Wedding Vows and Speeches: January 2007

Saturday 13 January 2007

Wedding music: The food of love?

Music is an essential ingredient of a memorable wedding day, so care is needed in deciding what role it will play on your big day.

CDs and discos are fine, but there's no substitute for live music when it comes to providing a great wedding atmosphere.

Depending on where you're getting married, there are three main areas where you need to consider what music and musicians you need - before, during and after the ceremony.

Civil weddings in secular locations are becoming more and more popular these days. However, you need to set a good atmosphere as family and friends gather ready for the wedding ceremony itself.

In churches it's usually down to the resident organist to provide background music while the guests assemble. Of course, there's no direct counterpart at a hotel or stately home, and this is one area where the presence of a good wedding pianist, for example, can really help.

Unlike the church setting, where pre-ceremony music is usually chosen (or sometimes improvised) by the organist, you're likely to have more active input with the hired musician or musicians of your choice as to what material you'd like played.

Of course, the local church still remains a very popular choice for wedding ceremonies, so how should you handle the music here?

You should ideally ask the member of the clergy who is officiating at the ceremony to put you directly in touch with the organist. Read More...

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Tips for Writing Your Wedding Vows

Writing your own wedding vows can be a way to ensure that your vows express your exact sentiment. Many vows commonly used in weddings are very lovely and express your love for each other but they are usually not specific to the couple. While it is not necessary to write your own vows, many couples opt to do so in order to make sure that the vows that they recite at the wedding are meaningful to them as a couple. It is not important that you be an eloquent writer to write beautiful wedding vows. What is important though is that you write from your heart. This will ensure that your vows express your feelings adequately and in a way that your partner will understand.

The first tip for writing your wedding vowsis to make sure that both you and your partner are committed to reciting original vows. Many couples are not comfortable expressing something so personal in front of others. While the love that is expressed in pre-written vows is also personal, it does not leave the couple feeling so vulnerable. There are plenty of existing vows available and a couple should realize that they are free to use these existing vows and are under no obligation to write their own vows.

Once you have decided that you would like to write your own wedding vows you might want to consider whether or not you want your vows to have a theme or themes. Love is sure to be an underlying theme in any vow but you may also want to incorporate other ideas in your vows as well. Read More...

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Finding Christian Wedding Songs

Weddings are a joyous celebration of the love and bond between two people who have chosen to come together as one. They are usually conducted in front of a minister or priest, in order to celebrate the solemnity of the occasion and to make it more binding in the eyes of God and man. And what better way to celebrate that bond other than with music-with Christian wedding songs, to be precise. Although the traditional wedding march is the common music that plays in the background, imagine walking down the aisle, looking all beautiful, while there is music playing that expresses exactly how you feel that special day. A Christian wedding song whose words evoke a special meaning between you and your future husband. Now that would indeed be something special.

Religion & Music

Most religions consider wedding ceremonies to be a form of worship service, and thus, are very strict about preserving the solemnity of the event. This is the reason why most churches do not allow the playing of popular love songs during the wedding. So, how do you choose songs that are not only religious in nature, but also focus on values and ideals related to love and marriage? Well, this happens to be where Christian wedding songs come in.

Christian wedding songs offer a balance between a love song and a religious song, which is extremely perfect for wedding ceremonies and the receptions as well. Read More...

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Wedding Toast Tips

Shy speakers often are selected to give speeches or toasts at weddings, and this can be a nightmare for them, though they don't want to tell the bride and groom. Being selected as a best man or giving your daughter away at her wedding is a huge honor, so you try to suck up your shyness and learn how quiet man wedding toastscan be given that won't make you feel as uncomfortable as you might at the idea of getting up in front of a crowd. Not to worry, a quiet man can deliver a great speech whether he is the best man, the father of the bride, or a quiet friend of the family that would just like to say something to the new couple!

Thankfully, a quiet best man speech or father of the bride speech will likely go unnoticed by all of those in attendance if you plan ahead. It's likely that no one will require that you make a...Read More...

