Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Give Your Wedding Sensational Add-On Ceremonies
    Give Your Wedding Sensational Add-On Ceremonies
    Give Your Wedding Sensational Add-On Ceremonies
    Ebook140 pages1 hour

    Give Your Wedding Sensational Add-On Ceremonies

    By Raymond Cross

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Attention gathering add-on ceremonies enliven wedding ceremonies by adding drama that richly depicts marriage commitment. In this, the third installment of the Sensational Wedding Series, veteran Wedding Officiant Ray Cross shares everything needed for twenty add-on ceremonies that break the drone of words, words, words at your wedding, including the new, spell-binding Water Ceremony.

    Table of Contents

    Sensational Symbolism
    1. Balloon Ceremony
    2. Blessing Ceremony
    3. Butterfly Ceremony
    4. Candle Ceremony
    5. Children Ceremony
    6. Coin Ceremony
    7. Cord Ceremony
    8. Cup Ceremony
    9. Dove Ceremony
    10. Glass Ceremony
    11. Handfasting Ceremony
    12. Knot Ceremony
    13. Memorial Ceremony
    14. Parental Recognition Ceremony
    15. Rose Ceremony
    16. Sand Ceremony
    17. Sash Ceremony
    18. Treasure Chest Ceremony
    19. Veil Ceremony
    20. Water Ceremony

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRaymond Cross
    Release dateFeb 16, 2016
    ISBN9781310165603
    Give Your Wedding Sensational Add-On Ceremonies
    Author

    Raymond Cross

    Ray Cross describes himself as an "improvementist" – "Good, better, best never let it rest, until your good is better and your better, best." Ray always looks for ways of breathing new life, creativity and healing into all of his relationships and activities – a life drive that uncovers improvements and solutions to perplexing inefficiencies and weakness. Ray applies this drive to all he experiences. His books, therefore, touch on a variety of challenges that have crossed his path, both conceptual and practical.Ray was born in Toronto, studied for ministry at Ontario Bible College, where he earned a Bachelor of Theology. While pastoring in Peterborough, from Trent University he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology.Ray pastored Baptist churches in Peterborough, Trenton, Port Hope, Oshawa and Scarborough for 32 years before retiring from pastoral service. Pastoral ministry, of course, involved all aspects of personal and family care. While pastoring, Ray took many practical ministry and counselling courses to enhance his skills as well a travelling province-wide teaching insightful seminars.Since retiring from pastoring, Ray has served as an Officiant, primarily for weddings. His wedding website,brideschoiceofficiant.com, provides matchless wedding ceremony resources couples love.Ray has been happily married since 1971 to Diane, a nutrition expert and public school teacher (retired). They have two grown children and three grandchildren. Ray shares that the incredible professional acting skills of his daughter, Andrea, inspire his quest for dynamic presentation in ceremonies.If you see Ray and Diane about town you will find them walking hand in hand. They also ice skate several times a week. They love to travel and delight in white sand beaches. A natural extension of their love of travel is Ray’s periodic service as guest minister on cruises ships.Ray is a thorough researcher, and his experience in sermon planning, public speaking, and service planning and coordination is evident in all he does.Ray is sensitive and responsive to the needs of those he serves, whether in weddings, public speaking or on the printed page.

    Read more from Raymond Cross

    Related to Give Your Wedding Sensational Add-On Ceremonies

    Related ebooks

    Weddings For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Sagittarius

      Aug 26, 2021

      Sagittarius
      4 min read

    • Article

      Make It Magical

      Mar 10, 2017

      Make It Magical
      4 min read

    • Article

      All About Your Vows

      Jun 24, 2019

      OUR PRO Jemelle Wooten, a licensed officiant, ordained minister and certified premarital coach, specializes in working with nontraditional couples. WHAT WE LOVE Jemelle allows couples to lead the way in customizing their ceremonies and making new tra

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Art Of Ceremony

      Mar 7, 2018

      The Art Of Ceremony
      3 min read

    • Article

      Be outrageously YOU with Jennifer Claire

      Nov 5, 2021

      By choosing a Celebrant-led wedding, not only can you personalise every word, you can also bring some pretty awesome theatre to your ceremony. The most common ritual you will already know is the ring exchange which will typically happen after you’ve

      3 min read

    • Article

      Include Your Crew

      Nov 20, 2017

      Include Your Crew
      4 min read

    • Article

      For Better Or For Verse

      May 21, 2018

      For Better Or For Verse
      4 min read

    • Article

      For Better Or For Verse

      Jun 25, 2018

      For Better Or For Verse
      4 min read

    • Article

      For Better Or For Verse

      Aug 13, 2018

      For Better Or For Verse
      4 min read

    • Article

      For Better Or For Verse

      May 14, 2018

      For Better Or For Verse
      4 min read

    • Article

      Meet The Celebrants!

