Weddings: The Magic of Creating Your Own Ceremony

Rating:
Summary: Best Ceremony Book of the 8 I read
Review: I don't usually come back to write reviews of the stuff I read, but I felt I really should for this book. My fiance and I are writing our own ceremony (not just the vows) and we kept coming back to this book for ideas. It poses questions to you that get you thinking in the right direction, has several good examples and is appropriate for those planning a non-religious ceremony or a religious ceremony. So many of the books I read focused on the vows only, or still had the traditional church overtones we were trying to avoid. It focuses on what's important to you as a couple, and it's been a great process for us to go through together. I highly recommend it!

Rating:
Summary: Best Wedding Vows book
Review: I've read a bunch of wedding vow books, and this is the only one that I've found to be really useful. It not only covers writing vows, but also writing statments of appreciation, the celebrant's address, music, opening, closing, etc. It also asks some excellent questions, like how are people going to know the ceremony is starting? How are they going to know it is over? How are you going to put a ring on the grooms finger while you are holding a bouquet? I'm certainly not experienced with writing ceremonies; this book was a great help.

Rating:
Summary: Best Wedding Vows book
Review: I've read a bunch of wedding vow books, and this is the only one that I've found to be really useful. It not only covers writing vows, but also writing statments of appreciation, the celebrant's address, music, opening, closing, etc. It also asks some excellent questions, like how are people going to know the ceremony is starting? How are they going to know it is over? How are you going to put a ring on the grooms finger while you are holding a bouquet? I'm certainly not experienced with writing ceremonies; this book was a great help.

Rating:
Summary: A guidebook to help lovers make their special day their own.
Review: It's February. St. Valentine's Day is rushing hard onus all, with its thoughts of love and flowers, cards and kisses. Perhaps this Valentine's Day will go particularly well, and you'll decide to marry the person you're kissing this February 14th. That's when the hard work starts. You have to plan a wedding. There may be conflicting religions, conflicting beliefs. You have to learn to accommodate one another and to work together to make this launching of your lives together successful. Friends and family will have a lot of advice to offer, but ultimately the decisions belong to you and your partner.

Henry S. Basayne and Linda R. Janowitz have written a book to help you navigate the passage to the altar. Weddings, subtitled The Magic of Creating Your Own Ceremony, is a guidebook to help lovers make their special day their own. Not so much a book to be read as a book to be worked through, Weddings doesn't offer any dogmatic solutions but offers readers a number of alternatives. The authors note that even if a couple is involved in a traditional religion, the celebrant will want their input on how the ceremony should be performed, so this book has something to offer even those couples who think all the decisions have been made.

Mr. Basayne and Dr. Janowitz pose questions for couples to ponder: What sort of ceremony? Who should be included? What are we promising to do? How should we promise it? Recognizing that no two couples are alike, the authors don't anticipate the answers to any of their questions, but they perform the valuable service of asking them. Planning a wedding is often the first big thing a couple does together. It is a time when they learn a lot about each other, and an opportunity for learning that shouldn't be missed. Weddings is a workbook that can help couples find their way through this process, especially the process of composing vows. When you're making vows that are meant to last a lifetime, it's very important to be sure of what you're saying.

Mr. Basayne and Dr. Janowitz also cover more practical matters: the choice of music and the choice of celebrant. They offer a selection of poetry and prose readings that might be useful, and examples of a number of contemporary ceremonies. None of these are meant to be definitive, but rather they are points of departure that are meant to help a couple think about what they want to include. Weddings is likely to be a useful tool for a lot of successful valentines.

by Mark Mitchell, reprinted with permission from The New Fillmore, vol. 14, No.10, February 2000. (MARK MITCHELL is a neighborhood poet.)

Rating:
Summary: Excellent source of vow and ceremony ideas and styles
Review: This book is proving to be an excellent source of ideas, wording, and suggestions for our ceremony. It covers everything from formal, traditional content to very informal and untraditional approaches, including same sex unions, etc. .

Everything from openings, vows, ring exchanges, vow renewals, closings, thanking people, prose, poetry, music, and even how to handle stage fright. Lots of detailed examples and material to work with for ideas. What a gold mine! I dreaded writing vows from scratch -- this makes it fun and it stimulates ideas.

When I first flipped through it (lent to me by my sis-in-law) I didn't yet appreciate its value, but now that we are writing our vows it is *immensely* helpful and really helps us formulate what we're trying to express. It's got a wide range of material, and has lots of non-religious material also. Once I see the examples, then pretty soon my own unique words come tumbling out. Tons of great real text from what feels like real people and situations.

Rating:
Summary: One of the most useful wedding books!
Review: This is a fantastic, practical resource for all types of wedding ceremonies - it provides not only sample wording, but advice on choosing rituals and readings, and things to consider for setting the tone of your wedding. There are full, sample ceremonies and lots of great information. Highly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: Weddings:The Magic of Creating Your Own Ceremony
Review: This is an excellent tool, both for couples wishing to create their own wedding ceremony, and for celebrants in assisting their clients. Apart from Ceremonies and Celebrations by Dally Messenger, it's the most useful I have found in twenty-six years as a marriage celebrant.