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Saturday 6 January 2007

Traditional Christian Wedding Vows

The wedding vows are the words that you utter as a promise to your significant other. The vows may be traditional, or personalized. Traditional vows are vows that were used over and over. The vows were handed down from generations. Personalized Wedding Vows were made up vows by the Groom and Bride. Many couples feel deeply for each other and like to express their feelings. So, the couple opts to make their own wedding vows.

Groom: I (name), take you (name) to be my wife. I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.Bride: I (name), take you (name) to be my husband. I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health. I will love you and honor you all the days of my life.

Groom: I (name), take you (name) for my lawful wife, to have and to hold, from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part...Read More...

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Stuck writing your vows? Read through these sample wedding vows.

Are you getting married soon and need to write your wedding vows? Can't think of the right words to say or use? Do you need some sample wedding vows to jump start your thinking? Hey, we know what you're going through, so relax a little bit and check out these sample vows you can use for your wedding.

Now, keep in mind that there are differing vows for each religion. Also, these are not set in stone, and can be changed around to your liking or combined with other vows. The choice is yours, just remember to check with your officiant before totally committing to whatever vow you choose. (Especially if you are getting married in a church or synagogue - they probably have set standards on what is acceptable.) Read More...

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Wedding Poetry

Poetry is the language of love. For centuries, poems have expressed intimate feelings and emotions, and have been used to record significant thoughts and events in an artistic form. Naturally, a wedding ceremony is the perfect forum for a heartfelt poetry reading.

Wedding poetry is a lovely gift for the bride and groom when it is composed and be read by a close friend or a member of the family. If you would like to offer this personal gift but are not a poet at heart, you can turn to a professional wedding writer to create a composition. Readings of poetry by literary greats like Keats or Wordsworth, or even beautiful song lyrics can also bring an element of romance and beauty to the ceremony or reception. If it is decided that the task of writing the wedding poem will be delegated to an experienced professional, the bride and groom or a family member should choose the composer carefully and coordinate with the writer as often as possible. Read More...

Wedding Vows and Wedding Speeches

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Poetry in Weddings: Let me Count the Ways

Since most weddings are romantic and poetic, poetry has been attending them for more than two millenniums. Epithalamiums, first wedding poems of the western world, were sung by Greek and Roman poets outside the happy couple's room. During the fourteenth century the poems became more sophisticated and this change eventually led to the writing of wedding poetry by well-known poets like Donne, Jonson, Herrick, and Edmund Spenser.

Spenser wrote his famous "Epithalamion" to his young bride Elizabeth Boyle for his own wedding ceremony. "Epithalamion" starts with:

During the eleventh and twelfth centuries, Spanish Jews wrote some notable poems on matrimonial themes, and in Italy, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, Jews and Christians offered to the couple wedding poems-sacred, romantic, or in riddles-commemorating the occasion. These poems-some one hundred lines long-were often commissioned by the rich to the famous poets of the day to be luxuriously illustrated and handwritten in calligraphy on parchment. Read More...

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Famous Wedding Toasts & Speeches

While wedding toasts are very common, it can be difficult to give a great toast if you've never done it before. Sure, you see the movies where toasts are spoken as if they are poetry, seemingly with no forethought or effort. You might find it difficult to do this, which is why you should give a toast like the famous. Be prepared! Even mega stars such as George Clooney who just found out he will be hosting Brad and Angelina's wedding come prepared. Sure, he is the typical alpha male that seems relaxed and ready for anything, but do not kid yourself into believing that he will be able to host the wedding and give a toast without some planning! There will be plenty of people at Brad and Angelina's wedding as well as any other upcoming celebrity wedding that will have had some help in writing their toast for the famous couple!

Do Some Research

Search your library or even the Internet for some great quotes on weddings to sort of incorporate into your speech. You don't have to do something overly tacky or sentimental if that is not your personality, but there are some great sentiments that can help you express your thoughts, feelings, and happiness for the new couple. Most famous people have toasts and speeches prepared for them, and when you do some research you are basically using something old or something you've found elsewhere to really help you say what you need to say in an elegant way! Unfortunately, most of us do not have script writers on hand to help us write a toast, so the best thing you can do is look up some great toasts that have been used in history. Read More...

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Wedding Vows and Speeches