wedding ramblings

I was teaching a year 11 Art class who did a unit called traditions and rituals. Students had to focus on rituals in their lives, whether it be listening to music everyday, brushing their teeth or playing football. They had to think about the traditions in their families and amongst their friends. We discovered as a class that many assume that tradition is ancient and set in stone, but theorists claim that tradition changes in accordance with a set of needs, or even to suit a particular day. I was thinking about this while planning for our wedding. What does it mean to be marrying? What tradition are we following? Or are we making our own tradition?

I found a great website which looks at many cultures wedding traditions http://www.worldweddingtraditions.com/

On this site I found this great quote about pledging your love in front of family and friends:
"Traditionally the wedding pledge is made in front of family and friends who take special pains to stand up and witness our pledge. The wedding pledge is to be true and faithful and loving to another human being. To wed is both the most basic of all human pledges, and at the same time the most sublime."

I particularly love this quote:
"Marriage is a bringing together. It is a bringing together of two people, of two families, or two tribes, or two villages, or even two countries."
I think that having this new extended family is very important to me. Suddenly your life is so much bigger because you are adopting new people into it, to share and live it with. We are able to use our families and freinds for their own experiences of marriage, family and love.

I am also excited about is making it our own day, filled with our own special bits and pieces; our own traditions. A constant desire in my life is to create. This would explain why I am spending hour upon hour making each individual invitation! I feel more connected to an event if I am making and creating for it myself. I suppose this is a ritual in my own life.

I have come to the conclusion that the most important thing is too feel comfortable, maybe feel a bit like a rock star and make it an enjoyable day so that everyone can have a warm fuzzy feeling inside!
"it is one of the unceasing marvels that we are able to express something as basic as love and marriage in so many wonderful and touching ways. Such is the wonder of human existence. The ceremonies and the traditions may be different, they may seem strange or outlandish or they may touch feelings in us that we never knew we had, but there is something about marriage that is instantly recognizable no matter what the language."

Speaking of rituals,after this extremely long entry I have forgotten my weekly ritual of putting out the bin! better run....