      Feb 5, 2022

      Celebrant-led weddings can be incredibly personal and truly bespoke, allowing you to include or exclude traditions as you choose. They give you a wealth of flexibility as to where your ceremony takes place, the theme it has and the elements it contai

      6 min read

    • Article

      Wedding Belles

      Jul 2, 2021

      Wedding Belles
      5 min read

    • Article

      Include Your Crew

      Dec 25, 2017

      Include Your Crew
      4 min read

    • Article

      Include Your Crew

      Feb 12, 2018

      Include Your Crew
      4 min read

    • Article

      Ceremony Planning Dos And Don’ts

      Dec 26, 2016

      Ceremony Planning Dos And Don’ts
      5 min read

    • Article

      Ceremony Planning Dos And Don’ts

      Jan 2, 2017

      Ceremony Planning Dos And Don’ts
      5 min read

    • Article

      Ask Carley

      Dec 26, 2016

      Ask Carley
      4 min read

    • Article

      Expert Advice

      Dec 19, 2016

      after celebrating, what are the three things couples should do immediately after getting engaged? Define your guest count, select a wedding date and find a venue. how do you find the perfect venue? Ask lots of questions. Only look at venues that fit

      4 min read

    • Article

      Ceremony Planning Dos And Don’ts

      Jul 3, 2017

      Ceremony Planning Dos And Don’ts
      5 min read

    • Article

      Be outrageously YOU

      Jul 28, 2022

      Ok, the day comes when you sit down together and start to write your guest list. Two hours later and your list is as long as the length of your table and you have that confused, frustrated look on your face. We cannot have this many people, surely!?

      4 min read

    • Article

      Be outrageously YOU with Jennifer Claire

      Jan 12, 2023

      Say no to boring ceremonies or ones that make your toes curl with awkwardness and yes to ceremonies that see your mouth gape with pure joy. So many couples add new elements to their ceremony that are overcooked or leave the guests with an uncomfortab

      4 min read

    • Article

      Ceremony Planning Dos And Don’ts

      Jul 3, 2017

      Ceremony Planning Dos And Don’ts
      5 min read

    • Article

      All About Planning

      Jul 27, 2020

      All About Planning
      2 min read

    • Article

      Meet The Celebrants!

      May 5, 2022

      Celebrant-led weddings can be incredibly personal and truly bespoke, allowing you to include or exclude traditions as you choose. They give you a wealth of flexibility as to where your ceremony takes place, the theme it has and the elements it contai

      10 min read

    • Article

      On The Write Track

      Jul 3, 2017

      On The Write Track
      4 min read

    • Article

      Wedding Planner

      Dec 11, 2016

      Wedding Planner
      5 min read

    • Article

      Ask The Knot Squad

      Jan 27, 2020

      Ask The Knot Squad
      2 min read

    • Article

      All About Wedding Planning

      May 20, 2019

      All About Wedding Planning
      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Give Your Wedding Sensational Add-On Ceremonies

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Give Your Wedding Sensational Add-On Ceremonies - Raymond Cross

      Thank you soooo much for performing our ceremony. It was perfect, I could not have asked for a better day. You were very professional and made us all laugh. You made for a very stress free day walking us through everything that we needed to do! I loved the fact that you allow your couples to write their own ceremony with as much or as little guidance from you as we wished. — Courtney and Darryl

      Reverend Ray Cross, of Bride's Choice Officiant, is an absolute pleasure to work with. By injecting humour and compassion into his style of delivery, Ray has a unique ability to keep the ceremony feeling special and solemn without being too stuffy. Ray was also incredibly helpful in the preparations for our ceremony, which included children, and there are a ton of resources on his website for people like me who have no idea where to begin! Ray was an integral part of making my wedding the special and joyous occasion that it was, and I would highly recommend his services to anyone.

