In Crafting Secular Ritual, author Jeltje Gordon-Lennox provides the tools you’ll need to craft your own secular wedding ceremony, by splitting the process into three stages: Planning, Creating, Realizing.
Before you start however, it can be useful to draw up a ceremony checklist, so that you can keep on top of all three stages. Follow this link to download your exclusive Wedding Ceremony Checklist from Crafting Secular Ritual.
Sample Order of a Wedding Ceremony
• Entrance music – guests gather for the ceremony; participants and parents enter the ceremonial space; the couple enter, separately or together
• Welcome and explanations – celebrant
• Readings – friends and relatives (alternate with 30–60 seconds of music)
• Partners confirm their intention to marry
• Taking turns the couple recite a special text for their partner
• Joint wedding vow
• Symbolic gesture of the vow (wedding rings, kiss)
• Closing words – celebrant
• Exit music – the couple leave the ceremonial space followed by their guests
Page 128, Crafting Secular Ritual.
For more information on the book, or to find out how you can create rituals for other life events, please follow this link.