What wedding traditions should you keep?
Your wedding is your special day and should therefore fit your wants and needs. There is no “right” answer regarding the issue of choosing traditional or modern for your marriage ceremony. Below are suggestions for you to use in making choices that fit for you and your spouse-to-be.
How to decide on traditional or modern wedding choices
- First determine your overall vision for your wedding. Besides the obvious purpose of getting married, why else are you having your ceremony? What experience do you want to have? What kind of event do you want to create for your guests?
- Now consider if there are any traditions that are meaningful for you or important for you to include. Certain symbology, readings, or specific elements may help you create an event that “feels” like a wedding for you. These components may be serious–religious reading, cultural tradition–or more for fun–tossing the garter and bouquet, clinking glasses to make the newlyweds kiss.
- Check in with other key people (parents, your officiant, etc.). Even though it’s your wedding, it’s valuable to have conversations with those closest to you to learn of any wedding elements (traditional or modern) that they would like to see included/excluded. You may also be required to do certain things to have your marriage be official, so check with your officiant on this.
- Review your vision and your list of ideas to make your final choices. You may or may not have time to include every idea on your list, so determine which elements are essential and which can be eliminated or incorporated in some other part of your wedding events. You might make a 3-point scale and “rate” each of the ideas (must have, optional, can eliminate) as a quick way for you and your partner to make your final selection.
- Know that you’ve created the right wedding ceremony for you. Sometimes it’s easy to second guess yourselves or worry that you have to accommodate everyone’s wishes. Once you and your partner have made your choices, trust that these choices are the perfect ones for creating the magical wedding day that you’ve envisioned. Now have fun putting it all together into one joyous, honoring, and loving celebration!
How did you decide what wedding traditions to include and which to leave out of your big day? Share your wisdom with other couples preparing to say “I do.”
Marriage Vow Workbook authors interviewed on the Wedding Podcast Network
Remember when we told you about the Wedding Podcast Network–a great resource for planning your wedding? Well, guess what? We were featured guests on episode 22 of their show–Bridal Scene!
Robert Allen, one of the Wedding Podcast Network’s founders, interviewed us about I Do! I Do! The Marriage Vow Workbook. In addition to our conversation about how to write your own wedding vows, the importance of personal wedding vows, and what’s included in The Marriage Vow Workbook, there’s some other great info on this podcast.
So, sit back, relax, and hop on over to the Wedding Podcast Network and listen to the Bridal Scene podcast! Show notes can be found here.
Wedding planning advice for the busy bride-to-be
Looking for help planning your wedding?
Need some romantic ideas for your honeymoon?
Want tips for staying happy and healthy through the busy wedding preparations?
Look no further than the Wedding Podcast Network, original wedding talk programming for couples planning their wedding. Founded by seasoned wedding professionals, and wife and husband team, Robert Allen and Holli Ehrlich, they now feature many great shows, including:
- newlywedcast — From engagement fairy tales to nuptial anecdotes, pre-wedding interviews and post-wedding follow-up, see how it all unravels through these insightful stories of romance, emotion and love!
- grooms with a view — Helpful planning advice from the male perspective.
- meet the masters — Premiere wedding authorities share thoughts and insights for brides everywhere.
- lovecast — useful relationship advice. Learn how to manage the stress of wedding planning, accept differences, communicate, and resolve conflicts. Important life lessons, valuable information and topical discussions about your significant other and each other’s families.
- wedding workout — Fitness focused podcast with great workout tips.
- bridal scene — Hear what’s hot and happening in the world of weddings. Bridal tips, advice, interviews.
- planet bride — Michelle and Henry Roth, sister and brother design duo, share their three generations of family bridal tradition and take you on a unique wedding planning journey. Hear how to get real and how to deal from a pair that know the wedding business like no other.
- here come the moms — Brides and moms will learn how to work harmoniously for the perfect wedding experience.
Whether you listen on your home computer or download MP3s to play on your iPod, now you’ve had plenty of tried and tested practical wedding advice right at your fingertips. Visit the Wedding Podcast Network today!
Marriage quotes
Need something loving to say at a wedding? Getting prepared to give a wedding toast? Looking for appropriate quotes to include in your best man or maid of honor speech? Below are a handful of our favorite quotes about love, relationships, and marriage. If you have a favorite to share, please drop it in the comments section.
“To keep your marriage brimming, With love in the loving cup, Whenever you’re wrong, admit it; Whenever you’re right, shut up.”