      <><><>

      Back to the top

      Introduction

      Sensational weddings ought to pique intense interest, excite, stir incurable emotion and build unforgettable memories.

      I have learned much by studying the performances of my daughter, Andrea, a very gifted actress. She can say so much without speaking a word. I love add-on ceremonies for that very reason. They communicate by acting the meanings of wedding commitments, with or without words. So, including an add-on ceremony in your wedding introduces another dimension of fascination into the communication of your commitments.

      For this reason, a book about add-on ceremonies fits so well into a self-help wedding series. The books, together, enable you to plan and execute a truly exceptional wedding without professional help, except that of the absolutely necessary Officiant. You will learn what a sensational wedding entails, how to design ceremony components and wordings, how your ceremony fits into your total wedding experience, how to run a quality wedding rehearsal, what is necessary for music and sound, and how it relates to your wedding atmosphere, how to determine the venue that is right for you, how to find and assess the quality of wedding professionals you choose to hire, how to select your wedding Officiant…. In these books you will learn everything you need to know for a do-it-yourself wedding, or how to select and work with the wedding professionals you need. It’s all here in a collection of concise and inexpensive books that could save you thousands of dollars and untold grief. Invest in the quality of your wedding. Purchase the Sensational Wedding Series—inexpensive guides to a sensational wedding experience.

      Sensational Symbolism

      Dullness endangers weddings. If your Officiant is not skilled at animating language, your wedding could drone on in mind-numbing deadness. Don’t let your wedding lapse into ho-hum. Take control. Do something different. Head humdrum off at the pass.

      Culture starts somewhere, sometime. When culture started it had purpose. If it persists in society that purpose must continue to resonate. This is what I sense about weddings, yet, this purposeful participation seems also to have descended to… We do it the way we do it because that is the way it has been done. Such mindless monotony does not speak sensational.

      Weddings are called ceremonies because we expect a degree of pageantry in the event. Since pageantry is produced by acting out significant meaning, rather than merely stating it in words, you might want to consider ramping this up with a presentational expression of your commitment that surpasses words. In weddings this has been achieved in a number of ways, mostly what I call add-ons. Add-ons provide creative means of drawing everyone sense-ationally into the meaning of your wedding.

      Communication is by symbols. These symbols may be words or actions, or a combination of both. Some add-on ceremonies may communicate more meaningfully without words. More can sometimes be shared in symbol and action than in words. Silence can be profound and the meaning truly rich.

      With or without narration, including an add-on ceremony may go a long way to sparkling up your wedding and creating the sensational. If you choose to use words to clarify or expand the meaning of a ceremony, what follows should provide ideas for that wording according to the meaning you desire to share. A pertinent reading, by the Officiant or a person significant to the couple, accompanying an add-on ceremony may provide clarification or additional richness of meaning.

      Add-on ceremonies introduce refreshing mini-plays depicting the meaning of aspects of the marriage commitment, of memorial to lost loved ones, of easing children in blended families or of parental blessing.

      Some add-on ceremonies come out of different cultures. Others are more recent developments to address specific aspects of wedding commitments. I am especially intrigued by add-on ceremonies that depict the wedding commitment in symbolic form – I love the graphic manner in which they act out the dynamics of the marriage union. Not just words, words, words, but carefully designed meaningful movement which speaks, even in silence.

      Having officiated weddings more than forty years I have participated in these ceremony add-ons and thought often of how these contribute to the interest and effectiveness of weddings. It has sparked me to design two completely new ceremonies I hope will add even more to the popularity of such graphic depiction of matrimonial meaning as part of wedding ceremonies. You may use or adjust these symbolic inclusions according to your circumstance. Perhaps they will prime your creativity to even develop something new that expresses the deep and unique significance of your specific union.

      Since pageantry is meant to communicate truths and values by means of actions, and acting often stimulates the imaginative thinking of observers, add-on ceremonies may provide communication better than words. Sometimes more can be communicated in symbol and action than in words. Silence can be profound and the meaning truly rich. So, it may be best to perform certain add-on ceremonies with little verbal explanation. In my wedding, more than forty years ago, my bride and I included the candle ceremony. In silence we each took a lighted candle from the outside of a three tiered candelabra, simultaneously lit the centre candle, blew

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1