A Samhain Wedding

[monahawk]

Greetings to all. I've been a member of OBOD for about 18 years and am an Ovate. My fiance' and I are getting married on 10/31/12 and I'm wondering if anyone would like to share ideas for a wedding on Samhain. This will be a garden wedding with only about 6-8 close friends and we will be acting as our own officiants since you can do that in Colorado and file the marriage with the signature of a 'witness'. So we will be writing our vows and conducting most of our own wedding/handfasting. It might snow or rain so we can move the party inside if necessary. Anyway, I am excited to hear if anyone knows of any unique / meaningful / soulful traditions and practices that we might incorporate into the celebration of our lives becoming one...oh, and we are both 61 so 'first wedding' concerns aren't important, like the giving away of the bride; actually I will have a spirit friend/goddess type walking with me to the altar to offer me to the union on behalf of the divine feminine... Thanks in advance... Mona Leigh McCrea /|\

[ideagirl]

Some consider Samhain to have been in effect the Celtic New Year's Eve, since just as they counted days as beginning with nightfall (i.e., days ended at sunset, therefore nightfall was the beginning of the NEXT day), apparently they counted years as beginning with the beginning of the darkest quarter of the year, i.e., Samhain. Marriage marking the very beginning of the new year is a lovely symbol.

That also resonates with me in part because (I'm sorry if this comes across wrong) you two are much older than the typical pair of newlyweds, and while you might "seem old" compared with them, just as the year seems dark and cold at Samhain, this is actually the beginning of your new life together, your "new years" together as it were.

I'm not sure how to incorporate those concepts into the ceremony, but with a bit of reflection I'm sure you could come up with something quite moving, since they are lovely concepts. Another theme that might work for you is to celebrate what you're both bringing to this wedding: the full harvest of your 61 years, everything you've done and built and grown. Samhain is between two traditional harvest festivals (autumn equinox and American Thanksgiving), and to me there is always a Thanksgiving feel to traditional fall food--pumpkin pies and such. Maybe you could incorporate that sense of thanksgiving, harvest, bringing the whole wealth of your years together in this marriage.

[monahawk]

Dear Ideagirl Thank you so much for your wonderful ideas and thoughts. As this funny ol' world would have it things changed rather quickly and we married on the Autumnal Equinox...and our ceremony was interrupted, so most of our plans got cast aside. But we did marry and worked out the most important things to us for the short time that we had for the ceremony. Life happens... Thanks again for your kind and wise response...

/|\

[Aphritha]

Your ceremony was interrupted? I'm too curious, and have to ask....what happened? (If you're willing to share.)

[monahawk]

Well, it is a long story but a close friend who is terminal with bone cancer was picked up by the police for driving impaired. There were only two people that the police would release our friend to and the other one was out of state, so my new hubby was the only one who could sign for our friend's release to keep him out of jail so that he could continue to get his medicine, including chemotherapy. So we abbreviated the ceremony to just the essentials and then my husband went to the jail, signed for our friend and everyone made it to the 'after party / reception' including our friend who almost went to jail. Ya can't make this stuff up folks.

[Aphritha]

Oh wow! What a day! At least the day had a happy ending!