top of page

Crystal Ballroom St. Augustine

Personalizing Your Wedding Ceremony


Wedding Ceremony

If you are searching for powerful symbols and rituals to add to your wedding ceremony, keep reading. This main event is the reason for it all, and should be nothing less than the magical moment you envision. This highlight moment on the timeline is not an impromptu event. A little planning is required to make it flawless and completely unforgettable. Explore these tips to help you plan your wedding ceremony.


Choosing the Venue


The venue should create the aesthetic you envision for your wedding ceremony. Location is a very important part of the venue. The exterior and interior designs are important for the setting and photography moments. The location must be significant and meaningful. The design must be breathtaking. Rather than renting the empty space, plan at an all-inclusive wedding venue that includes the designs and professional wedding designers. Your venue should have a beautifully designed wedding arch and backdrop to frame your perfect moments. Your theme should be obvious without being overly done. Define the aisle with chairs and décor. The easiest way to design your ceremony space is to plan with a venue with in-house wedding designers and décor.

Wedding Ceremony

Officiating the Wedding Ceremony


The officiant conducts the wedding ceremony, and will guide you and your guests through the experience. Culture and orientation can affect the way a ceremony is performed, but the goal is always to create a unique, meaningful and memorable ceremony. It is important to remember that officiants are people with unique personalities, different levels of experience and different backgrounds. Interview your officiant to make sure their personality and ideas fit with yours. Your rituals and vows will be the most remembered part of the moment. Creating unique vows for the moment can make it feel more meaningful. If you want to write your own wedding vows, find a wedding officiant with sample scripts and experience assisting couples with writing vows. We do not all speak the same language of love. Find an officiant that speaks yours.

Wedding Ceremony

Practice the Wedding Ceremony


As with most things, practice makes perfect. Use props as you practice turning with the train and handing off the bouquet to the maid of honor. Ceremonial elements, such as jumping the broom and pouring sand for a sand ceremony, should have a practice run too. Create opportunities to work with the officiant. Practicing the ceremony avoids embarrassing mistakes.


Create a Unique Symbol


Unique ceremonies are created with unique rituals and symbols. You might consider planting a tree in a decorative pot, draping a rosary or sash around your shoulders or jumping a broom. A handfasting ceremony, unity candle or sand ceremony are traditions that make the wedding ceremony special. During a handfasting ceremony, the officiant wraps a chord three times around the hands of the bride and groom to bind them together. The officiant explains the symbolism and meaning behind the ritual. During a unity candle ceremony, the bride and groom light a column candle to symbolize uniting as one. A sand ceremony is similar to the unity candle ceremony. The bride and groom pour colored sand into a single vase to symbolize becoming one. If you want to add a special ritual to your wedding ceremony, discuss it with your officiant.

Wedding Ceremony

Special Readings


There is no shortage of love in literature. Love is probably one of the most written about topics. Whether Shakespeare or scripture, there is a lot to be read about the subject. Religious text offers advice and adds meaning to a wedding ceremony. If you want to include a special reading, take time to research and choose an excerpt from your favorite work. If you choose to open your wedding vows with a quote, choose a quote that is significant to your relationship and experiences.


The words of Corelli’s Mandolin are frequently borrowed for the way love is defied as “ . . . a temporary madness [that] erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. [It’s when] your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. [L]ove is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion. [L]ove itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident.” Variations of this beautiful piece of literature are a perfect way to set the stage for your wedding vows and express the deep, tested and tried love you have for the person before you on your wedding day.


An Outline for Wedding Vows


Like everything else, your wedding vows have a blueprint. Create an outline that begins with the reasons this other person has your heart. This could be a background story, a quote or a special reading that sets the stage. Avoid making your wedding vows too wordy. Follow with all of your reasons for loving this person. Finish with your promises. If you are including traditions, such as a unity cup, sand ceremony or jumping the broom, you will probably plan unique vows for those rituals. Your wedding officiant will conduct the ceremony. Make sure you plan your outline and your unique ceremony with your officiant.

Wedding Ceremony

Crystal Ballroom Saint Augustine


Plan your wedding ceremony and the celebration that follows with Crystal Ballroom Saint Augustine. Create your magical moments in a wedding venue designed just for you. Meet with wedding designers and planners inside of the design studio to share your vision and choose from exclusive designs. Bring your dream wedding to life in a luxurious ballroom. All of the furnishings, décor and services are included to create your magical moments. Plan your fairy tale with the finest at Crystal Ballroom.

Comments


crystal-ballroom-st-augustine-wedding-ve

We invite you to discover the
Crystal Ballroom difference found in the unparalleled elegance and uniqueness written into the design of each of our venues. The themes are as limitless as your imagination.

bottom of page