Weddings and Commitment Ceremonies
The most important part of the ceremony will be the creation of their vows. These will form the spiritual platform for how they intend to be as a couple. The following questions will help to create the basis for their personal vows. What is the most important aspect of the relationship to each of you?
 The purpose of these questions is to help the couple enter into their union having consciously chosen exactly what it is that they are committing to.
The couple will be invited to look up readings, music, poetry or prayers that are meaningful to them and which they might want to include. NB The legal aspect of a marriage needs to be carried out by a registrar which would usually be at a separate time.
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The job of the Interfaith Minister is to help the couple reflect deeply about the content of their relationship, the purpose of their relationship, their intention and expectations of their commitment, the vision for their lives together and how they would like to express the answers to these things in a ceremony. The ceremony should be an authentic reflection of who they are and where they are heading together. In the development of a ceremony, their job is to focus on the content and the Minister's job is to put that together into a form that reflects the content.
Sometimes couples do not want to be, or cannot be legally married but want to mark their commitment to each other in a sacred ceremony. This can apply to heterosexual couples and to gay and lesbian couples. Even if there is a marriage ceremony to meet the legal aspect, sometimes it is in the Commitment Ceremony that the couple makes the sacred commitment to each other, which they want family and friends to witness.
Participant Comments
Roy and Lisa Martin
For our wedding celebrations we felt we wanted more for our ‘special day' than a traditional marriage service would offer. An Interfaith Service provided the perfect answer as it was more spiritual for us and had a deeper meaning than a religious ceremony.
Guided by Geraldine's experience we had the freedom to include what was important to us, such as our own choice of readings, music, songs and prayers. We also wrote our own vows to share our own personal commitment to one another. Sharing these words to each other, closely surrounded by our friends and family made the day incredibly unique and beautiful. Everybody was fully involved with our celebration of life, love, happiness and friendship that touched not only our hearts, but those of all our guests. It was, unanimously, the best wedding they had ever been to!
Pete and Diane Jones
It was important to us to have our marriage blessed and we knew that Geraldine would conduct the ceremony with warmth and sincerity. She has been a huge influence in Diane's life (her positive attitude, assertiveness, understanding, courage and kindness) and so having her carry out the blessing for us made the wedding extra special.
The time she took preparing the ceremony by helping us to select readings and prayers and including words which held meaning to us gave it a personal touch. The joy and love that surrounded us as we were united will stay with us always...
Dawn and Michael Schimmelschmidt
As we prepared for our commitment ceremony, Geraldine was our guide, our friend and our spiritual companion. Her loving and wise presence was felt consistently throughout our preparation, from the vows we created to the logistics on the day. What stays with us when we remember our time, was that Geraldine was a symbol of doing something very consciously, very personal and very precious. We feel completely blessed and grateful to have walked that road with Geraldine and will treasure that journey always.