Diary of a Boho Bride – Whitney and Tom, Entry 7: The Wedding Ceremony (Only 2 Months to go)

Good Afternoon and welcome to Friday!  I hope you have enjoyed the great blog posts we have shared with you so far this week.  We are finishing this Friday with our weekly feature, A Diary of a Boho Bride. I am happy to welcome Whitney and Tom back to the blog and my goodness, they only have 2 months left until they will be in the gorgeous climates of Ibiza and getting married on the beautiful Island!  Time has certainly flown by!

I’ll pass you over to Whitney

Hello again! Well I can’t believe it’s just over 2 months until the big day now, where has time gone?

I’m actually feeling very organised (famous last words!) thanks to having a wedding planner and writing lists upon lists from the very beginning. The control freak in me is finding it so satisfying to see things slowly being ticked off!

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Things are really coming together now, we’ve had a lot more contact from our suppliers now we are getting closer to the big day which makes it all seem very real. This week we have confirmed our menu choices and have sent them off to be printed – no changing our minds now! We’ve also skyped our celebrant, as we are having a humanist ceremony I was really intrigued as to how the ceremony works and was pleasantly surprised to hear we have lots of options to choose from. Our celebrant talked us through 3 rituals which we could include to symbolise our joining of marriage:

Handfasting ceremony – There are many variations of the traditional hand fasting but typically after the bride and groom both declare their intent to enter into marriage, the hands of the couple are clasped and fastened together with a cord or cords just before, just after, or during their vows are made to one another. The wrapping of the cord forms an infinity symbol. The handfasting knot that is tied is a symbolic representation of oneness between the couple. In a show of unity, they become bound to each other and this is where the saying ‘tie the knot’ comes from.

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Loving Cup toast – The purpose of the loving cup ceremony is for the couple to share their first drink together and to show the coming together of two families. The cup is then passed down from generation to generation, ensuring happiness and good fortune to all who drink from it. It’s an opportunity for the couple to toast their love, devotion, and friendship.

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Sand of unity – The wedding sand ceremony represents the coming together of two people or two families into one new family. Typically, the bride and groom each has a jar of sand (from the local beach) and takes turns pouring it into one clear vessel, forming a layered effect. The flowing sands and blending symbolise the bringing together of two lives into one. The two separate sands symbolise everything that the bride and groom have been in the past combining into a bright future. Once the sand from both jars are poured into the unity vase, they can never be put back into their separate vases. They are forever entwined and interconnected just as the lives of husband and wife are joined.

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Ibiza is said to be a spiritual island and we’re keen to reflect this in our ceremony although neither of us are known for being particularly spiritual however we do love to embrace the culture of wherever we are. We decided to opt for the sand of unity ritual as when the celebrant was talking through what it is said to represent, it really resonated with our reasons for wanting to get married in the first place.

The next couple of weeks look crazy busy for us, I have my hen weekend next week (I have no idea what the girls have planned!), Tom has his stag in Dublin and then it’s Tom’s 30th birthday. I’m really loving having so much to look forward to, lots of exciting times ahead!

Until Next Time…

Whitney and Tom

xxx