Your match
The Handfasting
Handfasting is an old Celtic ritual where your hands are tied together with a long cord or ribbon during the vows, and it is where the phrase "tying the knot" comes from. It is the most physical of the four, and many couples frame the cord afterward.
It suits you if you want your guests to watch something happen with your hands. It works best outdoors and at weddings with a bohemian or Celtic feel, and it pairs well with a reading right before the binding.
What to gather
- A cord or long ribbon, eight to ten feet
- A color that means something to you, or one cord braided in each family's wedding color
- Your officiant, who holds the cord until the binding
How it goes
- The two of you join hands at the wrist.
- Your officiant wraps the cord around your hands in a figure-eight pattern while speaking the binding lines.
- At the end you slip your hands out, and the cord stays tied in the shape of two interlocking circles.
- The knotted cord is your keepsake, and it frames well.
The script
The Handfasting · read aloud by your officiant
These hands you are holding are the hands of your best friend, the hands that will hold yours through every ordinary night and every extraordinary one. I am going to bind them, gently, to remind you of what you are choosing today.
Wrap the cord, slowly.
By this cord, your lives are now joined. The knot is loose, and it will stay loose, because the two of you are tied together by your own choice and by nobody else's pulling.
You can take your hands out whenever you want, and the cord will keep its shape without you. The marriage is different, because it only holds while the two of you keep choosing it.
Read it as written, or change any line the two of you wouldn’t say out loud yourselves.
Robyn Ashley Weddings · www.robynashleyweddings.com
What the kits add
The four rituals in the quiz are the ones couples ask me for most. Here’s where I’d send you next, depending on which side of the ceremony you’re on.
From the quiz
- Four unity rituals: handfasting, sand, candle and the wine box
- What to gather and how each one goes
- A ready-to-read script for each
If it’s your wedding
If none of the four is quite yours, the Couple’s Ceremony Kit has all sixteen, along with the rest of the ceremony to go with whichever one you choose.
In the Couple’s Ceremony Kit
- Sixteen unity rituals, with the words and what to gather
- Five questions that narrow the choice
- Five full ceremony scripts in five different styles
- The Story Mine for vows, and thirty readings
If you’re officiating
If you’re the one leading the ritual, the Officiant Kit has eight full ceremony scripts to set it into, the rehearsal run sheet for walking through it beforehand, and pocket cards for when something goes wrong.
In the Officiant Kit
- Eight full ceremony scripts, with names you type once
- The Story Builder, seven steps to the couple’s story
- The Rehearsal Run Sheet, a cue sheet and four pocket cards
- A marriage license reference for all fifty states
