, churches, cathedrals, and other places of worship and spirituality

Types of Wedding Ceremonies

Our officiants have experience with many different types of wedding rituals and special touches. Here are a few with explanations of each for your consideration:

Sand Ceremonies

The sand ceremony can be a beautiful and meaningful addition to your vows. Simply find three containers, one for the bride, one for the groom to pour sand FROM and the third container (a flower vase or large goblet works perfectly) to pour sand INTO. You can find sand of any color or plain sand at most craft stores. After the Officiant reads the text, you both will pour the two containers of sand into the third container simultaneously creating a wonderful work of art and a precious memory. You may wish to leave a small amount of sand in each container to symbolize that although you are now joined as one, you each remain individuals.

A wonderful variation of this ceremony can be including children as well. Simply find containers for each of the family members to pour sand FROM and one container (a flower vase or large goblet works perfectly) for each family member to pour sand INTO. Different, brightly colored sand (perhaps each one can choose their favorite color) can be used or you may choose to use plain sand.

After the Officiant reads the text (or any text you choose), family members pour their sand into the keepsake container simultaneously.

Family Medallion

The Symbol - In the Old Testament Book of Ecclesiastes it is written that "a cord of three strands is not easily broken." The three merged circles or strands on the face of the Family Medallions represent the strength of the family bond...and the enduring love the family members share.

The Family Medallion may be presented as a gift without fanfare. However, in our experience, part of what makes the medallions so special is the circumstances under which they are presented. For example, the family medallion ceremony addresses the nature of the occasion.

The Family Medallion ceremony adds a special time, a special memory, for your wedding. There can be a danger nowadays in being too casual or too jaded about marriage, to forget that the wedding itself is a long-standing symbol of something else. It is a symbol of creation and of new life. It represents family. It can be difficult creating a new family while remembering and respecting previous relationships, but a moment in the service like the Family Medallion ceremony is a reminder that a marriage doesn't do away with these old relationships: it unites all of them together into something new and special.

Presentation - Two merged circles often symbolize love. The Family Medallion has three circles to represent love that reaches out t include others... family.

Handfasting

Handfasting was the word used by the ancient Celts to describe their traditional trial-marriage ceremony, during which couples were literally bound together. The handfasting was a temporary agreement that expired after a year and a day. However, it could be made permanent after at that time, if both spouses agreed.

Handfasting is an ancient Celtic custom, especially common in Ireland and Scotland, in which a man and woman came together at the start of their marriage relationship. Their hands, or more accurately, their wrists, were literally tied together. This practice gave way to the expression "tying the knot" which has come to mean getting married or engaged.

The handfasting ritual recognized just one of many forms of marriages permitted under the ancient Irish (Brehon) law. The man and woman who came together for the handfasting agreed to stay together for a specific period of time, usually a year-and-a-day. At the end of the year the couple faced a choice. They could enter into a longer-term "permanent" marriage contract, renew their agreement for another year, or go their separate ways.

Cord Colors Symbolism for Handfasting -- A couple should consider color correspondences when choosing a color for their cord(s). The cord is what the Officiant will tie or wrap around the couples' hands during ritual to symbolize their union. You can use color meanings relevant to you, or you may use some correspondences I have listed below. These color correspondences may be used in choosing other relevant items such as candles, altar cloth, clothing, etc.

Associations and Symbolism Red Signifies: will, passion, strength, fertility, courage, health, vigor, lust, danger

Orange Signifies: encouragement, adaptability, stimulation, attraction, plenty, kindness.

Yellow Signifies: attraction, charm, confidence, balance, harmony, knowledge, learning, concentration, persuasion, jealousy, joy, comfort,

Green Signifies: finances, fertility, luck, success energy, charity, growth, rejuvenation, prosperity, nurturing, beauty, health, ambition, counteract greed and jealousy, plants kingdom including herbal healing

Blue Signifies: tranquility, understanding, patience, health, truth, devotion, sincerity, honor, loyalty, peace, wisdom, protection during sleep, astral projection

Light Blue: tranquility, understanding, patience, health Dark Blue: for a safe journey, longevity, strength

Purple Signifies: power, piety, sanctity, sentimentality, tension, sadness amplification of other energies. wisdom, high ideals, spiritual protection and healing, psychic ability, protective energy, strength, progress

Black signifies strength, empowerment, wisdom, vision, success, pure love, negation without reflecting, unlocking when stuck, banishing evil or negativity

White signifies: purity, consecration, meditation, divination, exorcism, the full moon, healing, peace, spiritual strength, truth, serenity and devotion. May be substituted for any other color

Gray signifies: balance, neutrality, used in erasing, canceling, neutralizing, and return to the universe without repercussion destructive energies

Pink Signifies: unity, honor, truth, romance, happiness, healing, familial or emotional love (rather than sexual), friendship, affections, unselfish emotions, spiritual healing, banishing hatred

Brown Signifies: The Earth, grounding, trees, concentration, telepathy, healing, skills, talent, nurturing, home and hearth, spells to locate lost objects, protection of the familiars, pets, and animals

Silver Signifies: purity, the moon, treasure, values, female energy, the unconscious mind, creativity, inspiration, vision, and protection

Gold Signifies: the sun, male energy, wealth, financial wisdom, conscious mind, attracting happiness, activity, intelligence, unity, longevity, prosperity, strength.