~ Ogden Nash“You can give without loving, but you can never love without giving. The great acts of love are done by those who are habitually performing small acts of kindness. We pardon to the extent that we love. Love is knowing that even when you are alone, you will never be lonely again. And great happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved. Loved for ourselves. And even loved in spite of ourselves.”
~ Victor Hugo“It is easy to love the people far away. It is not always easy to love those close to us. It is easier to give a cup of rice to relieve hunger than to relieve the loneliness and pain of someone unloved in our own home. Bring love into your home for this is where our love for each other must start.”
~ Mother Teresa“Marriage is a relationship, not a project to be completed or a problem to be solved.”
~ Gary Chapman“When you are for me as much as you are for yourself, And I am for you as much as I am for myself, we will start to understand the meaning of our relationship.”
~ Brad Brown“Being married is like having somebody permanently in your corner, it feels limitless, not limited.”
~ Gloria Steinem
Podcast — Ideas for couples thinking of writing their own wedding vows
Bruce Mulkey & Shonnie Lavender interviewed by Karen Ross [12:18m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download“We believe that each couple has the vows within them. We put together a process to draw those vows out.”~ Bruce Mulkey
Planning your wedding can be a hectic, challenging time. For many couples, the idea of using their own vows is appealing, yet the thought of having one more thing “to do” can seem overwhelming. We understand this dilemma and wrote The Marriage Vow Workbook to give you a path to follow in writing your own wedding vows.
In this episode of the I Do! I Do! podcast (12 minutes 18 seconds long), we share part of our interview by radio talk show host, Karen Ross, from 106.3 FM in Greenville, South Carolina. Here are the areas we talk about with Karen.
- Why we were inspired to write The Marriage Vow Workbook
- How the book benefits couples entering their first marriage as well as people who are preparing to remarry and those who are renewing their vows
- Writing your own wedding vows is easier than you might think
- How reviewing your vows on a regular basis helps to keep your love strong
- How The Marriage Vow Workbook offers more than simply a process for writing your own wedding vows
- The advantages of having thoughtful relationship conversations before you get married
- The value couples receive from taking the opportunity to go deep and explore some areas like values, goals, and their vision for the relationship before they ever say “I do”
“Looking at some of these exercises [in The Marriage Vow Workbook], they’re important in ways other than just writing the vows. I would imagine this opens up some real areas of insight for couples.”
~ Karen Ross
If you have questions about writing the vows for your upcoming wedding, drop us a comment below or send us an email via our Contact Us page. We’re here to help you get your marriage started off right.
Make your wedding vows an expression of your true love
In I Do! I Do! The Marriage Vow Workbook, we offer you a step-by-step approach for writing your own unique vows, vows that will express your love in your own words. In addition to the numerous exercises, we provide suggestions based on our own experience as a happily married couple.
If you’re in the process of writing your wedding vows here are a few tips for making these self-authored marriage promises to your beloved:
- Write vows in the positive (e.g., “I will treat you with respect,” instead of, “I will not be disrespectful toward you.”).
- Write vows in the way you speak. If you’re plainspoken, write your vows that way and leave flowery prose to others.
- Write vows that register a strong “yes” within you when you read them to yourself. Something inside you will let you know that this commitment is right for you.
- Write vows that speak to the best in you and your partner.
Writing your own vows can be one was to get your marriage off to a strong start. Even if you don’t think of yourselves as writers, trust us, by using The Marriage Vow Workbook (either the print or e-book version) or another thoughtful process, you can write vows that beautifully express your committed love. Even if you want to have elements of tradition in your wedding, writing your own wedding vows can bring you and your partner closer and deepen the love you now feel.
Congratulations and have fun writing your vows!
Make a map for your wedding
Looking for an easy way to give guests a map for your wedding? Check out Wedding Mapper. As they say on their website, “Wedding Mapper was built to make it fun, easy, and affordable for you to map out your wedding, ensuring that your guests have all the information they need in order to have a great time at your wedding.”
Show your out-of-town guests where to find the convenient hotels, the location of the reception, even suggested places for them to visit while they’re in town to celebrate your marriage. It’s simple to build your map and you can print it or even share it on your own wedding website. (Image courtesty of WeddingMapper.com)
Details about Wedding Mapper
- It is free to use because it is ad-supported. You can pay to remove the ads for just $9.95.
- The people behind it promise never to sell your information to a third party nor to spam you.
- It was created by the same people who brought you CommunityWalk.
Thanks to Soni Pitts for bringing this interesting site to our attention.
