The Ceremony ~ Props
  Our wedding included a wine ceremony, a hand-fasting, and a unity candle lighting, so we had to gather quite a few little props for this. At the front of Gold/Silver/Bronze Rooms as a wooden lattice screen backdrop. In front of the screens, we had a small gold table provided by the Capital Club. This table served as an altar-like space where the ceremonial props were arranged for us to use.

 

toasting flutesWine ceremony: When we were in Ireland last spring, we bought a pair of gorgeous glasses at Waterford Crystal in Ireland -- they're the "Peace" design from Waterford's new Millennium Collection. These were tied together by a red silken cord and used for this wine-drinking ceremony.

There's a Chinese legend about couples being connected before birth with a red silken cord. As they grow up, the cord becomes shorter and shorter, until they find each other and are united forever. As a token of this, the couple drinks wine from glasses tied together by a red silken cord.


 

Hand-fasting: For this Celtic (and essentially pagan ;-) ceremony, we used a heavy silver cord. During the ceremony, this cord was wrapped around our clasped hands by James. Trystan bought a length of pretty cord at Hancocks Fabric Warehouse to use for this.

 

Unity candles: We found some great candleholders at Paramount Imports. We had a large silver pillar candleholder with an elaborate, vaguely Indian design. Flanking it were two more simple silver taper candleholders. All had ivory candles in them.

Our parents lighted the taper candles after walking down the aisle during the Recessional. Then we used the taper candles to light the pillar candle together. All of these candles were moved to the head table after the ceremony, to become part of that table's decorations.

Also after the ceremony, the Best Man, Mike, and one of the groomsmen, Chris, lit a lovely oil lamp from the unity candle. They intended to keep it lit until we came back from our honeymoon -- their plan and the result is in the wedding story.

  
 

 

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