The Hindu 7 Steps Ceremony

The Hindu marriage ceremony consists essentially of seven steps with seven vows taken in front of Agni (the fire). The Agni, or fire, is very sacred in the Hindu religion as it is considered to be the purifier. The flame of Agni represents the victory of light over darkness, knowledge over ignorance. The Hindu marriage ceremony is conducted under a decorated canopy structure, called a Mandap.

Saptapadi - Marriage knot symbolized by tying one end of the groom's scarf with the bride's dress. Then they take seven steps representing nourishment, strength, prosperity, happiness, progeny, long life and harmony and understanding, respectively.

Satapadi a pink cloth is draped over the bride’s shoulders and tied to the groom’s shoulder cloth. Then the couple walks seven steps together, reciting vows which express:

Let us take this first step vowing to keep a pure household; avoiding things injurious to our health. Let us take this second step vowing to develop mental, physical, and spiritual powers. Let us take this third step with the aim of increasing our wealth by righteous means. Let us take this fourth step to acquire knowledge, happiness, and harmony by mutual love and trust. Let us take this fifth step to pray for virtuous, intelligent, and courageous children. Let us take this sixth step for longevity. Let us take this seventh step to vow that we will always remain true companions and life-long partners.

The Wine and Breaking of the Glass

Throughout the ages wine has been used for celebration. As you share a cup of wine, you undertake to share all that the future may bring vowing that whatever bitterness it contains is less bitter because you share it together and that all the sweetness that it holds for you are the sweeter because you taste it together. The Groom takes a sip and passes it to Bride who takes a sip and puts the cup down.

At some point the glass is emptied and wrapped in a napkin. It is placed on the floor to be broken by the Groom.

The breaking of the glass from which the wine of celebration has been shared is a tradition of uncertain origin that suggests many things. Some say that it is a reminder of the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem, which must not be forgotten, even in moments of joy. For others, it recalls all the imperfection of the world. It suggests that the happiness of the bride and groom is not theirs alone, but a part of the universal answer to those imperfections. Some see the shattered glass as a symbol of a break with the past, which makes possible new relationships. Still another ancient blessing wishes that the years of happiness for these two people shall be no less then it would take to fit all the resulting fragments together again.

Rose Ceremony

The rose ceremony is a flexible, informal ceremony especially suited to an interfaith or non-religious wedding, not to mention a garden wedding! In the rose ceremony, the bride and groom exchange a single rose as their first married gift to each other. They are asked to recall this symbol of their love during the more trying seasons of marriage.

In the past, the rose was considered a symbol of love and a single rose always meant only one thing - it meant the words "I love you." The Officiant notes that it is appropriate for the couple’s first gift to each other as husband and wife is a single rose. The couple exchanges their rose and the Officiant notes that in some ways it seems like you have not done anything at all as just a moment ago you were holding one small rose - and now you are holding one small rose. In some ways, a marriage ceremony is like this. In some ways, tomorrow is going to seem no different than yesterday. But in fact today, just now, you both have given and received one of the most valuable and precious gifts of life - one I hope you always remember - the gift of true and abiding love within the devotion of marriage.

The bride and groom are asked to pick a very special location for roses so that on each anniversary of their ceremony, they both may take a rose to that spot both as a recommitment that wherever you make your home in the future - whether it be a large and elegant home - or a small and graceful one - that you both THIS will be a marriage based upon love.

The Officiant goes on to say that in every marriage there are times where it is difficult to find the right words. If this should happen, if you simply can not find these words, leave a rose at that spot which both of you have selected - for that rose than says what matters most of all and should overpower all other things and all other words. That rose says the words: "I still love you." The other should accept this rose for the words which can not be found, and remember the love and hope that you both share today.

NJ Wedding Officiants, New Jersey Civil Unions, NJ Weddings, Wedding Officiants in NJ

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New Jersey Beautiful Weddings will help create a beautiful wedding ceremony for your special day!

To learn more about our New Jersey wedding services, including wedding ceremonies, civil unions, commitment ceremonies and vow renewals, please click on the links below:

• About New Jersey Beautiful Weddings
• About Our New Jersey Wedding Officiants
• New Jersey Wedding Ceremonies (includes tri-state area also)
• New Jersey Civil Unions
• Photo Gallery - NJ Weddings
• How to Obtain a New Jersey Marriage License