It is 2023 and the beginning of a new wedding season. With the current economy, less costly weddings like minimony, micro wedding, and a mini wedding can appear very attractive. However, if you want to level up, or shore up your relationship, without the budget to accompany even these small weddings, then this short blog is for you. Specifically, we will discuss elopement and commitment ceremonies.
Whether you are at a point where you want to make your union legal or are in a long term relationship in which you want to ceremoniously refresh and express your abiding love to your partner, an “abridged ceremony” for just the two of you is a simple and practical way to begin or renew your commitment.
The most popular type of abridged wedding ceremony is the elopement. Since they have been around from time immemorial, there is no need to elaborate on a definition. But, put in very few words, a wedding elopement is when two people intend to marry legally in a much smaller way than a typical traditional wedding. Until recent times, it typically involved just the couple and minister. However, a quick google search will reveal it has become an immensely popular way to have an intimate wedding experience without going through the motions of a wedding event. It has become quite the specialty for many photographers, especially those who enjoy travel and destination shoots.
Likewise, a couple’s commitment ceremony is a uniting event. It can be very elaborate with all the elements of a traditional or non-traditional wedding. Commitment ceremonies are ideal for couples who are newly together and thinking about the next step, as well as, for those who have been together for years and want to reimpress upon their loved one the depth of their feelings. The difference between the two is, in an elopement the couple is pronounced married, and paperwork is submitted to the proper governing entity; whereas, in the commitment ceremony there is no pronouncement of marriage, and no government document is involved.
So, if it is the emotions of the moment you first realized you were in love and wanted to spend the rest of your life with your partner, or the expansive feelings of love that have flourished with the passage of time, an abridged ceremony allows you to be fully present, and to consciously mark the embarking of a new journey together. Without the distraction of attending to other people, you and your beloved can focus on the importance of the day — EACH OTHER.
We at GREAT Celebrations Ceremony Specialist have presided at many weddings; we are familiar with all the moving pieces of a ceremony that a couple will need to tend to when they are standing in front of guests. On the wedding day, it is our job to help them stay grounded and focused on each other. That happens through careful scripting that caresses the couple, and allows them to stay engulfed in each other. Of our couples, we never want it said, “I was so distracted that I don’t remember what was said to me or what I said at my wedding ceremony”. GREAT Celebrations, LLC, is a wedding and event specialty business owned by the mother and daughter team of Jacqueline Smith-Bennett and Mylah Martin Davis. Both are creatives who enjoy producing the visual and spoken word art for rites of passage and other celebratory occasions. Jacqueline is a certified Life-Cycle Celebrant and ordained non-denomination minister.
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