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Here's a fun article I found in the Toronto Sun. Maybe it'll inspire you.
Why make it a normal wedding?
Weddings come in all shapes and sizes, including eccentric
Greg Curry was happy to pose as Gandalf the Great - of Lord of the Rings fame - and loved hiking up the side of a mountain to the sound of bag pipes, but he wasn't so good with being dropped by a cherry picker into a field of mud.This dedicated officiant seeks to ensure that couples have the kind of wedding that is meaningful to them, but sometimes too much is actually too much.
Curry is a London, Ontario-based ecumenical officiant with All Seasons Weddings and has performed 70 ceremonies over the past six years. Most have been traditional religious nuptials, but a few are uniquely memorable.
The couple that asked him to dress as Gandalf the Great lived in Stratford, Ontario - a city permeated with theatrical flair.
"I could tell when we were doing the wedding planning meeting that they wanted to bring something up but were nervous about it. They asked, 'How do you feel about thematic weddings?' I responded: 'I'm fine with them as long as they are respectful and create a cherished memory for both of you.' They were big fans of Tolkien and wanted a Lord of the Rings-themed wedding. All the guests were also fans of Tolkien, and it was definitely one of the most original weddings I've been involved in and everything was so well done. It was an incredible bonding experience for them and their friends," illustrates Curry.
As an ecumenical officiant, Curry is sometimes asked to perform ceremonies that are centred on religions other than Christianity. One of these was a union between a pagan bride and a groom with a strong Scottish background. Theirs was a traditional Scottish handfasting that took place on a mountaintop in Collingwood, Ontario. The bride's party and the groomsmen ascended the mountain on its opposite sides and met at the clearing on top for the ceremony. The groom wore a kilt and was piped in.
The ceremony was based on the neopagan tradition of handfasting - the bride and groom's hands are bound with chords and they often jump over a broom and fire. Attendees stand in a circle that is rendered as sacred space by the priest and priestess.
"The ceremony was a real mix of religion and culture, so it really married their values and cultural frameworks," says Curry.
John Harris* performs many handfastings. He's also an officiant with All Seasons Weddings and a priest with the Wiccan Church of Canada. Based in Toronto, Harris has performed more than 600 marriages over his seven years as an officiant. This is primarily due to the fact that he is one of the officiants on the roster at Toronto City Hall.
"You can get a dozen couples or more a day at City Hall," he explains. "These are usually basic civil ceremonies."
While he does perform two or three handfastings for pagan couples each year, more often couples who want to add an original touch to their ceremony will ask him to simply bind their hands as a symbolic gesture during their civil service. "It's a good lesson on how to work together as a married couple," he says. "Usually the hands are bound for the rest of the evening. It represents the bond physically, emotionally and spiritually."
As a gay, married man, Harris is often called upon to perform weddings for gay, lesbian and transgender couples. He estimates that this demographic makes up around 10% of the marriage ceremonies he performs. One of his more memorable ceremonies was that of a lesbian couple.
"The wedding was the night before Halloween and they threw a big party - costumes mandatory. They stopped the party in the middle and I performed the ceremony. They had asked for the shortest legal ceremony possible," explains Harris, who was costumed as a cowboy at the time.
He also remembers conducting a wedding "on the coldest, darkest February day by the lakeshore." It was a promotional event as part of an ice sculpture show. "We were all bundled up in multiple layers with chemical foot and hand warmers in our clothes."
Some of the previously more avant-garde aspects of weddings are making their way into the mainstream. "Outdoor weddings have always been more intimate. Very large formal halls sometimes make the bride and groom a little nervous or distract from what they are doing. Often they've spent so much money on trappings that they don't enjoy the wedding itself and want it to go perfectly," says Curry, adding that the move toward more relaxed, outdoor weddings signals a cultural shift.
Some outdoor weddings are just too far out, though. Curry declined to perform nuptials that were to take place in the middle of a wet, dirty field at Mudfest.
"I was to be lowered by a cherry picker to the ground where the couple was standing in the muddy field, wearing my clergy robes. It was outside my personal comfort zone," he admits with a chuckle.
Both Curry and Harris note the growing inclusion of children as a central part of the ceremony, not just as flower girls or ring bearers. With an ever growing number of re-marriages, both officiants regularly perform ceremonies in which the non-bio parent says vows and gives a token to his/her stepchild(ren)-to-be.
Sometimes wedding planners have to get creative to make the wedding what the couple wants it to be. Curry remembers a marriage that took place on a man-made island, created by the bride's dad.
"This guy gets my vote for world's best father. The couple wanted a small wedding, about a dozen people. The guest list spiraled out of control, up to 130 people. The parents lived on a lakefront. The dad was a landscaper and he built an island with a gazebo off the end of their property. The wedding party went across the bridge to the gazebo and had the intimate wedding that they wanted, while the guests could see and hear from the beach." Best of both worlds!
*Name changed by request
