Have a Simple, Small, Green Wedding
A wedding is one of life's major rites of passage. It is
certainly something to celebrate! Today, wedding books and
magazines promote large weddings so that more and more wedding
products can be sold. Wedding expenditures run into many
thousands of dollars. And after this major outlay of money, most
of what is purchased is never used again.
On the Spring Equinox 2004, my ex-husband (yes, that's right! my
ex-husband!) Larry and I remarried. We had been together for
almost seventeen years, and had divorced several years ago when
our relationship problems seemed impossible to resolve. But we
still loved each other, so we figured out what to do to make
things better, and are now happier than ever.
In planning our wedding, we wanted to keep it simple, small, and
full of meaning. We wanted a ceremony and celebration that would
be easy to prepare for and manage. We wanted an intimate
occasion, surrounded by our closest friends who would
participate with us in the intention of our union. And as we
planned our wedding, we used the same guidelines for health and
the environment that we practice in our daily home life.
Since most books and articles are about planning big weddings, I
want to offer some tips on planning another sort of wedding that
can be beautiful and meaningful in it's own way.
* Make it your day. Each wedding can and should be a unique
expression of the couple getting married. So create the day just
the way you want it, to please the two of you.
* Choose the wedding traditions that are important to you. When
it comes right down to it, the essentials of a wedding are the
two people to be married, the minister or justice of the peace
who performs the ceremony, the ceremony itself, and the guests
who witness it. Everything else is decoration and tradition.
Learn about wedding traditions and choose to do those that will
make your day special.
* Write your own ceremony. The entire reason for having a
wedding, really, is the ceremony. The most important aspect of a
wedding is not the decorations, but the vows and intentions that
are stated in the ceremony and that you give to each other.
Research the time-honored patterns to wedding ceremonies and
follow this pattern in your own personal way.
* Invite meaningful guests. When you have a small number of
guests, you can spend more time with them and really experience
their presence. Minimum is just the two of you, the minister,
and a witness. Invite family and friends with whom you have real
relationships. Eliminate those that might be invited out of
social obligation.
* Have your wedding at home, either indoors or in your garden,
or in a park. Rather than spending a lot of money on floral
arrangements, we put that money into tidying up our back yard
and planting perennial flowers that we are still enjoying today.
Looking back on our wedding day, we are very pleased with our
simple, small wedding. We were able to relax and enjoy the day
and experience the love and support of our best friends. Best of
all, we still had energy left for the honeymoon...
For many more details on planning your simple, small, green
wedding (including choosing flowers, rings, clothing and
reciption, and photos of Debra's wedding), visit
http://www.debraslist.com/wedding, and click on "You are invited
to... My Simple, Small, Green Wedding". Debra is also available
as a consultant to help you plan your wedding.