More of my favorite links from the wedding blogospheres…
I’m in love with sparkler pictures
Have I mentioned before that I love Fall?
Taking farmers markets to a whole new level!
And if you’re REALLY into Halloween…
Jumping pictures and pictures in front of haystacks never disappoint!
Think ahead: Thank You Cards
Hayrides, cool trucks, and barns!
LOVE the “Mr. & Mrs.” shot!
Got any other favorite wedding links?
Last month I had the pleasure of performing an intimate wedding in Manhattan Beach, with all guests barefoot in the sand! For the commemorative part of their ceremony, Martin and Brooke put together a puzzle made from a picture of themselves. Before the ceremony, Martin and Brooke began putting part of the puzzle together by gluing individual pieces over a piece of glass. During the ceremony, they had each of their mothers come up and add a piece to the puzzle. It was a nice way to include two very important people in their lives, and also a way of showing their two families becoming one through their marriage.
Throughout the reception, guests were invited to add their own piece to complete the puzzle.
Like this idea? You can learn more about puzzle-pictures by checking out the website that Brooke and Martin used by clicking here.
Another cool thing about their ceremony was that they were able to share it with Martin’s family and friends who were thousands of miles away, in Hamburg, Germany. One of their guests used his iPhone to take a video of the ceremony and reception, and through some form of magic (which I’m not sure of), their guests were able to log in to a website and watch the whole thing from their computers.
Gotta love technology!
Thanks to Martin & Brooke for letting the Merry Ministers be a part of their special day!
Our good friends Erika and Julian got married last year, and had so many beautiful little details! Here’s my favorite: 
They got married in a little plaza from an old hotel in downtown Fullerton, so they decided to have keys for each guest. Get it? Like a key to a room in the hotel! Everything was handmade, minus the keys, obviously. From what Erika told me, they spent a lot of time and effort in making the box look as beautiful as it does.
They bought the keys at random antique stores, and I was lucky enough to be able to pick my own…which I still have.
The actual tags where made by bending them up a bit, letting them soak in the sun with black tea, and then using an old school typewriter to type the name and table designation.
Since both the bride and groom are from the same area in Argentina, they used street names from that area as their table names. I love the idea of using something other than numbers for the table designation. It can be a little tricky and difficult to figure out that special something that you can find 10-15 variations of to name each table after…and still be within a certain “theme,” but your guests will really enjoy the uniqueness of it 🙂
And we’re off to a good start! Since getting our website up and running, we’ve booked 6 different weddings!
I had one ceremony last month which was a complete pleasure to work. The couple was enthusiastic about making the ceremony unique to what they wanted, and they wanted the ceremony to be in Spanish to accomodate some family members who were only Spanish-speaking. They decided they wanted to keep it pretty short, so there was no commemorative ceremony, but they did ask two friends to read a couple pieces they had each picked out. This couple was so excited to be doing a ceremony their way, rather than how parents or family members might prefer, and their love was truly infectious. I actually got teary eyed when the mother handed the bride to the groom — who knew you could get emotional about people you had just met?! The most unique feature about this couple: the groom took the bride’s name! You don’t see that happen too often 🙂
This month, Brooke has a ceremony on the beach near Malibu, and I have ceremonies in Riverside and Manhattan Beach. All of these couples have been an absolute pleasure to work with in crafting their ceremonies, and we can’t wait to be a part of their special day!
Here’s another idea for your ceremony if you’re looking to deviate from the standard sand or candle ceremony.
My good friend got married in June of this year, and she asked my husband and I to be a part of their rose ceremony. Despite the name resembling the Bachelor’s “Rose Ceremony,” it is a super cute idea!
What is a Rose Ceremony?
My friend and her fiance asked different couples among their friends and family who are at different stages of their marriage to be part of their wedding: from the newly newly weds, to those that have been married for a couple years (that was Jeff and I!), to the champions that have been married for decades. During the ceremony, they had the groom’s sister individually ask each couple to come up, take a rose, and place it in the vase. While the couple was approaching the altar area, the groom’s sister announced the couple’s name, and how long they had been married. They started with the couples who have been together the shortest period of time, and ended with a couple who had been married 30+ years.
Once everyone had put in their rose, the bride and groom put in their own rose, and the groom’s sister announced that the vase represented “X amount of years of marriage.” “X” being the addition of all the years of marriage that were contributed to the vase.
I thought this was a great creative idea, and such a nice way to incorporate so many different people into their ceremony. I loved the idea of showing people at different stages of marriage, and ending with a marriage that is a testament to true love. Thank you to Katie and J for allowing me to share their creative ceremony idea 🙂
My husband and I were pretty adamant about wanting to do something during our ceremony that wasn’t a sand ceremony or candle ceremony. I really wanted to do something that we could keep and cherish for years to come. Somehow, we decided to incorporate Jeff’s artistic talents with our desire to have a commemorative “something” that all of our guests could be a part of (granted, there wasn’t much artistic-ness to what we did, but his passion for art is what spurred the idea).
So we decided on something that allowed us to give our mother’s a special part in our ceremony, something Jeff and I could “make,” while still being something that our guests could add their own memories to it.
First, we bought a canvass board and outlined a heart on it. Before the ceremony, we put red and black tubes of paint in two separate bowls, with two brushes in each.
Then we had our mom’s come up and outline each side of the heart in black:
Then Jeff and I filled in the heart with red paint:
The final touch was added by all of our guests throughout the rest of the evening:
It turned out pretty awesome, although it’s been two years already and we still haven’t gotten it framed! Someday…
via Corona Wedding by Melissa Munding Photography | Style Me Pretty.
This is the wedding of a good friend’s sister, and I absolutely fell in love with it. I remember Jen telling me about all the work they were putting into this wedding: everything, absolutely everything, was done by the bride, groom, their families, friends, and church members. I’d say all the hard work definitely paid off!
If someone had told me five years ago that I would be starting a website to perform wedding ceremonies, I wouldn’t have believed it. But here we are! A great friend asked me to perform her wedding last year, and I thought “sure, why not.” It was meant to be a one-time deal, but after performing her wedding ceremony it got me thinking: I can do something pretty neat with this. Brooke is one of my bestest friends, and she’s been performing wedding ceremonies for years now, so it was only natural for us to join forces and see how many lives we can change by performing custom-made and heartfelt wedding ceremonies.
What do we want to accomplish with this website? Obviously we’re trying to create a little source of revenue, but with the rates we’re charging, we’re not planning on becoming millionaires. We want to provide an honest and impressive service, for a reasonable fee. As female ministers, we’re already in the minority of ceremony officiants. But we like that. We don’t want to be your standard and dull wedding minister: we want to perform a ceremony that your guests will remember, whether that’s because it was funny, heartfelt, or ridiculous, that’s for you to decide 🙂
My plans for this blog started humbly, but they are growing by the minute. I want to share with you new and creative ideas for your wedding, I want to keep you posted on the latest trends, I want to give you alternatives to the traditional wedding ideas that are out there.
So, check us out, stay tuned for updates, and feel free to contact us if you have questions about our rates and/or services.
Oh yeah, welcome to the Merry Ministers!
(Alexandra)
The Merry Ministers 