Your step-by-step guide to writing your own vows and styling your wedding ceremony.
Photo: Sinead Jenkins
If you’ve just started planning your wedding a huge congratulations!
It’s only natural to feel a bit overwhelmed and stressed when starting to plan your ceremony so Swell Hire has teamed up with the lovely Angela Port, Dunedin celebrant extraordinaire, to give you some top planning tips as well as ceremony inspiration with panache!
Your ceremony – the only truly essential (and legally required!) part of your wedding day (cocktail hour and reception are awesome but not legally binding!!) and can definitely cause the most stress!
When asked about the ceremony, Angela said that for a wedding ceremony to be legal, all that’s required is a line that needs to be included once in the ceremony, and then the rest is up to you! It can be as funny, quirky, relaxed, traditional or crazy as you are.
Photo: Supplied Angela Port
One of the hardest parts of a wedding ceremony for a couple is writing their vows – putting down on paper all those feelings for your significant other can be hard.
The saying of the vows, is usually the second hardest, because it’s not every day you stand in front of the person you love, all your favourite people and say all those nice things to each other, let’s be honest.
When Angela meets with couples and starts the conversation about writing vows she usually recommends that her couples don’t start writing their vows until after she’s written their ceremony.
The main reason for this is that there might be things Angela says in the ceremony, that you don’t want to go over again in your vows.
Seeing your ceremony will give you an idea of the style that Angela writes in, and it might also give you a bit of inspo for finally putting pen to paper, or fingers to keyboard (whatever suits you).
Three things to think about when writing your vows:
What do you love about the other person
What do you want to promise them
What are you looking forward to doing in the future with them
Answer those questions, and then put some joining words, like ‘and’, in the middle, then voila you’re done.
Part of Angela’s role is to help couples with their vows, so if you really get stuck, Angela can help you make sense out of your thoughts and create something that is totally ‘you’.
Photo: Supplied Angela Port
When asked what one of her favourite things about being a celebrant was Angela was quick to say how differently couples interpret their wedding day.
Some couples opt for something small and intimate, and others choose something with all the bells and whistles.
“I’ve been so lucky to have been a part of some of the most beautiful, styled ceremony spaces, where couples have carefully thought about what they wanted their ceremony and reception space to convey to their guests”.
Photo Supplied Angela Port
Team Swell’s thoughts on ceremony styling:
Just as no two ceremonies are the same, no two ceremony setups are the same. Whether you choose quirky and unconventional, small and intimate or opt for champagne before vows it’s entirely up to you.
Here's some of our thoughts on what can help make a ceremony both stunning and practical for you and your guests:
Standing v Seated
Again, whilst there’s no rules it’s a good idea to have some seating available for people during your ceremony. You don’t necessarily need to provide seating for everyone but there will be people who appreciate being able to sit and enjoy this special part of your day.
Vintage benches are a favourite of ours at ceremonies as they’re lightweight, easily moved and you can fit 3 (or 4 smaller bottoms) people per bench – practical and stylish!
Photo: Lokyee Photography
Frame yourself!
These are the photos that you will look back on in years to come and you want this part of your day to look really nice.
Create a focal point for yourselves either by a natural feature – a garden setting or something you’ve created.
Here’s some of our favourite ideas:
A feature carpet for you to stand on to say your vowels
A stunning arch (the possibilities for these are endless)
A spectacular arrangement
A natural setting (Dunedin Botanic Gardens)
Photo: Georgie Daniells Photography and Estelle Flowers
Make flowers, furniture and decor do double duty!
An amazing way to save costs is to move your florals, furniture and decor after your ceremony and use these at different locations – if you’re having your ceremony and reception at the same venue, floral arrangements can be shifted to lounging areas or by the dessert table.
We’re huge fans of shifting your ceremony rug and using it as a backdrop for another key element of your night - think by the cake table, band, photo backdrop. This way you maximise your styling budget and get lots of beautiful photos right across the night!
One of our favourite weddings was using our Bruno Pollock chairs and vintage benches for the ceremony and then shifting the entire setup to a separate offsite venue and where the entire look was transformed using cushions, candles and lots of rugs!!
Photo: Kassandra Lynne Photography and Estelle Flowers
And just for fun…some serious Pinterest Inspo:
Finally, just for a bit of fun (and to show you it's ok to throw the rule book away sometimes) we've thrown in some serious ceremony inspiration from a heavy hitter in the styling world - Nomad Styling (just give us the heads up and we'll be there with this!!)
Still feeling it’s a bit overwhelming?
Feeling a bit overwhelmed with the options and where to start? Drop us a line - we’re here to help! Teamwork makes the DREAM work!